Simi Valley Baseball Has Been Reduced to a Weird Science

Less than a month into baseball season, the coach at Simi Valley High is stirring up dirt.

But then, somebody has to sweep the dugout. Not to mention chalk the field, mend broken sprinkler heads and generally make the diamond sparkle.

“The amount of time I spend on field maintenance was something I did not anticipate,” said Tom D’Errico, the Pioneers’ first-year coach. “Wearing all the hats.”

For D’Errico (pronounced Duh-REEK-oh), 47, the oversight was understandable, considering he signed up for scrutiny as successor to Mike Scyphers, whose final days of a highly successful, often controversial 17-year reign led to a clean-sweeping of a different sort.

Scyphers, who had eight Marmonte League titles and two nationally ranked teams at Simi Valley, was forced to resign last spring after two tumultuous seasons filled with accusations of financial and disciplinary improprieties. Scyphers was suspended for seven games in 1994 and was accused last season of exerting influence on a player to transfer to Simi Valley.

With Scyphers out of the dugout, the dust has settled and D’Errico comes into focus. But even D’Errico didn’t figure on the spotlight being so bright.

“I was stunned by that,” D’Errico said. “[Members of the media] calling me all the time. . . . I don’t see, honestly, why people want to talk to me. I’m not that important.”

D’Errico, a 20-year science teacher at Simi Valley and assistant for four years with the school’s softball team, is quite the opposite of the fiery Scyphers--an attribute that likely contributed to his being selected over at least three other candidates.

D’Errico was hired despite having no experience as a high school baseball coach. By his own description, he presides over the Pioneers with a “laid-back” approach, giving players more autonomy.

Players call their own defenses and D’Errico defers to his catcher on the selection of pitches.

“He lets us dictate the game more,” said Robert Gonzalez, a senior outfielder and three-year varsity member. “Scyph was more like, ‘It’s my game, it’s gonna be my way and that’s it.’ ”

Said D’Errico: “I didn’t want to barge in here and disturb the chemistry the boys have. We work on things and we get things done. I make the pitching changes, call the bunts and hit-and-runs and things like that.”

D’Errico, affable and popular among faculty and students, is quick to note he is not Scyphers.

“I’ve had people tell me a third-base coach should be more active and animated, and I’m not,” D’Errico said. “It’s just not me.”

Unfortunately--so far, at least--the Pioneers hardly resemble themselves, either.

Simi Valley (3-4-1) dropped to 0-3 in league play with Friday’s 8-4 loss to Newbury Park. Never in Scyphers’ tenure did the Pioneers lose even their first two league games, and never did Scyphers suffer a losing season.

D’Errico, who likens his plight to “a lounge act trying to follow Elvis,” is keenly aware of perceptions. He was hired because he was on campus, because he would steer clear of controversy.

“I hear, ‘Science teacher? What does he know about baseball?,’ ” D’Errico said.

D’Errico is equally aware that he ultimately must answer for the Pioneers’ performance.

All he is asking for is a chance. And a little time.

“I figured I’d have to prove it out here,” he said. “If we go 5-20, maybe for one year I could get away with saying, ‘It wasn’t me, it was the kids who had trouble learning the system,’ and I said that in the interview. But I’ll know at the end of two, maybe three years, tops, whether or not I can cut it.

“This school has been a champion too long. If it isn’t working, I’ll step down and get out of the way.”

Matt D’Errico, a 1991 Simi Valley graduate and former Pioneer third baseman, assists his father.

Matt said his father has been more concerned with measuring up than he has shown.

“There were some sleepless nights,” Matt D’Errico said. “He never came out and said it, but I know.”

Scyphers, still a teacher at Simi Valley, was helpful during the transition, D’Errico said. But the former coach is uncomfortable attending games.

“He doesn’t need me looking over his shoulder,” Scyphers said. “I wish him the best of luck.”

As for Scyphers’ resignation, D’Errico described the circumstances as “unfortunate.”

“Mike is a good man, a decent man,” D’Errico said. “Maybe somewhere along the line he ran into some people who, for whatever reason, didn’t approve of what was going on and it was just one of those things that, unfortunately, snowballed.”

D’Errico hasn’t heard any criticism but that could change if the Pioneers don’t improve.

“They can criticize my calls on the field,” D’Errico said. “But I hope they never attack me or say that I was a bad man or harmed the boys in any way. If I’m not a good coach, they may lose games. But I hope [people] never think I did something to ruin their love of baseball.”