Wigod Has Brought a Winning Attitude to Los Alamitos

Rob Wigod’s goals his first year as Los Alamitos baseball coach were simple.

Establish trust between the returning seniors and a new coaching staff. Make the playoffs. But most important of all, make the game fun.

“It was my impression that ‘fun’ was the big thing missing in this team,” Wigod said. “So I was determined that whatever we were involved in--practice, games, bus rides--we were going to enjoy it.”

Los Alamitos went on to enjoy its most successful season in years. Picked as an also-ran in preseason prognostications, the 19-10 Griffins captured their first Sunset League championship since 1979 and reached the Southern Section Division I quarterfinals, its deepest playoff run since reaching the 1973 Division I final.

For those accomplishments Wigod is The Times Orange County coach of the year over such other outstanding candidates as Servite’s Todd Cook, Valencia’s Mike Sheetz, Corona del Mar’s John Emme, Trabuco Hills’ Tim Ellis and Villa Park’s Tom Tereschuk.

“I’m humbled by the honor,” said Wigod, when notified of his selection.

Others saluted the choice.

“Rob didn’t screw that team up or let his ego get in the way,” said Irvine Coach Bob Flint, whose team lost two of three meetings to Los Alamitos, including the first-round Division I playoff game.

“The chemistry between Rob and that team was big league. You could see that they were having fun, but they also had a great demeanor. You could never tell if they were winning or losing. They just went about their business.”

Ending Los Alamitos’ league baseball championship drought was impressive enough. That Wigod did it with essentially the same team that missed the playoffs the past two seasons puts this season in perspective.

In his first season as head coach after spending the past 14 years as an assistant coach at Lakewood High, Wigod did not think he was stepping into a particularly difficult situation. But there were some tensions bubbling beneath the surface.

“We were an immature team that had spread out [into cliques] last year,” senior catcher Ryan Hanson said. “When we met for summer league, Coach told the incoming seniors we were going to lead the team, don’t worry about stuff off the field and we were going to have fun playing. And that’s what happened.

“He wasn’t a real yeller. He nurtured us. We needed that. We were like small children and he became like a father. He gave us confidence. He was the gel that brought us together.”

Junior first baseman Nick Fitzgerald, who led Los Alamitos in home runs (5) and RBIs (37) also gave Wigod high marks for relaxing the team.

“Last year we were so tense, so ‘mental,’ ‘ Fitzgerald said. “If we made an error it was the end of the world. Under Coach Wigod we didn’t have to play perfectly, we just had to play.”

Wigod also brought a fundamental change in the team’s approach to hitting. Unless the player at bat had two strikes on him and needed to protect the plate, he wanted the Griffins to lay off breaking pitches and only go after fastballs.

“That one was really hard,” Hanson said. “Usually all I saw was [curves].”

Success was not immediate. Los Alamitos won eight of its first 14 games despite lacking a couple of starters who were injured, then took a 10-0 pounding from El Toro in the Big West Tournament semifinal. Wigod sensed the season might hang in the balance.

“We had to play the third-place game [against Ocean View] right after that loss,” Wigod said. “I told the team to give me one game where the entire team was going to do it our way, to be disciplined at the plate and make pitchers get them out instead of giving away outs. Just do that for seven innings.”

Los Alamitos scored 12 runs in the first inning en route to a 14-1 victory. Then the Griffins won 11 of their last 13--including nine straight--before losing to Long Beach Wilson in the Division I quarterfinals.

“This is a season I will always remember,” Wigod said. “I had the help of some tremendous assistant coaches in Mike Stembridge, Gary Shelton and John Haygood. I had some really neat kids to coach. I’m very grateful to the seniors who were willing to accept a new coach and a new philosophy.”

And why not? Wigod brought Los Alamitos to a level of success it had not reached in more than 20 years.