LONG-TIME PREP COACH ‘WAS A WELL-LOVED MAN’
Desi Herrera, a former San Diego State pitcher and high school football and baseball coach, died Monday night more than two years after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 46.
Herrera was diagnosed with glioblastoma in
July 2018 and at the time given
6-9 months to live.
“Last night (Monday) the love of my life, my Desi, passed away,” Freda Herrera, Desi’s wife, said in a text message. “I am completely heartbroken.”
The Herreras have three sons: Logan, Liam and Easton.
Herrera started his coaching career as an assistant football coach at Mission Bay High under Dennis Pugh and was named head coach of the Bucs in 2002, going 9-3.
Pugh, Herrera’s coaching mentor, died suddenly in May.
Herrera moved to Serra the next season, finishing 7-4, and started at San Marcos in 2004, coaching the Knights through the 2007 season.
An English teacher at San
Marcos, he was the head baseball coach at the school from 2004-06.
He was the pitching coach for the Knights for nearly a decade, working with head coach Jeff Dufek.
Herrera was named the 2019 Padres Coach of the Year, an honor that had never before been bestowed on an assistant coach.
“This is a devastating loss for his family and the San Marcos community,” said San Marcos High Athletic Director Jeff Meyer. “Desi was a well-loved man.”
Herrera was a football and baseball star at Damien High in the Pomona area.
A linebacker, he accepted a scholarship to play football at Tennessee State, but left Nashville after two seasons and asked San Diego State pitching coach Rusty Filter for a chance to pitch for the Aztecs.
“He reminded me of myself,” said Filter, now the head baseball coach at Santa Clara. “He never had anything handed to him. He wasn’t a talentfirst kid, but he had an elite mindset.”
After surgery, medication, chemo and radiation slowed the cancer, Herrera said he wanted to live long enough to coach his sons at San Marcos.
The COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp in that plan, but he did get to see Logan pitch for the Knights early in the 2020 season.
Logan recently signed a national letter of intent to pitch at Minot State in North Dakota, and Desi was in attendance for a drive-through signing event — sponsored by the San Diego Sports Association — on Nov. 11 in a parking area outside Petco Park.
Herrera’s passion for the game and his work ethic rubbed off on Logan.
“We saw Logan pitch and immediately was on the Herrera bandwagon,” said Minot State baseball coach Scott Eul. “He’s a great kid with a passion and workmanlike attitude that we love in our pitchers.
“I feel Logan is just starting to scratch the surface of who he’ll be as a pitcher.”
Ken Putnam, the former athletic director and baseball coach at Mission Hills — San Marcos’ archrival — said losing Herrera is “rough.”
“Desi spent most of his adult life coaching other people’s kids, but only had a limited time with his,” Putnam said. “Desi loved the game, and it didn’t matter which game — football or baseball.
“His teams were always prepared. They played loose and comfortable. His guys had fun playing the game.”
Kyle Carr, a left-handed pitcher/center f ielder, is a freshman at USD.
He credits his success to Herrera.
“When I got to high school, I was a shy, timid kid,” said Carr, who was 2-0 with 26 strikeouts in 12 innings and hit .407 with three homers and 12 RBIs in eight games at San Marcos last season.
“Desi upped my game by teaching me how to be mentally tough, not care what others think about me, but get the job done. His passing is so sad. It’s not easy. Honestly, it hasn’t hit me yet.”
USD assistant baseball coach Brock Ungricht played at San Diego State after starring for Pugh and Herrera at Mission Bay, where he is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Really sad losing Desi Herrera,” Ungricht said. “Can’t believe that two great coaches from Mission Bay passed away this year.”
Services are pending.