More Baseball Coaches of the Year

In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Bob Zamora of Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2018 season going to Ken Arnerich of Alameda and Mack Paciorek of Pasadena Poly.

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Ken Arnerich is keeping up his family’s legacy for baseball in the Alameda community. Photo: Mark Tennis.

We decided this season to go with schools that were D2 for our divisional state rankings to be medium schools (combining with D3) instead of lumping them in with the schools from each CIF section’s Open Division or Division 1.

Arnerich guided Alameda to the CIF North Coast Section D2 title and to a 27-2-1 record that ended up being good enough to net the Hornets the mythical D2 state crown. They defeated Maria Carrillo of Santa Rosa 4-3 in the championship game. We happened to run into Arnerich in the parking lot at Contra Costa College prior to that game as we were heading over to St. Mary’s College to see the NCS D1 final involving state No. 2 Concord De La Salle. We snapped his photo and it wound up to a photo we’re using for our annual state coach of the year selections.

This was Arnerich’s 15th season at the helm of the Alameda baseball program. He was the 2017 NCS Honor Coach and this year’s team won an NCS title for the second time in Arnerich’s career. His teams also have reached at least the semifinals for eight of his 15 seasons.

If Arnerich sounds like he knows a lot about the game and its history, there’s a good reason for that. His father, Anthony “Lil” Arnerich, was a longtime Alameda parks and rec director, once served as Vice Mayor and before that was a pro baseball player. Lil Arnerich, who died on March 9 of this year at age 89, played for four seasons with the Oakland Oaks of the old Pacific Coast League and turned out several offers to play for East Coast teams in the major leagues due to a desire to stay near his hometown roots and family.

The last coach from an NCS school to be State Medium Schools Coach of the Year was Paul Maytorena from Casa Grande of Petaluma in 2005. Alameda High also has not had a previous Baseball State Coach of the Year in any category.

Last 10 State Medium Schools Coaches of the Year: 2017 – Rich Henning (Christian Brothers, Sacramento); 2016 – Jeff Baumback (Redondo Union, Redondo Beach); 2015 – Mike Mitchell (El Cajon Christian); 2014 – Ollie Turner (Torrance); 2013 – Wilmer Aaron (Gardena Serra); 2012 – Steve Vickery (Lakeside El Capitan); 2011 – Gary Remiker (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); 2010 – Rich Sciutto (Burlingame); 2009 – Bob Anderson (Lake Shasta Central Valley); 2008 – Hondo Arpoika (Oakdale).

Mack Paciorek stands with a student projected to be in the Class of 2023 at Pasadena Poly.
Photo: Polytechnic.org.

If you don’t know by now, with seven state record books in our portfolio, we do have a bias in some of these honors for coaches and players who are connected with previous all-time greats. For Paciorek, he played for several seasons in the mid-1990s for San Marino’s Mickey McNamee, the 1990 State Coach of the Year and a coach who was leading the program at San Marino for more than 40 years (1964 to 2007).

Paciorek was a 1995 Cal-Hi Sports medium schools all-state pick for a San Marino team that finished 25-1 and was No. 1 in the final Division III state rankings. He later went to Iowa State where he earned All-Big 12 honors and was picked in the MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers. After his minor league career ended, Paciorek got into coaching and ended up becoming the head coach at San Marino after McNamee retired. In 2014, he was the San Gabriel Valley Tribune Coach of the Year for leading San Marino to its first league title in 20 years.

After last season, Paciorek resigned at San Marino after being there for 10 years and took over the program at Pasadena Poly. That job is much closer to the B1 Academy that he owns and operates in Pasadena. It became a season to remember for the Panthers. They defeated Moreno Valley 6-1 in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 championship and ended at 27-3. They were No. 1 in the final D5 state rankings and now their coach has one of the three statewide coaching honors.

Last 10 State Small Schools Coaches of the Year: 2017 – Jim Cleveland (San Lorenzo Redwood Christian); 2016 – Troy Ghisetti (Arcata); 2015 – Nelson Randolph (Sacramento Capital Christian); 2014 – Jay Preuss (Kerman); 2013 – Gil Ruiz (Pacific Grove); 2012 – Greg Largent (Escalon); 2011 – Craig Schoof (Atherton Menlo School); 2010 – Glen Prater (Riverside Woodcrest Christian); 2009 – Brad Gunter (Roseville Valley Christian); 2008 – Gary Galloway (Petaluma St. Vincent de Paul).