September 8, 2007

CSF-UCI rivalry gets a new twist
Serrano's switch has stirred emotions, especially considering how it transpired.

RANDY YOUNGMAN
Register columnist

In late June, Dave Serrano was the toast of UC Irvine after coaching the Anteaters to their first College World Series appearance and advancing to the final four teams in Omaha, generating national headlines along the way.

Today, he is persona non grata on the UCI campus, at least to some of his former coaching colleagues, after announcing Friday he is leaving to become the baseball coach at Big West rival Cal State Fullerton, where he formerly served as an assistant.

"There are a lot people in the athletic department here who are upset, and I'm one of them," one longtime, well-respected UCI coach said Saturday by phone, requesting anonymity.

"I don't see how you can say one week that you're not interested in the (CSF) job because the (UCI) program is moving in the right direction, and then the next week you take the job.

"If Cal State Fullerton was his dream job, he shouldn't have said anything. Where is the honesty and integrity? He was talking with a forked tongue."

Serrano conceded Saturday he could see why people would consider it disingenuous to accept a job not long after releasing a statement saying he had "no interest" in the position.

"I can understand people thinking that; I can take the heat," Serrano said by phone. "But that statement was purely to try to help a friend, (longtime CSF assistant) Rick Vanderhook. I would not have been disappointed at all if Rick had been named the coach (replacing the departed George Horton).

"But once I heard Fullerton was going in another direction, I didn't want the job going outside the (CSF) family."

Insisting his three years at UCI were "the most fun and most rewarding of my life," Serrano said he could not turn down the CSF job because he believes it's one of the top five programs in the country and because there is uncertainty in the UCI athletic department.

"UCI is a program on the climb, but Cal State Fullerton is at the top. That's what it came down to," he added. "Titan baseball means a lot to me."

With no athletic director at UCI – Bob Chichester resigned in August, hinting there were questions about commitment to athletics by school chancellor Michael V. Drake – Serrano said he had to think about his long-term future. And he said being left off the AD search committee didn't help clarify his situation.

"The administration has been great to me; I can't emphasize that enough. But there was cause for concern about the future," he said. "There were a lot of questions. . . . I was looking ahead five to six years, so I had to go with stability."

Serrano said telling his team he was leaving Friday "was the hardest thing I've ever had to do" in his coaching career.

"I'm not too proud to say it was tearful for me, and it was tearful for a majority of them," he said. "I'm sure there are a few kids at Irvine who don't understand it right now, who are confused and upset. Some may feel betrayed.

"But those kids meant the world to me. And I hope they understand in time this was something I had to do for my career, looking ahead five or six years. It wasn't about wins and losses."

Paula Smith, the interim AD at UCI, was not available for comment. A UCI athletic department spokesman said Saturday the school has not yet responded to Serrano's departure.

This much is certain: The UCI-CSF rivalry just heated up again.

Ba-da-bing!From Jay Leno, noted late-night wise guy: "Shaquille O'Neal filed for divorce from his wife because he claims she took some of his money. He thinks she took his money now, wait until the divorce!"