Hodges to Coach at Saddleback College

After eight years as baseball coach at Laguna Hills High School, Jack Hodges is leaving to take a similar position at Saddleback College.

Hodges’ appointment was announced Tuesday by Saddleback Athletic Director Bill Otta.

Hodges succeeds Rich Rommel and Charlie Phillips, who were co-coaches last season. Saddleback finished 16-18-1 overall and 8-15-1 in the Orange Empire Conference. The Gauchos last won titles in 1983 and 1984 when members of the Mission Conference.

Hodges leaves Laguna Hills after a 10-year tenure as an English teacher and coach, the past eight as baseball coach. In that span, his teams won a Southern Section 2-A championship in 1984 and Pacific Coast League titles in 1988 and 1989.

“There comes a time after 17 years of coaching on one level (high schools) and you love the game as I do that you begin to think about coaching on a higher level, particularly when a situation opens up that is as appealing as the one here at Saddleback,” Hodges said.

Otta hopes Hodges will bring stability to the position as a proven coach with roots in the Saddleback Valley.

“We’re really excited about Jim joining our staff and know it’s going to result in attracting a lot of good local high school talent to Saddleback that for one reason or another has gotten away,” said Otta.

It’ll be a month before Hodges can begin rebuilding the program because he’s on his way to the U.S. Olympic Festival in Oklahoma City. Then Hodges will spend two weeks as coach of the U.S. team in the World Junior Games in Quebec.

Hodges, who coached at Rowland Heights before coming to Orange County, guided Laguna Hills to a 136-69 record, and produced some exceptional players.

Lee Plemel was the most valuable player in the 1988 College World Series as a member of Stanford and is now with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Class-A team at St. Petersburg (Fla.).

Wayne Helm played for Pepperdine and pitched the first no-hitter by an Angels’ minor leaguer in nine years two weeks ago for Bend (Ore.), a Class-A team.

Mike Smedes and Jon Willard are playing at USC and Loyola Marymount, respectively, while three stars of Laguna Hills’ 24-5 team of last spring are college bound--Chris Sheff (Pepperdine), Rob Milo (Stanford) and Mike Helm (Santa Clara).

SADDLEBACK BASEBALL

Coach Years W L T Doug Fritz 1969-74 39 122 5 Dick Stuetz 1975-81 125 127 1 Jim Brideweser 1982-85 90 62 0 Marshall Adair 1986-88 46 66 0 Jim Brideweser/ Rich Rommel- 1989 16 18 1 Charlie Phillips