This and other local features will appear in the special “Pride & Promise” section with Tuesday’s edition of the Hollister Free Lance.
It started as a joke for San Benito teacher and junior varsity soccer coach Becky Bonner. In 2004 during her senior year at San Benito High — when she started on the varsity soccer team — she joked with then-coach Michael Schurig that she would take his job.
Schurig is no longer the girls soccer coach, but that hasn’t impeded Bonner from going down that path.
For the second year last winter, Bonner led the girls J.V. team to a winning record. And she would rather be no other place than San Benito High.
“It was a joke, but I guess it came true,” she said.
Whether it’s the history of winning programs — from football, baseball, softball and basketball — or the lineage of families that have called the school home, the Haybalers are full of tradition.
Because of that rich background, students that go through the school want to come back. When it comes to sports, they come back in droves.
It’s an example of how good the school’s coaches are, Athletic Director Tod Thatcher said.
“It’s an indicator that these young people had a great experience here,” Thatcher said. “They went through whatever sport it was for four years — no matter what it was — and somewhere one of the coaches had a positive impact on them. And I think, for them to come back and want to get back involved with their community, that’s important. There is a positive in that.”
He continued: “It just kind of reinforces the fact that athletics are important in a lot of kids’ lives. Here are some kids that go off to college and do their thing and they want to come back and get involved. It just shows how important it is. Someone had a positive impact on them — that’s the goal.”
Boosting athletics
In the past few years, former students are coming back more and more, said Thatcher, who has been with the school for nearly two decades.
The school, which was founded in 1875, has seen more than a century of graduations and many of those in the last 20 years have returned to their roots.
Recent graduates such as Bonner, Emily Tonascia, Vince Bautista and Corryn Martin have all returned to give back to the school and its sports programs.
In each sport, former Balers make their mark.
“It only makes your athletic department that much stronger,” Thatcher said. “Those kids all knew about the tradition and the pride that comes with competing for this high school. I think they are able to pass that on to the next group of kids.”
For some of those coaches, it’s that coach-athlete relationship that sparked their interest.
For San Benito boys basketball coach David Kaplansky, it was the entire county’s atmosphere that drew him to coach — and specifically at San Benito High.
It was 1994, and thanks to head coach John Becerra, Kaplansky already knew what he wanted to do before he headed off to college. He was going to graduate, and return to San Benito High to teach the next generation of basketball players.
Becerra sprouted that coaching dream by keeping the future San Diego State basketball player involved with summer camps and off-season workouts with kids around the area.
“He kept me really engaged in helping the kids of the community when I was in high school,” he said.
Kaplansky served as his coach’s assistant during those four years of summer camps, Kaplansky said.
“By the end, that’s what I wanted to do: come back and coach,” Kaplansky said.
The biggest reason why he wanted to coach only at San Benito High, though? Toughness.
“No question about it, this county is tough,” he said. “Here, there is a lot of toughness in the kids. It’s a hard-working county and the kids work so hard.”
But there is no question about the area’s rich history, Kaplansky said.
“It’s because there is one school,” he said. “Their is definitely a pride factor.”
Baler pride
It’s that Baler pride that drives the program, Thatcher explained.
“I’m always big on tradition,” he said. “I think it’s extremely important in the high school — in any athletic department whether it’s high school, college or whatever — the tradition of the program or the sport at that school is extremely important. We are the only high school in town.”
Being the one and only school in town cultivates a family atmosphere that breeds into generations of families.
“For some families, their grandfathers and great grandfathers played here,” Thatcher said. “That’s pretty unique, I think, in the day and age where high schools are sprouting all over the place.”
He continued, “I’ve had kids like that and it’s extremely important to them to do the same thing.”
Some of those students come back and coach with their father.
Family connection
One of those kids, former athlete and 1998 graduate Josh Morales, coaches with his father for the cross-country teams.
The elder, Jess Morales, taught his son his cross-country secrets, and today they coach the two cross-country teams together — as a family.
“I think that’s the reason why it was a good experience for me in athletics,” Morales said. “I learned a lot about things here. I always wanted to come back where it all started and keep the running tradition going.”
Cross-country was never a high-profile sport before Morales, who dominated for the Balers. And Josh Morales always wanted to return and “keep it going.”
“It wasn’t that big before,” Morales said. “It’s bigger now. We started that and we want to keep it going for each generation.”
For Morales, it’s important to see athletes come back and become involved — like himself.
“It’s great to see that,” he said.
Former athletes have become an alumni support system that relates directly with the students of this generation, Thatcher said.
“When we are short somewhere and we need a volunteer and I know someone who went off and played some college ball and is in town,” Thatcher said. “We give him a call. So we’ve done that.”
Examples include Bautista and Tonascia, who took over former Baler graduate Sam Klauer in March.
“It’s a nice network that we have,” Thatcher said. “A lot of these guys are in the mid- to late 20s and that’s the perfect time to get them involved. I look for it. It would be great for them to be on campus but our applicant pool is very small.”
That small applicant pool for open sport jobs is one of the many reasons why — now more than ever — former students litter the school’s coaching ranks.
“We have a lot more off-campus coaches,” Thatcher said. “It’s so hard to get hired as a teacher now. When I was coming up, you could get a job and coach there. Even coach multiple sports, and that’s not the case anymore. You can’t bring in a teacher anymore to teach driver’s ed or other things. You have to be qualified in English or chemistry but a lot of them don’t coach. An educator is their main focus. It’s compartmentalized a little bit.”
He continued: “Across the board, there is less and less as for as the hiring goes currently. That opens up a lot of sports. And who better to go with than people you know?”
Still, though, some coaches such as Martin and Bonner double as teachers and coaches.
Doubling up
But those teachers and coaches are rare in today’s atmosphere, Thatcher said.
“I can’t always give someone a teaching job and a coaching position,” he said.
When presented with the opportunity to coach — and teach — Bonner couldn’t turn it down.
“I always wanted to coach,” she said. “It’s special to do it here. Sports are so important here. There is such an enthusiasm with parents and kids. Everyone works together here as a team. Nobody is above anyone else. It takes a team to pull it off.”
That comradeship — something Bonner remembered from her time as a soccer player — was something that initially drew her back to the school.
Her coaching dreams weren’t specific to San Benito High, but there isn’t a better place to do it, she said.
“I would coach somewhere else, but it’s not like doing it here,” she said.
As a coach, her goal is to do what her former coaches did: Build the athletes’ confidence and make them want to take her job in the future.
“It sounds weird but I would love that,” she said. “I would be really happy if one of my students wanted to do this when they got older. I would absolutely love that.”
And that’s the goal of those that return to their own stomping ground: Remember the past and preach it to the future. Today, current coaches who called San Benito High their high school replaced former mentors.
They only hope the same thing happens down the line.
“It’s great. It’s inspiring,” Kaplansky said. “It keeps the kids engaged. They know you did the same thing. You had the same feelings when you walked into a gym. The smell is still the same. It’s a lot of the same experiences. It creates a lot of pride.”
It’s that pride that keeps the school’s sports programs going strong.
“It makes you proud of your program,” Thatcher said.
