In a span of 18 months starting in 2009, Dennis Michael Dixon lost his wife and parents.
Out of the emotional rubble, a stronger and more caring person emerged.
“I’m a different person now than I was before,” said the 59-year-old Dixon, who is in his first year coaching the Anzar High baseball team and teaches Spanish at the San Juan Bautista school.
“Losing most of my family changed me and made me a more thankful person. It made me realize that life is precious and you need to put in a quality day everyday and be thankful for it. I admit I wasn’t as patient and was more selfish in my ways, but I know there are other priorities now.”
Baseball remains one of Dixon’s top priorities; however, he views his fiancé, Leonor Cruz, a counselor for the Aromas-San Juan School District, and all of his students at the top of his list.
“Leonor is a remarkable lady, and I can’t say enough about her,” Dixon said. “Being with her has been a totally different enlightenment for me. This is the most natural friendship I’ve ever had. She is an amazing woman. I recently went through an emergency back surgery, and she was there with me for every second. I couldn’t have gotten through it without her.”
Dixon plans on being there for Cruz just like she was for him, and he was ready to give up coaching baseball to focus on her alone. Knowing he had made mistakes in the past, Dixon was ready to make sacrifices.
However, Cruz told Dixon to keep on coaching the game, knowing he could make a positive impact to several teenage student-athletes. Whether it’s on the field or in the classroom, Dixon takes tremendous pride in teaching life lessons to his students.
“If I’m away from my students for a week, God I miss them,” he said. “The energy, relationship and bond I have with my students are such a blessing, and I’ll give up my life for any of them, and they know it.”
Dixon is bringing that same type of enthusiasm and passion to the baseball field, where the Hawks were 0-3 in Coastal League play entering Wednesday’s game against King City.
Despite the team’s record, Dixon feels all of the pieces are in place for Anzar to build a baseball tradition.
“We might get pounded 13-0, but the kids are learning,” Dixon said. “They’re good kids and they will get better. These kids don’t have a lot of options in terms of growing up with youth leagues around here, but their attitudes have been nothing short of outstanding.”
Dixon has been around the game for a long time, having accumulated over 30 years of coaching experience. Dixon first started coaching at the prep level at his alma mater, Helix High in San Diego.
Dixon followed that with stints at several other schools in California, most recently serving as a pitching coach at Palma in 2014. The 5-foot-1 Dixon has enjoyed a life that has taken him around the world.
Dixon was a Russian linguist in the U.S. Navy, graduating second in his class in Russian at the prestigious Defense Language Institute. Upon passing the foreign language test, Dixon deadpanned, “I realized I was not as dumb as I thought I was.”
Dixon was a C-student in high school, and vividly remembers when one of his teachers told him that he was going to spend the rest of his life working at his late father’s gas station.
That’s why Dixon takes pride and special joy in being a teacher, because he knows the love and positive attitude he shows his students can have a tremendous impact on their future.
“That teacher put me down, and it struck a chord with me,” Dixon said. “She said I couldn’t write, and 25 years later I wrote a little article for a magazine and sent it to her. I thanked her because I’ve been writing secretly ever since.”
Dixon knows words can have a lasting effect.
“When I was a kid, I was called every name in the book,” he said. “Things like midget, whatever. You can joke about it, but deep down, it hurts. So that’s why my biggest claim today is to fight for my kids and their rights, because I know what it’s like to be an underdog.”
Like most of his childhood friends, Dixon grew up dreaming of making the major leagues. Although Dixon’s baseball aspirations didn’t come close to fruition, his hard work led to another pro sport: horse racing.
Dixon said baseball scouts directed his way to becoming a jockey; from 1973 to 1976, he earned most of his mounts at Bay Meadows in San Mateo (which was demolished in 2009) and at Portland Meadows in Oregon.
Dixon has a dozen or more stories to tell from his horse-racing days, but the essence of a jockey’s life could be described as such: extremely demanding but an adrenaline rush.
“Training to do that job was the hardest thing in my life,” he said. “You’re up at 3 a.m. everyday mucking paddocks, raking shed row and galloping 12 to 15 horses a day. I just remember one year going through hell on a track, where I used to get bucked off (horses) everyday and thrown through the rails. I had no idea what I was doing. For a period of time, I’d walk every single night on the race track and say, ‘Please God, don’t let me get killed tomorrow.’”
Dixon had a moment of fame in 2009, when he served as the San Francisco Giants’ batting practice pitcher for a couple of home games. Dixon received the gig because his older brother knew an advertising rep for the Giants organization.
“The first two balls I threw, (ex-Giant) Nate Schierholtz hit two balls into the bay,” Dixon said. “When that happened, I knew I was doing my job.”
Dixon grew up valuing hard work and discipline, two traits passed down to him from his parents, Don and Mary. Don was an ex-communicated Mormon, and Mary a Polish Jew.
Don, who was in the Philippines during World War II, flew reconnaissance patrol bomber planes for the Navy, twice going missing in action.
“The first time he was MIA, my dad was gone for 60 days,” Dixon said. “The second time, it was three months (before he resurfaced). My mom said she knew nothing could hurt that old bastard. We didn’t realize until after he died that he had earned so many medals because he never once bragged about anything he did. But he earned a medal of valor while he was in the Philippines.”
Dixon said he learned many life lessons from his dad, including working hard and perseverance.
I was taught at an early age that you don’t make excuses and you find a way to get through adversity,” he said.
Dixon said he’s most proud of being a veteran and a teacher.
“Teaching is the most responsible job you can have because you’re working with young people, and the good teachers can shape and mold their lives in a positive direction,” he said.
That’s why Dixon was forever grateful to get a full-time job teaching Spanish at Anzar. For a couple of years after his late wife and parents died, Dixon, not surprisingly, struggled both financially and emotionally.
Before becoming full time at Anzar, Dixon was a long-term substitute teacher who applied for vice principal jobs, among other positions of note, throughout the Bay Area. However, Charlene McKowen, Anzar’s principal, gave Dixon the hope he needed.
“She told me to hang in there,” Dixon said. “I was dead broke at the time, and had to sell my boat to stay here in the area. She kept her word and when they offered me the job, I probably cried for a day. I felt like I was reborn.”
Feeling revitalized again, Dixon landed in nirvana when he met Cruz, who rebuffed Dixon the first time he asked her out on a date. Three months later, Dixon asked Cruz out again, and she said yes.
Just before last Christmas, Dixon proposed to Cruz in front of his students, and the celebration was on. Dixon said Cruz has been the light of his world, displaying tremendous character and love everyday.
After Dixon’s late wife died—Dixon respectfully asked not to reveal her name—he visited her grave once a year to express his sorrow for not spending enough time with her family.
“Last Thanksgiving I was at my late wife’s grave, and Leonor had come with me,” Dixon said. “She gets out of the car and is at my late wife’s grave and says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this guy.’ What a remarkable thing for her to say.”
Dixon draws his strength from fellow veterans, his students and the lessons his parents taught him. Most importantly, Dixon wants to show his students that quitting is never an option.
“Just when you think you may be at the end of the road, keep walking because the road is still there,” Dixon said. “It does not end.”
