Porto Joins Moorpark as Assistant : Moorpark High Loses Coach to Junior College

Mario Porto, who last season guided Moorpark High to the baseball playoffs for the first time in 42 years, has resigned as coach to become an assistant at Moorpark College.

Porto will join the staff of Ken Wagner, who was hired as Raider coach last week.

“I coached with Mario in several all-star games and have known him for a long time,” said Wagner, who formerly coached at Camarillo High. “We’re lucky he wants to coach with us. He felt, as I do, that it was a good opportunity to move up and coach at the college level.”

Wagner earlier had announced that Mel Bannon, his assistant at Camarillo, also would be joining the Moorpark staff.

Porto, who teaches at Community High, a continuation school in Moorpark, was coach of Moorpark High’s baseball team for four seasons.

He was selected Ventura County Division II Coach of the Year by the county coaches’ association last season after leading the Musketeers to a 15-7 record and a second-place tie with Fillmore in the Tri-Valley League.

Moorpark loses only three seniors from last season. Frank Fernandez, an All-Southern Section selection at shortstop, is among those expected to return.

Porto said he recommended that Dave Rhoades, the Moorpark High junior varsity coach of three years, be named as his successor.

“Dave knows all the kids and he is very good at what he does,” Porto said.

In other coaching moves involving Valley-area coaches, Brian York has resigned as baseball coach at North Hollywood High after five seasons and said that he will pursue a position as a professional scout or college assistant.

York, who serves as a part-time scout for the Oakland A’s, will remain at the school as a teacher.

Pam Walker, the girls’ basketball coach at Hart High, said that she will take a year’s leave of absence in hopes of becoming a part-time assistant coach for the UCLA women’s basketball team.

Walker guided Hart to the Southern Section 5-A Division championship last season.