Emard Hopes Things Will Get Even Better at SCC

Though the Southern California College baseball season ended earlier this week, Coach Rich Emard’s schedule figures to be even busier the next few weeks.

For Emard, as for other college baseball coaches, recruiting can be more time-consuming than a regular season. But this is one time Emard won’t mind battling for local talent.

Emard led the Vanguards to a 45-20-2 record and their first appearance in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics World Series last week at Lewiston, Ida.

“Just making it to the World Series was our goal,” Emard said. “And that goes all the way back to our first meeting in September. We knew that we finally had enough talent to get there.”

The appearance in the World Series is a hallmark for the Vanguards, considering their record was 5-40 in 1982--the season before Emard arrived.

The Vanguards were 19-20-1 in Emard’s first season, and 28-19 last year.

As a further measure of its success, SCC competes against some of the better Division 1 and Division 2 programs in the Southland and the Costa Mesa school often defeats the larger schools.

“We can’t compete with those Division 1 schools on a daily basis,” Emard said. “Believe me, they’re doing us a favor by scheduling us. We’re the ones with everything to gain and nothing to lose. I’d hate to play those schools four times a year--I’d be happy to win just one of four.”

Led by pitcher Brian Otten, an NAIA first team All-American from Canyon High School, the Vanguards won their district and area (Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii) playoffs to qualify for the World Series.

SCC defeated Phillips of Oklahoma at the World Series to set up a second-round game against Lewis-Clark State College, the hometown school and defending NAIA champion.

Led by Kyle Brock, brother of Dodger first baseman Greg Brock, Lewis-Clark hit five home runs in front of a sellout crowd of 4,600 and went on to record a 17-2 win.

The Vanguards then defeated Georgia College, a school that had been ranked fourth in the NAIA during the regular season. The win put the Vanguards in the semifinals against Dallas Baptist, which eliminated SCC, 9-2.

Lewis-Clark went on to defend its championship.

Emard, 39, has gone from playing in the minor leagues to coaching in the World Series.

After playing at Cerritos High School, where he teaches driver education, Emard went to Cerritos College. His 1966 team was 40-0 and won the state championship.

From there, Emard studied at UC Santa Barbara where he earned his teaching degree, but signed with the Baltimore Orioles and then played several years in the minors.

Emard advanced as far as the Dallas Spurs, a Double-A team that included future major leaguers Enos Cabell, Wayne Garland and Doug DeCinces. The team was coached by Cal Ripken Sr.

“I remember Cal Ripken Jr., who was about 11 or 12 then, taking batting practice with us. . . . this must’ve been about 1972,” Emard recalled. “I never thought that the little kid I was joking with on the field would turn out to be one of the best players in the game today.”

At that time, the Orioles infield consisted of Brooks Robinson, Mark Belanger, Dave Johnson, and Boog Powell--so Emard saw the futility in Baltimore.

He turned to coaching and was an assistant at Cerritos High School for nine seasons until the SCC job became available in 1983.

With an impressive nonconference schedule and the inducement of possible big-time rewards at the small-time school, Emard has raised his sights further.

“We know what to expect now when we go to the World Series,” he said. “Who knows? Maybe next year we can go back and win it.”

‘Just making it to the World Series was our goal. We knew that we finally had enough talent to get there.’

--Rich Emard