University High Principal Dismisses Baseball Coach

Chris Conlin, who guided the University High School baseball team to the 1986 Sea View League championship in his first season as coach, was fired from that position Friday by Bob Bruce, the school’s principal.

Bruce confirmed the dismissal, but refused to comment on the circumstances. “Anytime you get into these sorts of things, it’s very difficult to discuss,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on the reason.”

Conlin, 33, will remain at University as a physical education teacher, head wrestling coach and assistant football coach. The baseball team was 10-4 in league play, 13-10 overall last season.

Athletic Director Steve Scoggins called the firing “sad and unfortunate.”

“I’m concerned what this kind of thing does to a coaching staff in general,” Scoggins said. “I know the majority of coaches at the school still support Chris and feel he does a great job.”

Conlin said Bruce told him he was spreading himself too thin.

“The principal said that I had too many assignments due to the fact that I coached three sports and had two sports in a row,” Conlin said. “He said that made it too difficult for me.

“Two more reasons he told me were that I had used ‘negative reinforcement’ in my coaching practices, which I construe as making the kids sit out games as punishment, or making them run if they use profanity or throw their equipment.

“Also, he felt I did not have a significant amount of support from parents and the returning 11 players.”

Conlin’s dismissal marks the second time University has lost its baseball coach in the past two seasons. His predecessor, Eddie Allen, resigned in 1985 following the Trojans’ first league title in baseball.

He said evaluations from school administrators indicated he was doing a “great job” and exercised “great discipline” with the baseball team. “To be honest, the only negative confrontations I had were the two anonymous letters I received in the mail,” Conlin said. “They said basically that I had the take sign on too much and the second thing was that I was used the wrong pitcher against Saddleback High School.”

Conlin said he was aware that “from the day I was hired, the booster club was unhappy about the decision. They went in to the principal and asked that I be fired before we ever played a game. I felt like, what kind of rapport can you carry on when president of booster club wants you fired before season starts?

“Basically I had some parents that would like to be an integral part of baseball program. Also they believed that discipline-wise I was too strict.”

Conlin said during baseball season, he benched a player for two games for allegedly cheating in a class, and he forced another to sit out a game for leaving campus without permission. Two returning all-league players were benched on one occasion when they refused to obey coaches’ signs to take a pitch, Conlin said.

“I don’t think he was anything out of the ordinary discipline-wise, certainly not to the point where he created a situation that was unbearable to the kids,” Scoggins said. “I think what he was doing was right. A guy has to have his own moral standards and when you set out those things, you’ve got to be able to enforce them.”

Al Contrera, the Trojans’ All-CIF shortstop last season, called Conlin’s firing “a real disaster.”

“I had a lot of respect for him,” Contrera said. “I think (the firing) was because some kids started saying he coached too tough. But looking at other schools and other coaches, he was Mr. Nice Guy. He always supported everyone, even when they were doing bad.”

Conlin’s other University teams have been unusually successful. Before accepting the baseball job, he coached the track team in 1985, which increased in size from 70 to 135 athletes and recorded its first winning season in four years.

When he took over the wrestling team in 1985, it had its first winning season in eight years and Conlin was named Sea View League coach of the year.

Conlin, who coached a 31-game summer baseball schedule, said he regretted that he won’t be able to return to the program.

“I was looking forward to coaching the team,” said Conlin. “I felt this next team would probably go farther (in the 2-A division playoffs) than last years’ (which reached the second round). I’m disappointed I won’t be able to participate with those kids. With the time commitment our coaching staff made, I’m sorry I won’t be able to share in the results.”