Samohi starts slow
By JON HABER Special to the Daily Press
SAMOHI In case fans haven’t noticed, this isn’t the same Santa Monica High School baseball team that rode a hot streak to a CIF-SS finals appearance last year.
Seventeen games into the schedule, the 2007-08 Vikings are 8-9, behind last year’s 11-6 pace. The only full-time starter returning from last season’s team is junior left fielder Vince Lawrence. And, what might be the biggest change of all, Samohi has a new coach running the show.
Rob Duron isn’t unfamiliar with baseball or Samohi. His coaching history dates back to 1978 and includes stints in Venice, Redondo, Westchester and Loyola Marymount University. Duron, who also teaches physical education at Samohi, coached the Vikings in 1991 before taking some time off to raise his children.
Now, 16 years after his first head-coaching stint with the Vikings, Duron is back in Santa Monica, taking the head coaching job in October 2007.
“Expectations are always high,” Duron said. “I never shoot for anything less. We’re looking for 20 wins, taking league and winning (the California Interscholastic Federation title), and I think every coach in the state is thinking the same thing [coming into the season].”
Things haven’t gone exactly according to plan for the new coach. The team had to give up some practice time on the field due to the success of Samohi’s boys’ soccer team. Also, because Duron took the job so late, the coach never got to get a feel for the team during summer league.
These problems have put the Vikings behind schedule compared to the other teams in the Ocean League. Still, Duron says it’s unfair for fans to think that Samohi should return to the finals because the team made it last year. However, the coach does feel it’s very realistic for fans to expect the team to be competitive.
Throughout the first half of the season, the Vikings have had their share of struggles playing a tough schedule. Samohi has suffered preseason losses to baseball powerhouses such as Crespi of Encino and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.
“Obviously in the preseason, we played some good teams,” Duron said. “It was kind of like get in there and get going right now, and we weren’t ready for it. We battled well, but there’s a whole mindset we need to develop, and that’s my job.”
The team’s poor play has had more to do with its cold bats than anything else.
“Pitching is probably our biggest strength, but everybody is behind on hitting right now. All the other coaches [around the Ocean League] are pretty much saying the same thing about their teams, too,” Duron said.
While the team has showed glimpses of a contender, Samohi lacks the consistency that makes teams elite. The head coach blames himself for the team’s failure to focus at times.
“I need to do a better job in preparing them,” he said. “That’s all it comes down to … we need to bring intensity every time we step on the field for games and practice.”
However, the team has played better as of late, racking up two straight wins against Hawthorne to open its league play with a 2- 0 record. Thursday’s game, a 4-3 come-from-behind victory, showed the team may be developing some resiliency at the right time of the season.
“We were happy to sneak out of there with a win,” Duron said. “These are programs that can play the game. We’re not looking past anybody. We need to compete.”
Still, the coach said he would like to see some of the older players step up into the leadership roles that were vacated when last year’s seniors, including pitching ace \Joe Mcgrew and star sluggers Bryan Eyler and David Castellanos, graduated.
“We’re still searching for leaders,” the coach said. “(Seniors Paul) Salazar and (Zach) Rodriguez are possible, but it’s still a search. We’re still trying to get things sorted out. But as I tell my kids at home, it’s all about the journey.”
Samohi’s journey continues Wednesday in Bell Gardens against Bell Gardens High School. First pitch is set to be thrown at 7 p.m.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 7, 2008. Read the original PDF.