This Time, Adams Took It Personally : UCLA Coach Says Hard Work Paid Off With His First Baseball Title Since 1979

Winning the Pacific 10 Southern Division baseball title for the first time since 1979 was a personal victory of sorts for UCLA Coach Gary Adams.

It wasn’t because he had never experienced the thrill of winning a conference title. Adams won the title in 1976 when the Bruins beat USC on the last day of the season. Then, after a couple of second-place finishes, he won in 1979.

Before taking over at UCLA 12 seasons ago, Adams had five successful years at UC Irvine. He led the Anteaters to consecutive NCAA Division II championships in 1973 and 1974.

Lately, though, the wins haven’t come quite as easily. UCLA finished third in the six-team Southern Division in 1980, just two games out of first. Since then the Bruins have been sixth, fourth, fifth, sixth and, last season, fifth. Their combined conference record the past five seasons was 51-99.

As champion of the Pac-10 Southern Division, UCLA automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament. The Bruins are the host team in the West Regional and play Hawaii in the first round Thursday. If they win, they’ll advance to the College World Series in Omaha starting May 30.

“It is gratifying (to win the title),” Adams said. “I think I feel like our players do, that all the hard work paid off. I don’t think we worked any harder this season than in the past. I’ve heard that you work harder when you lose, but I don’t know about that.

“This is a first for me. When I started out in my career, I won. I was like a race horse that got out in front. I started out at UCI and won, and I started out at UCLA and won. Then, like a race horse does, I started to coast. It was as if I got too contented. . . . I let up a little.

“I don’t think I coached very well those years. Meanwhile, everyone else--all the other coaches--worked harder and passed me. A lot of programs got stronger, like Stanford, Fullerton.

“Two years ago (when the Bruins finished sixth with an 8-22 record and were 28-32 overall), I thought, ‘Well, I can stop running. I can step away. I’m not doing the job.’ Then it’s a matter of pride. So I started bearing down. I think we turned the corner last season.”

UCLA was 13-17 in conference and 34-30-1 overall in 1985. Not bad, considering the previous year’s record. And the Bruins finished strong. They swept USC in the final series and won 7 of their last 10 games. This season their conference record was 21-9, and they are 39-21 overall.

“It was a first for me,” Adams said. “To be able to win after losing . . . making a comeback. I had never lost, not that much, anyway.”

Asked said he altered his coaching style. “I was more disciplined with the team. I was tougher. I sat a couple of players for missing curfew one night at Fresno State. I had never done that before.

“And our practices were more disciplined. We worked with a purpose. I went back to coaching like I did my first years here and like at Irvine.

“There was one big difference here this season, from the head coach all the way to the last player on the team. There was a driving determination to turn the program around. We were determined not to lose.

“All of my teams wanted to win the title, that’s always the goal. But no team wanted it more than this one. Look at our record. From about halfway through the year, we never had a losing streak of more than two in a row.

“This has been a beautiful team to work with. There are no stars, no prima donnas. It’s been different guys coming through and picking us up. You have to have that. You can’t rely on just two or three stars.”

At the start of the season, Adams said that this team, though young, was much improved and would be a factor in the conference race. He didn’t predict a title, but he said that the Bruins definitely would contend.

Adams said he was sure the team was going to win it on April 27, when the Bruins moved into first place.

UCLA entered the weekend series with Arizona tied for second with the Wildcats, one game behind Stanford. The Bruins won two of three. Stanford, meanwhile, lost three straight to USC at Dedeaux Field.

“That was it,” Adams said. “That’s when I thought this ballclub wasn’t going to be satisfied with coming in second, that they really wanted to win it. And when USC beat Stanford, it gave us a real shot in the arm.”

The Bruins went on to sweep Arizona State and USC in their final two conference series. In all, they won 11 of their last 13 games.

“You know, I’m usually making vacation plans this time of year,” Adams said. “I’d kind of like to spend the first week of June in Nebraska.”