Horton May Find What He’s Seeking in His Own Yard

It was an unexpected turn of events for George Horton, associate head baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton.

This summer, Horton decided to seek a head coaching position elsewhere after six seasons as Coach Augie Garrido’s top assistant. He applied for open positions at Arizona, South Carolina and Georgia, but those jobs went to other candidates.

Then Wednesday morning, Horton, who is on vacation, learned Garrido would be leaving Fullerton to become the coach at Texas.

And that suddenly made Horton the leading candidate to become Garrido’s successor.

“Some people have been telling me when some of those other jobs slipped away this summer that it might be for the best, and something good could still happen,” Horton said Wednesday night. “If this works out for me now, it will be great. My family and I really love Southern California, and Cal State Fullerton is where I want to be, but I also am at the point where I would like to be a head coach and put my own stamp on a program.”

A university spokesman said the school will go through a normal hiring process, and the job will be advertised nationally. Garrido said Wednesday, however, that Horton will have his support and recommendation for the job. “I think he’s ready for it,” Garrido said.

Horton turned down an offer to be head coach at Washington State two years ago, as well as Skip Bertman’s interest in him as a top assistant at Louisiana State last summer.

Garrido consistently has given Horton, along with his other full-time assistant, Rick Vanderhook, considerable credit for Fullerton’s success in recent years.

“I think as a coaching staff we’ve learned from each other,” Horton said. “We’ve grown as a staff. I’ve learned a lot from Augie about motivating players and things like that, and I’m sure I’ve brought some things to the table too. That’s the way a coaching staff is. A head coach is only as good as his staff, and I know that means a lot.”

Horton, 42, has worked primarily with the Titan pitchers the last three years, and has developed a national reputation for that work. Six of Horton’s pitchers during that time earned some type of All-American team recognition. Matt Wagner was chosen Big West pitcher of the year in 1994, and Ted Silva won the same honor in 1995.

Pitching was a strong point of the 1994 team with Wagner, Mike Parisi, Dan Ricabal and Chad Rolish. The Titans were 47-16, won the Midwest Regional at Oklahoma State and won two of four games in the College World Series.

Horton’s work in developing transfer Tim Dixon also was one of the keys to Fullerton’s pitching success in 1995, when the Titans won the College World Series and finished 57-9. Dixon was 13-0 for the season after a 4-4 record the previous year at Arkansas Little Rock.

This past season, transfer Brent Billingsley went from a lackluster freshman year at East Carolina to an 11-2 record and 3.02 earned-run average working with Horton.

While Horton’s duties have been mainly with the Titan pitchers, he considers his strength to be more as an all-around coach.

“If I get the job, I’ll look forward to spending more time with the offensive side of the game,” Horton said. “I believe I’m stronger there than I am as a pitching coach. But as a head coach, I know you have to be involved with everything.”

Horton, a former player at Fullerton for Garrido, was head coach at Cerritos College for six years before becoming Garrido’s top assistant. His Cerritos teams won the state community college championships in 1985, 1987 and 1989 and were 226-53. The 1987 team was 46-5.

Horton said he plans to begin contacting Fullerton’s recruits to assure them that he plans to remain and will seek the head coaching job.

“I feel we can maintain the level of excellence we’ve had in the program under Augie, and I’ll try to assure them of that,” Horton said. “I would hope that the recruits and our current players will have enough confidence in me to know that the program isn’t going to slide back.”