Biography
I grew up in Lake Forest, California where I attended El Toro High School and played football, wrestling, and baseball. After high school, I attended Santa Ana Junior College and then earned a scholarship to play baseball at San Jose State University where I earned my undergraduate degree. I later earned a Masters in Teaching and now teach and coach at the high school I attended.
I live in the community where I teach and coach, which has its pros and cons. Sometimes I get a little uncomfortable when I’m at the grocery store and I run into the parents of the back-up shortstop, player we benched, or a player we cut. But that is all part of our job and comes with the territory.
I am married to a wonderful woman and have two boys and two girls. It can be chaos at times in our house but thankfully my wife does a great job holding things together. We’ve been fortunate that my wife has been able to stay home with all the kids growing up. I am thankful to have a wife who understands the amount of hours teaching and coaching baseball takes. My biggest challenge, like all coaches, is balancing time between family and baseball.
I have been the Head Baseball at El Toro High School since 2000 and teach Civics in the Social Science Department. I was a varsity football assistant coach for several years but became too much when CIF, which is our governing body for athletics, did away with the association rule for athletics. The association rule limited practice time during a sports off-season. The past 19 years we’ve won 10 League Champions, 2 CIF Championship (2008, 2017), and consistently ranked in the county, state, and nation. We’ve been ranked as high as #2 in Baseball America’s past preseason polls and recently came in at #14 for their 2017 poll. In 2017, we ended up 27-7-1 and won the Division I CIF Championship at Dodger Stadium with a 4-0 over Corona High School. We finished ranked #2 in California and in the top ten in the nation in various polls. As a result of the team’s success, I’ve received a few special awards. The Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year as well as the Southern California Baseball Coach of the Year which is an honor and humbled to have received.
We’ve been fortunate to have great players who have been awarded scholarships to Cal State Fullerton, Mississippi State, UC-Irvine, UCLA, Oregon, Fresno State, San Diego State, Gonzaga, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Loyola Marymount, Nevada-Reno, as well as players sign professional contracts. Matt Chapman was our highest drafted player being selected as the 25th player overall in the 1st round of the 2014 MLB draft. The 2023 MLB Draft saw Paul Skenes (2020 El Toro Graduate) selected as the number one overall pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates. We’ve also had 3 Rawlings Gold Glove winners in Nolan Arenado (Rockies), Mitchell Tolman (Oregon), and Matt Chapman (CSF). Also, Matt Chapman made his MLB debut June 15, 2017 and became the third player along with Austin Romine and Nolan Arenado to reach the MLB from El Toro High School.
Probably one of the cooler moments in my career was when my wife and I flew to Colorado during the 2013 season to see the Rockies play the Yankees. Two of my former players, Nolan Arenado and Austin Romine, who were high school teammates in 2007 at El Toro, played against each other during inter-league play. They got us field passes to watch BP, took pictures, and were very gracious and appreciative for their days at El Toro. I often measure the character of a person on how they treat my wife and kids and it’s hard to find two better people with more character than Nolan and Austin. Nolan and Austin have become two of my closest friends and are extremely humble people. Also, in the 2013 season Nolan Arenado became the first NL Rookie in MLB history to win the Gold Glove at 3B. Another proud moment took place in November of 2019 when Rawlings flew my wife and I to New York City to present the Rawlings Gold Glove and Platinum Glove to Nolan and Matt. They made history by being the only high school teammates to win the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove at 3B.
I currently serve on the CIF-SS Baseball Coaches Advisory Committee which includes recommendations for rules and procedural changes, recommendations for playoff sites, assistance to coaches and officials organizations, and a liaison between coaches and officials organizations as well as notifying the CIF-SS office of the weekly Top Ten Poll.
My greatest athletic moments or memories are all the relationships I’ve built with coaches and players like the one described above. For me, it is always nice to hang championship banners but I think like most coaches, we get more satisfaction creating those lifelong friendships
Education
- BA Public Relations and Communication (San Jose State University)
- MA Teaching and Education (Grand Canyon University)
Honors & Accolades
- 2018 – Recognized as Top 25 High School Baseball Dynasties
- 2018 – South Head Coach Orange County All Star Game
- 2017 – Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year
- 2017 – Southern California Coach of the Year
- 2017 – Los Angeles Times Coach of the Year
- 2017 – CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year
- 2016 – West Head Coach Perfect Game All American Game
- 2009 – 2013 – Head Coach Southwest Futures All Star Series
- 2009 – South Head Coach Orange County All Star Game
- 2008 – Diamond Baseball National West Region Coach of the Year
- 2008 – CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year
- 2008 – Orange County Register High School Coach of the Year
Courses Taught
- MCAA/MSCE 577 Applied Exercise Sciences & Strategies of Coaching Baseball