September 24, 2007

THE MAN, THE MOTIVATION
Dynamic leaders have shaped Oregon coach George Horton

BRIAN MEEHAN
The Oregonian Staff

EUGENE -- George Horton always wanted to be the quarterback.

When he and neighborhood friends in Downey, Calif., played football at Rio San Gabriel Park, Horton was the quarterback. And it wasn't because he had a power arm.

Even as a kid, Horton had a coach's appetite for the details that beget success. But limited physical talents derailed his quarterbacking dream. In high school, the plodding 5-foot-9, 190-pound Horton played center and defensive tackle. His signal calling was limited to the baseball team where he was a left-handed catcher through high school.

On the diamond, Horton drove himself to find an edge. He needed one; he couldn't run and had an average arm. That he became an outstanding player at Cerritos College and Cal State Fullerton was a product of will.

"I was an overachiever," Horton, 53, said. "I probably shouldn't have played at Cerritos and I know for sure I shouldn't have played at Fullerton, but I did probably more because of my heart and my mind than my skills."

Later as a coach, Horton's ability to analyze and teach the game fueled his success at Cal State Fullerton where his Titans excelled in the fundamentals. And now Horton's resume of overachievement looms as the essential tool in his quest to raise baseball from the dead at the University of Oregon.

Horton apprenticed under extraordinary coaches: Wally Kincaid at Cerritos College and Augie Garrido at Fullerton. They shaped his view of baseball and coaching.

As a player, Horton was an unlikely success at Cerritos College, a junior college powerhouse in Los Angeles County, and Fullerton, where he played for Garrido, now the coach at Texas.

Horton became a two-year starter and two-time all-conference player at Fullerton. In 1975, when Fullerton went to the College World Series in its first season of Division I play, it was Horton's home run that toppled Pepperdine into the loser's bracket in the NCAA regional. It was the only home run he hit all season.

"George was able to perform with the game on line," Garrido said. "He'd go 1 for 4 and it would be the game-winning hit. He'd advance runners, do all the little things. A lot of people have tremendous potential but don't have the character, the self-esteem and the confidence to let their destiny fulfill itself. He does."

Garrido recognized Horton's grasp of the game right away. Horton had to sit out a year after transferring, so Garrido installed the junior as the Titans' third base coach.

Horton didn't stumble casually into his understanding of the game. He learned it -- anointed by buckets of sweat -- from Kincaid, the Cerritos College coach whose ability to teach fundamentals was legendary.

"Wally was probably the best fundamentalist at any level of his time," said Garrido. "But Wally was a product of his time. The people he grew up with in coaching were from the corporal punishment days."

Baseball was a dusty siege at Cerritos in Norwalk, Calif. The team, which produced big leaguers such as shortstop Rick Burleson, a four-time All-Star with the Red Sox and Angels, and Mets pitcher Bob Apodaca, would play as many as 60 games in the fall and winter before the spring season.

Kincaid was a perfectionist -- especially about defense, pitching and offensive execution. Cerritos became a cradle of coaches; Horton, former Long Beach State coach Dave Snow and Mike Weathers, the current Long Beach State coach, all played for Kincaid. Dave Serrano, who led UC Irvine to the College World Series this spring and who succeeded Horton at Fullerton, also played at Cerritos.

"Coach Kincaid was kind of like the John Wooden of Southern California baseball," Horton said. "His influence on college baseball is pretty significant. . . . It was a very simple philosophy and a simple program based on fundamentals and repetition.

"Our philosophy and my philosophy to this day is we don't play anybody, we play the game. We try to play the game better than our opponent. And the ingredients of the game are the fundamentals of throwing strikes, playing catch and putting the ball in play. Everybody makes it a lot more complicated than it really is."

Horton studied how Kincaid organized practice and pushed players to work. Horton converted to first base and outfield but never felt comfortable.

"I felt like a duck out of water because for my whole life I'd always caught," Horton said. "Coach Kincaid used to give me a helmet to play right field, that is how bad I was."

Kincaid gave Horton his first lesson as a coach after hiring him as an assistant.

"I was standing around after practice," Horton said, "and the fungos and ball bags were laying around, and I said, 'OK coach I'll see you later.'

"He says 'See you later?'

"He said, 'You're not going to be a coach. All you want to do are the fun things. Who is going to pick up the balls and bats and rake the field and get it ready for tomorrow?

"If you want to be a good coach, you'd better learn how to do that stuff.'

"And boy, that stuck with me for the rest of my career."

Horton blended the best from his mentors into his own winning style. He incorporated Kincaid's quest for perfect fundamentals with Garrido's more personal approach.

"Augie is an exceptional leader," Horton said. "Augie is never out of place. He could talk to the president of the United States or George Horton and be at ease with either one."

Horton cemented his philosophy while coaching at Los Angeles Valley College with Snow. Snow later coined the nickname, "The Dirtbags," for Long Beach State during his 13 seasons leading Long Beach to national prominence. Snow, now a scout for the Colorado Rockies, had played for Kincaid at Cerritos and coached for Garrido at Fullerton.

"Coach Snow took the grinding fundamental part of Coach Kincaid and put his own personality into it," Horton said. "Our players had more fun in that system. It was more of a personal relationship with the players, more of an upbeat practice designed to interact with the youth of America."

Horton's formula was very successful over 11 seasons at Fullerton. His Titans competed in four of the last five College World Series. He was a two-time national coach of the year, and his 2004 team won the national championship.

He built a national reputation as an astute developer of talent. In 2004, Kurt Suzuki, now the Oakland A's starting catcher, won national player of the year honors. Suzuki arrived at Fullerton as a walk-on. In 2005, 14 Titans were selected in baseball's amateur draft.

"George can really coach and motivate. He gets a lot out of his kids," said Brian Quinn, the Fullerton athletic director. "He and his staff they turn guys into All-Americans."

Horton understands new challenges loom in Eugene, not the least of which is the weather. In 1994, he came close to succeeding Charles "Bobo" Brayton at Washington State until he was told it was tough to get practice time in the fieldhouse.

Horton said the Oregon administration has assured him access in the spring to the Moshofsky Center, football's indoor practice facility. Horton understands he faces competition from two-time national champion Oregon State in recruiting the Northwest. He intends to make regional players a priority but also will use his California network to lure players north.

He was miffed that Oregon didn't approach him earlier in its job search. They came to Horton after several candidates turned away. One of them, Horton's friend and former assistant Dave Serrano, sparked Horton's interest in Oregon.

"When Dave pulled out, I told him, why don't you ask them to call me?" Horton said. "Pat Kilkenny called me that afternoon. The rest is history. When I got to meet Pat, I said, 'How come you didn't call me right away?' "

Once Horton's recruits begin arriving in Eugene, the coach will teach them the fundamentals of infield play as well as how to survive the game emotionally.

He has worked with sports psychologist Ken Ravizza, a professor at Fullerton, on staying confident amid the failure that is inherent in baseball.

Horton will persuade his players to stay in the present. When big games loom, he will tell them to cope with the pressure by getting comfortable being uncomfortable. It's a mantra he's preached to all six of his College World Series teams.

"Baseball is a lot like life," Horton said. "You just keep grinding it out and doing what you can do and doing the best you can do. Sometimes you get rewarded and sometimes you don't."