Upland has a new baseball coach for the first time in more than three decades as A.J. Garbick has been named successor to Mike Alonso.
Garbick, who turns 37 on Friday, previously served as head coach at Charter Oak in Covina the last three years.
He is no stranger to the area, having previously served as head coach at Colony.
Garbick is a resident of Ontario and a 1997 graduate of Damien where he helped that school to a CIF title his senior year.
“My wife teaches in the district and my kids go to school in the district so it was a natual fit,” he said. “Upland has had a great program. I have played against them so I know what to expect.”
There are other ties too. while at Damien Garbick played under coach Bobby Sheridan, who was an Upland graduate.
He currently works as a teacher in a home school program based out of Chino Hills but is hoping to eventually land a position in the Upland School District.
He said his philosophy of the game isn’t much different from that of Alonso.
“Upland teams have always played that hard-nosed type of game and that’s the genre I grew up with so that will be much the same,” he said.
