Small Colleges / Alan Drooz : Zahn Finds Road From Anaheim to Newhall a Smooth One

By freeway, it’s not all that long a journey from Anaheim to Newhall. But the transition from successful pitcher for the California Angels to athletic director at The Master’s College could be like jumping from one world to another light years away.

For Geoff Zahn, it is something of a former-star trek. He has certainly gone where very few former pro athletes have gone before. So how does he like his new job, now that he’s gotten his feet wet at the NAIA level?

“I love it,” he said. “That’s not to say I don’t miss the game--but it’s not like my career was cut real short. I had 18 years in the majors. It’s a big change--the whole life style. Baseb1634495520happy. I’m doing what I want to do. I was fortunate to get a position like this so soon.”

Zahn oversees a small athletic department at the recently renamed school, formerly Los Angeles Baptist College. He said he does everything from budgeting and overseeing schedules to carrying ice at ballgames, but that his top priority is to make the school, which participates in eight sports, competitive in NAIA District III play. Some minor expansion is also planned--tennis will be added--but Zahn said: “We’re not really up to our level of competition.”

Zahn is also doing some hands-on work with the baseball team, acting as pitching coach and a general sounding board for that team and the other sports. “I feel being competitive on a major league level has afforded me the ability to know what level of competition is needed, and what kind of intensity athletes need to bring to it,” he said.

Zahn’s pitching career, which produced 111 major league victories, ended with surgery on his shoulder last September, and he began considering the suggestion of school President John MacArthur, who had discussed the athletic director’s position.

“The last couple of years playing I was very active in the chapel program,” Zahn said. “I wanted some work in the ministry, if I could, and I wanted to stay active in athletics if possible. I had known Dr. MacArthur for a long time. He said to think about it. When I had the operation, I did.”

At The Master’s, he combines both worlds. Zahn, who will turn 40 Friday, said his surgically dictated departure from baseball made the transition relatively easy. “I prayed when I got out of the game it would be something abrupt,” he said. “I was fortunate to have an injury that, after the operation, I had a pretty good inclination I would not be back. That made it a whole lot easier to go to games this summer. I never had any inclination that I should be the one out there.”

He said his new career has been rewarding. “I really like the administrative stuff. I hire and help out the coaches, I verify the schedules, verify the contracts. I look over the budget, that’s the biggest part of the job. I find myself doing a lot of things I’m sure some athletic directors don’t (at bigger schools), like carrying ice at the ballgames. But I enjoy that.”