The Register-Guard

July 13, 2007

Ron Bellamy: Successful program starts at top
By Ron Bellamy
Columnist, The Register-Guard

While we're passing the summer speculating about the potential (pending?) return of baseball at the University of Oregon, might as well ponder some coaching possibilities.

This is unabashed guesswork. Oregon's ultimate choice will be affected by many things, including the salary for the position, of course - whether the Ducks make a statement by presenting a coach with a top-tier package, or whether it's a lower-end Pac-10 deal.

Then there's the timing of the sport's reinstatement. Would the Ducks hire someone immediately and have that coach assemble a staff and recruit during the coming school year, with the idea that Oregon would begin competing in 2009?

Or will they go more slowly? Because the reality is that the challenges of raising money, finding a facility and adding women's crew might make it more prudent for Oregon to work to bring back baseball in 2010 - in which case, over the coming year (or more), some coaches will drop off the radar, and others will rise to prominence.

And, finally, there would be the personal preferences and evaluations of Pat Kilkenny, Oregon's director of athletics, who has his own contacts in baseball at the major league level through his passion for the game and perhaps his own short list for what would be his first hiring of a coach.

It would be vital for Oregon to get a respected, credible baseball coach, who must have expertise in evaluating and recruiting athletes - and the willingness and personality to promote the program with fans and the media, because Oregon will be offering more sizzle than steak the first few seasons. (About as important, too, will be the top assistant and primary recruiter.)

All that being said, you'd figure that if you're Oregon, you've got to think about:

• Donny Harrel, assistant coach, University of Washington. The former Lane Community College coach just completed his third year as an assistant with the Huskies, having previously served as the volunteer assistant at Oregon State.

Harrel was highly successful at LCC and is highly regarded locally. He'd bring Pac-10 knowledge and Northwest connections.

• Dave Serrano, head coach, UC Irvine. Serrano took the Anteaters to the College World Series in just the program's sixth season since it was reinstated after a 10-year hiatus, and for that he was named Baseball America's 2007 Coach of the Year. The Anteaters played the "small ball" style (pitching, defense, speed) that has served OSU well, and Serrano has experience as a pitching coach at Fullerton and Tennessee.

• George Horton, head coach, Cal State Fullerton. The Titans won the national championship in 2004 - Serrano, an assistant coach on that staff, was named the nation's top assistant that year - and were in the CWS again this year.

If the Ducks reinstate baseball, a lot of the coaching speculation will focus on coaches with Northwest connections, but don't minimize the importance of getting a proven head coach. Which doesn't necessarily mean that coaches such as Serrano and Horton would automatically consider the Oregon job a step up.

Much like basketball coach Mark Few at Gonzaga, Serrano and Horton have great situations already, jobs in which they already have a top-level program with a tremendous annual opportunity to reach the NCAA Tournament and play in the College World Series each year.

Would you leave that to build a new program in a situation in which you've already spotted your arch-rival the head start of two national championships, and in which your new league has national powers such as Arizona State, Southern California and Stanford?

Don't just assume Oregon can get those guys because of the Pac-10 label.

More likely, perhaps, would be a West Coast Conference coach whose star is rising, such as Mark Machtolf at Gonzaga or the University of San Diego's Rich Hill, successful in Kilkenny's backyard.

• Paul Kirsch, scout, Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The former Eugene Emeralds manager is the son of the late UO coach Don Kirsch, Oregon's baseball coach for 23 years; Paul Kirsch grew up around Howe Field, played collegiately at Oregon and for a half-dozen years in the minors.

As a scout - and he was the Devil Rays' scout of the year last year - Kirsch has made many contacts throughout the Northwest and has experience in evaluating talent; he's coached the game and taught the game, though he hasn't coached a college program.

• Marty Lees, assistant coach, Oregon State. Would the Ducks, already losing some face by letting the Beavers shame them into bringing back baseball - or so some would think - go so far as to hire a coach off the OSU staff?

Lees has strong history in this state - graduated from Lakeview High, LCC and Western Oregon, and coached at Oakridge, Harrisburg and for the Pepsi Challengers. The most recent and newest OSU pitching coaches - Dan Spencer, who just moved to Texas Tech, and former George Fox head coach Pat Bailey - could also be considered.

• Gary Henderson, assistant coach, Kentucky. The Eugene native and Sheldon High School graduate was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at OSU from 1998-2003, recruiting some of the pitchers who fueled last year's CWS title; he's also coached at Florida (where he received national assistant coach of the year honors in 1996) as well as Pepperdine, Fullerton and Chapman University, where he was also head coach.

• Ritch Price, head coach, Kansas. The Jayhawks had a rough time this season - 28-30 overall, 9-17 in the Big 12 - but in Price's first four seasons they won 30-plus games each year, including a Big 12 tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament in 2006.

Price is a Sweet Home native and a graduate of Willamette University. He spent eight years as the head coach at Cal Poly and coached at two other California colleges and is described as a builder of programs.

Those are, again, simply names thrown out for discussion, to show the kinds of coaches Oregon might consider. It's not to say that there isn't a great assistant at Texas who would be a marvelous choice, or that a guy like highly successful former Long Beach State coach Dave Snow wouldn't consider returning to college coaching for such a job.

And beyond that are somewhat out-of-the-box choices like Don Reynolds, who starred at Oregon in football and baseball and who has spent years in baseball; or Dave Roberts, the former major leaguer who was Oregon's greatest star, the college player of the year in 1972 and a No. 1 draft choice, and who now is an advance scout for the Devil Rays.

The coaching hire is going to be a tremendously important decision for Kilkenny, maybe even more important than the decision to bring back baseball in the first place.

Mess up the former and it could doom the latter to more than a decade of failure, which, in some ways, would be worse than having no baseball at all.