TOM TRAGER

Steve Virgen

Tom Trager never really knew he wanted to become a baseball coach

until he learned more about the game in college.

At Glendora High, he simply used his talent to attain notoriety

and success. However, at La Verne University, Trager met a coach who

changed his life and taught him more about baseball. That helped

Trager want to become a coach, and he went on to flourish at Corona

del Mar High.

“I never had a coach like that until I went to La Verne,” Trager

said of Ben Heinz, who later became the hitting coach for the

Dodgers. “I didn’t know how much baseball I did not know until I got

to La Verne.”

Trager was a standout athlete for the Tartans in Glendora,

excelling in football, basketball and baseball. Baseball was his

specialty sport and he earned All-San Gabriel Valley honors.

At La Verne, he was first-team All-NAIA and led the NAIA in RBIs.

When he was with the Leopards, Heinz made quite an impression on him.

“He was a motivator and he made the game fun, so I tried to do all

of that,” Trager said. “But it’s always more fun when you win.”

After his career at La Verne, Trager later became the baseball

coach at Azusa. He guided the Aztecs to three league championships in

the four years he coached. Then, Ron Davis, the athletic director at

Azusa, moved to Corona del Mar to take the same position. Davis lured

Trager to come over to the Sea Kings in 1969.

Trager found a home at CdM, where he worked for 32 years.

There were several highlights in baseball, but the Sea Kings’

shining moment came in 1981, when Corona del Mar defeated Sante Fe,

3-2, for the CIF Southern Section 2-A title.

“I had a great time at CdM,” Trager said. “We had some very good

players there. Jeff Pries was the CIF Player of the Year for us in

1981 and went on to UCLA. Matt Keough was an All-CIF shortstop for

us.”

Trager coached the Corona del Mar baseball team from 1969 to 1983.

He said he stopped coaching because he wanted to see his son, Tom

Jr., play at Laguna Beach. When he was subsequently asked to coach at

his son’s school, he couldn’t turn it down.

In 1985, midway through the baseball season, Trager became coach

of the then-Artists.

“The first team we played when I took the coaching job was Corona

del Mar and we won,” the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame member

recalled. “The next year, we played Corona twice and we beat them

twice.”

After coaching at Laguna as a walk-on, Trager coached the boys

tennis team at Corona del Mar, where he continued to teach. He said

his best coaching days were when he first started out with the Sea

Kings.

“Those were the days I didn’t have to depend entirely on parents,”

Trager said. “I think most ballplayers enjoyed playing at CdM. But

the times changed. When I saw that money was not coming in, it was

just different. And when I could see the parents wanted to be more

involved, that’s when I said, ‘I have to get out of here.’ ”

Trager, 62, lives with his wife, Sharon, a retired CdM teacher, in

Laguna Beach. They have been married for 40 years and have two grown

children and two grandchildren.