Deats takes over Estancia baseball

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - Doug Deats, who revitalized a sagging Costa Mesa High

baseball program in four seasons as coach (1994-97), will try to do the

same at Estancia, which named him baseball coach Monday.

Deats will begin his Estancia tenure as a walk-on, according to Eagles

Boys Athletic Director Tim Parsel, who said the school will try to create

a teaching position for him as soon as the the spring semester.

Deats, attending to his wife, who was in labor with twins Monday evening,

was unavailable for comment.

Currently teaching math and social studies at Mesa, his alma mater, Deats

will begin working with the Eagles’ sixth-period baseball class

immediately. He replaces Tim Green, who resigned after compiling an 8-39

record in two seasons.

Deats was 42-56 at Costa Mesa, but he ended the Mustangs’ 14-year playoff

drought in his second season (a 13-11 record and second-place finish in

the Pacific Coast League). He then guided the ’96 edition (15-11) to

another postseason berth, the school’s first back-to-back trips to the

CIF playoffs in 34 seasons.

“Trying to get some stability for our baseball program was a big

priority,” Parsel said. “Doug will be a great addition, first as a coach,

and hopefully as a member of our faculty.”

Deats coached the Corona del Mar junior varsity in 1998 and was an

assistant softball coach at Orange Coast College last spring.

He has also coached lower-level football at Mesa, but Parsel said his

initial focus would be exclusively on baseball.

Estancia, once among the most consistent programs in Orange County, last

made the playoffs in 1994 and has not posted a winning record since the

1993 team went 14-10.

Deats will be Estancia’s fifth coach since 1997, when the late Paul

Troxel resigned, ending a 17-year association with the program.