DONS’ 30-YEAR BASEBALL COACH A FIXTURE
Dick Serrano, a fixture at University of San Diego High and Cathedral Catholic for nearly half a century, died late Saturday night of natural causes. He was 80.
Kelli Politoske, his longtime caregiver, said Serrano battled through a number of health issues in recent years.
“His mind was sharp until the end, but his body gave out,” Politoske said.
Serrano spent 30 years as baseball coach of the Dons, winning CIF championships in 1972, ’78, ’80 and ’81.
When he retired as a coach in 2000, he was the winningest baseball coach in San Diego Section history with 549 victories.
After he retired from coaching, Serrano worked at Cathedral in various capacities and was a regular at all sporting events as well as drama productions.
Three of Serrano’s players had significant major league careers.
Left-handed pitcher Barry Zito was a three-time All-Star and won the Cy Young Award in 2002 as a member of the Oakland A’s.
Right-handed pitcher Mark Prior was the second pick of the MLB Draft in 2001, won 18 games in 2003 and was an All-Star with the Cubs. He’s now the pitching coach for the L.A. Dodgers.
Outfielder Carlos Quentin was a two-time AllStar, playing in the big leagues from 2006-14 with the Diamondbacks, White Sox and Padres.
“Coach Serrano was always an important figure in my life,” said Quentin. “He watched out for me. He followed my career and was always my biggest supporter.
“He was a fan of every sport, and he was proud that I played football, basketball and baseball. And he stayed on me to keep up my grades.”
Quentin played at Stanford and was a first-round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2003.
“Coach Serrano loved baseball, and he loved Cathedral and the people there,” Quentin said. “He was a great man, a second fa
ther to me. We were lucky to have him.”
Dick Serrano was born in Mesa, Ariz., and moved to San Diego as a child.
He graduated from St. Augustine High and played baseball for Charlie Smith at San Diego State from 196264. He earned a postgraduate degree from USD.
His daughters, Suzanne Serrano-Duffy and Monica Serrano-Peruzzi, said their father also played baseball while in the U.S. Air Force.
Monica served as a stat girl for her father at University. Suzanne was a bat girl.
“Our dad loved coaching, loved being around kids,” Serrano-Duffy said. “And no story on my dad would be complete without mentioning his friendship with John Baumgarten.”
Baumgarten, who coached 29 years at Hilltop High and won 407 games and three CIF championships and is equally famous for his Baum Dog hot dogs served at games and events, and Serrano were best friends since second grade.
Two of Cathedral Catholic’s head coaches — Sean Doyle (football) and Gary Remiker (baseball) — played baseball for Serrano as did football defensive coordinator John Montali.
“I worked my tail off to be a high school player, and I had a blast playing for Coach Serrano,” Remiker said. “And I’ll always be in his debt because he took me in as a volunteer assistant coach so I could see if that was the direction I wanted to go.
“He was instrumental in getting me hired as a math teacher at Cathedral. And once I was committed, he entrusted me with the team he coached for 30 years.
“That meant the world to me.”
Doyle said Serrano was the one person he allowed to call Friday before football games and Monday after games.
“He was tough to play for because he was an oldschool coach,” Doyle said. “But he taught me a lot about life. He was tenacious and drove you to be your best. I have great memories of him talking football before games on Friday, and breaking things down on Monday.
“Dick Serrano was a great mentor to a lot of us.”
Serrano is survived by his wife, Loleta, his daughters and their husbands, granddaughter Mila Duffy, who graduated from Cathedral Catholic last year, and sisters Mary Alice James and Irma Noriega.
Family services are pending with a memorial service planned for sometime this summer at Cathedral Catholic.