Upland celebrates career of veteran baseball coach Mike Alonso

VIDEO: Seniors Raul Munoz and Skyler De Los Reyes talk about what their coach Mike Alonso meant to them.

This year here was going to be no changing of the mind.

Veteran Upland High School baseball coach Mike Alonso coached his last game today after 33 years heading the same program. The celebratory mood took a hit as the Highlanders had just lost to Rancho Cucamonga 7-2 at Memorial Park which cost them a playoff berth.

Festivities were held after the game. It was supposed to be a surprise. Alonso is one of those old-school types that doesn’t want any individual fanfare. The standing joke was that if the coach got wind of any special plans he wouldn’t have shown up.

So mum was the word. But no one was about to let him walk off without a proper send off. So they had one despite his wishes.

Alonso said the only moment that made him think something might be up was earlier in the week when he was speaking with Chaffey College coach Jeff Harlow who was expressing his disappointment that he was going to be unable to be at the final game and the festivities.

“I’m thinking, it’s no big deal, It’s just another game,” Alonso said.

A large gathering of coaches, former players and parents of players past and present were on hand to offer their thanks for the impact Alonso had on their lives.

Alonso said he had planned on the 2015 season being his last but since wife Annie had just retired he wanted to “give her one more year without him around.”

He told his team around December that he had made a definite decision and this time his mind wasn’t changing.

“The time was just right,” said Alonso, who finished with 599 career wins. “I like this group of senior kids and at the same time we have some really good juniors coming back. So the coach coming in will have a good place to start. I didn’t want to leave a bad situation for the person coming in after me.”

Share this
Plusone Twitter Facebook Tumblr Reddit Stumbleupon Email