Muckey to Become 6th Baseball Coach at Crespi in 10 Years

Scott Muckey, who coached baseball at Valley College from 1983 to ‘86, was named baseball coach at Crespi High on Thursday.

He replaces Mitch Fair, who resigned in June.

Muckey, 33, will become the school’s sixth baseball coach in 10 years.

The announcement is a surprise, of sorts, because Muckey was named an assistant baseball coach at state community college champion College of the Canyons on July 30.

“Baseball-wise, it was a really tough decision,” Muckey said. “But money-wise, it wasn’t very hard at all. I’ve been coaching for 12 years without a full-time job and I’m getting to a point in life when I can’t live on peanuts anymore.”

Muckey lost his job at Valley this spring when he was one of 23 part-time coaches fired as part of faculty layoffs in the Los Angeles Community College District. At Canyons he also would have been a part-time instructor.

In January he will assume a full-time position at Crespi, which will include coaching and teaching physical education.

Until then, however, Muckey will continue to coach fall baseball and teach physical education at Canyons.

“We’re really excited about getting Scott,” said Paul Muff, Crespi athletic director. “He’s someone we really wanted to hire at the start of the summer, but he wasn’t interested because there wasn’t a full-time spot available.”

After Muckey refused the part-time job, Muff interviewed about 20 applicants and had the field narrowed down to “about three or four,” when a full-time faculty position became available. The field was then narrowed to one.

The revolving door into the coach’s office at Crespi may now finally close.

“We’d like to build some stability in our baseball program the way we’ve done in our other programs,” said Muff, who also serves as Crespi’s basketball coach. “We feel that, by getting Scott, we’ve taken a big step toward doing just that.”

But, as Crespi is excited about Muckey’s acquisition, Canyons is feeling his loss.

“This is a traumatic blow to the Canyons baseball program,” first-year Coach Len Mohney said. “Scott’s a super coach and we will really miss him, but I think we’ll be able to handle it somehow.”

Muckey will take over a team, which is coming off its first losing season in 10 years. The Celts were 4-8 and finished fifth in the Del Rey League this year.

If Muckey holds to form, however, Crespi has little to worry about. Wherever he has gone, winning seasons have followed.

He led Valley to one of its best seasons this year. The Monarchs were ranked seventh in the final poll of JC sports information directors and compiled a 29-10 record, while finishing second behind Canyons in the Mountain Valley Conference.

He also served as an assistant under three different coaches at Pepperdine from 1975 to ‘81, when the Waves’ program began to gain national recognition. In 1979, under Muckey and Coach Dave Gorrie, Pepperdine finished third in the College World Series.

Muckey then worked as an assistant under Dave Snow at Valley in 1982, when the Monarchs won the state championship.