Ex-Shadow Mountain coach dies
William Hatcher was the Whitey Herzog of Arizona high school baseball coaches in the 1980s — colorful and uncensored, tough and demanding.
The former Phoenix Shadow Mountain coach died Saturday of natural causes, his son, Paul, said. William Hatcher was 84.
“Hatch and I were always real tight,” said former Glendale Apollo coach Ray Alonzo, who had Hatcher join his staff in the late 1980s. “He might be rough around the edges but he would give you the shirt off his back.”
Hatcher was Shadow Mountain’s baseball coach for the first 12 years of its existence, before a parent group, criticizing his coaching methods, had him removed by administration in 1986, a year after Hatcher led the Matadors to the state semifinals with a pitching staff that included Curt Schilling, David Cassidy and Kelly Boyer.
Another parent group, called “Advocates For Fair Play,” tried to have Hatcher’s firing rescinded, providing numerous letters from former players supporting Hatcher and his coaching methods.
Alonzo said that Hatcher was no longer interested in being a head coach after losing his appeal, saying “he was railroaded out of there,” because he was playing a freshman over a senior.
“He was like, ‘Screw it, I’m going to work on my tomatoes in the backyard and go fishing,’ ” Alonzo said.
In 1985, after Schilling lost a 7-4 decision to Tempe
McClintock in the state semifinals, Hatcher remarked about the home-plate umpire’s strike zone as being “the size of a postage stamp.”
Schilling went onto an incredible major league baseball career, a big part of World Series championship teams in Arizona and Boston. Cassidy, who was the closer of that ‘85 Shadow Mountain team, picking up 11 wins with an ERA under 1.00, went on to be part of Arizona State’s College World Series in 1988 that finished second to Stanford.
Former Phoenix Brophy Prep coach Tom Succow, who coached against Hatcher in the ‘80s, called him, “an outstanding coach and a better man.”
“William was certainly a mentor to me, as well as other coaches,” Succow said. “He was loyal to those around him, and he certainly embrace his responsibility to model for young coaches and players.
“William always held players and coaches accountable and one always knew where you stood with William. He never received the credit he was due. He was a Hall of Fame gentleman in every respect.”
He helped shape his son, Paul, who is now the head softball coach at Surprise Paradise Honors.
“Words can’t express how much my dad influenced me,” Paul Hatcher said. “What is really amazing though are the dozens of Dad’s former players, and colleagues, who have expressed to my mom and I how much Dad influenced them.
“He was a hero and a father figure to so many young men through the years.”