After 6 seasons and 5 straight Tri-County Athletic League
championships, Michael Luna resigned as skipper of the San Benito
High baseball team last week, and will take over a similar position
at Mission College in Santa Clara
HOLLISTER
Michael Luna said it was one of the toughest decisions he’s ever had to make.
The San Benito High skipper for the last six seasons formally announced his resignation as the school’s varsity baseball manager on Friday in a face-to-face meeting with Athletic Director Tod Thatcher, and will take over a similar position at Mission College in Santa Clara beginning next season.
“I really thought I’d be in Hollister until I stopped coaching,” Luna said via phone on Sunday night. “That’s how much I liked it there. But you never know when opportunities will come up.”
And for Luna, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
Having previously coached at Leigh High School in San Jose as well as West Valley College in Saratoga, Luna will become the co-head baseball coach at Mission College next season, along with Mike Perez.
Perez, who is also the junior college’s athletic director, will then relinquish his head coaching duties to Luna the following season.
“My ultimate goal is to be a Division I coach, and I know I’ll have to have some experience coaching at the college level if I’m gonna coach at the D-I level.
“Opportunities don’t happen like this everyday. As I told the players, it was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make. I really love it in Hollister.”
Luna, who came to San Benito High from Leigh High in October of 2004, completed his sixth season at the helm for the Balers this past spring.
Finishing with a staggering 147-41-1 overall record, Luna’s team’s compiled an 85-14 mark in the Tri-County Athletic League and have won the last five TCAL crowns.
“It’s a huge loss for us,” Thatcher said. “He’s a veteran coach, an expert in his sport, and his involvement in fundraising and with the parents and the community, he’s a guy that does it all and that’s a huge loss for us.”
Although Luna told Thatcher face-to-face of his decision on Friday, the former SBHS coach notified the athletic director on Wednesday, July 29, prior to notifying his players at the conclusion of their summer league season.
“I was planning on coming back to Hollister,” said Luna, who was approached by Mission College in May with the job opportunity. He didn’t make up his mind until mid-July, though.
“But it seemed like every week a new door was opening,” he added.
Along with taking over the junior college baseball team by his second season, Luna will still be able to teach at Quimby Oak Middle School in east San Jose, where he’s currently employed.
Furthermore, he’ll have the opportunity of teaching classes at Mission College as well.
“It’s a new challenge for me,” Luna said.
The baseball manager will leave large shoes to fill in the San Benito dugout, however.
Along with his 78 percent overall winning percentage, each of Luna’s teams over the last six seasons advanced to the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs, and in 2007, the Balers made it all the way to the championship game before falling to Valley Christian.
That year, though, San Benito compiled a 29-9 mark, a record amount of wins for any baseball team in school history, while Luna himself was named coach of the year by NorCalPreps.
Also named coach of the year in the TCAL four times, including this past season when he managed San Benito to a 16-2 record and its fifth straight TCAL championship, Luna saw many of his players advance to the next level, either to a two-year college or four-year college.
In fact, over his six seasons at SBHS, 10 of his players either played or will play at Division I schools.
“It was an honor and a privilege to coach at San Benito High School,” Luna said. “I’m really glad I had the opportunity to go down there and coach.
“I made a lot of friends down there, not only through baseball but through the entire community. I hope whoever gets the job can continue the success we’ve had the last six years.
“I’ll miss it. I know I’ll miss it.”
