1994 LOS ANGELES TIMES : All-Ventura Baseball Team : Coach of the Year : Turnabout is the Rio Mesa Way : Rich Duran: He guided Spartans in vault from worst to first.

You wouldn’t think Rio Mesa High Coach Richard Duran could be rattled by one last-place finish. This, after all, is a guy who has been around.

Around the globe.

Duran, The Times’ 1994 Ventura County coach of the year, played seven years of professional baseball, including two in Mexico and one in Japan, before coming back to coach at his alma mater.

Since returning, Duran has led the Spartans to five league titles in eight seasons. But the low point of Duran’s coaching career was a last-place finish in 1993.

Duran quickly made amends, leading the Spartans to a Channel League title and into the Southern Section Division II semifinals. Rio Mesa finished 21-7.

Consistency is Duran’s trademark, which makes it all the more understandable why a last-place finish would be intolerable. But Duran is not the type to fume at his players over their failures in 1993. He realized the team was young, and building toward a promising 1994.

Assistant Coach Ted Robison, who has been by Duran’s side all eight years at Rio Mesa, said Duran’s professional experience is one of the reasons he operates with such a steady hand.

“He’s very consistent,” Robison said. “Every year, whether we finish first or last, he’s consistent in his approach to coaching and his approach to the kids.”

Duran, 36, played at Cal Lutheran after graduating from Rio Mesa and was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers after they scouted him at the National Baseball Congress championships in Wichita, Kan., in 1978.

A first baseman, Duran played four seasons in the Brewer organization, but his career stalled at triple-A. It seems Duran was stuck behind Cecil Cooper, a five-time all-star with the Brewers, so he signed with the Ciudad Juarez Indians.

Ciudad Juarez won the Mexican League World Series in 1982, and Duran won the Mexican League batting title with a .377 average in 1983.

“It was my greatest experience in baseball,” Duran said of playing in Mexico. “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

But in 1984, Duran was “ready to experience something new,” he said, so he signed with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in Japan. Duran returned from Japan after the death of his father, and brought a broader appreciation for baseball with him.

“I think baseball is basically the same wherever you go,” he said. “I just think there are different emphases. Here in the States, the emphases are power and speed. In Japan, they emphasize the fundamentals. They are tremendous bunters and fielders, maybe not making the great Ken Griffey play, but always making the routine play and taking tremendous pride in that.”

Since returning to Rio Mesa, Duran has sent several players on to college or professional careers.

Among them are Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Bobby Ayala, Dmitri Young (a first-round pick of the St Louis Cardinals), Cardinal minor-league pitcher Derron Spiller and Mike Mitchell, a UCLA first baseman who signed this month with the New York Yankees.

1st-Team All-Stars Invited to Times’ Awards Ceremony

Players selected to the All-Valley and All-Ventura County baseball and softball teams are invited to a Times’ awards brunch Sunday at 9 a.m. at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills. The guest speaker is Rich Hill, baseball coach at University of San Francisco who formerly coached at Cal Lutheran.