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Mike Gerakos with former Major Leaguer Garrett Atkins and Coach Chris Conlin at the Uni alumni game in January 2022. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Mike Gerakos, a long-time friend and former coaching associate of Coach Chris Conlin, became emotional Saturday when talking about Conlin, who died on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 after an illness.
Conlin, 71, had many coaching assignments over the years, including at University High School as head baseball coach where Gerakos was an assistant for him. Gerakos was also a head coach at Uni for one year before eventually moving on to become an assistant coach at Corona del Mar.
Before joining the staff, Gerakos was head coach at UC Irvine.
“Over the course of his career, he impacted so many people,” Gerakos said after Corona del Mar’s non-league victory last Saturday. “The athletes that he coached, football, wrestling, track and field and baseball, the coaches that he mentored, (Jeff) Sears, Jairo Ochoa, I could go on and on.
“He wanted the players to play the sport correctly whatever sport it was. But he also wanted them to be accountable off the field and he was trying to go beyond just the sport and make them better people and make them good parents when the time comes.
“After his issue on Jan. 3 (when he became ill), so many former players reached out and coaches and that was just the tip of the iceberg of people that he impacted because he wore so many hats at Uni, he was athletic director, he coached wrestling, football, baseball and helped with some clubs like the Best Buddies Club.”
Gerakos worked with Conlin for 25 years.
“We taught PE together so we were always together in the office,” he said. “We were talking baseball or trying to figure out the best lineup and we would just go round and round and Coach (Steve) Scoggin would be laughing us telling us, ‘you guys said the same thing yesterday.’
“It was sort of special he got to coach his son Kevin and I got to coach my son Nick. Being part of the staff was really good. Being a head coach (at UCI) for 12 years, he made the transition to assistant coach really easy for me and welcomed me at the University family when I sort of needed a home. Things worked out well for me and he was a big part of that getting me on the right track.
“He asked his players to compete and fight and he did everything that he could to make it back, it was out of his power. He’s up there with Coach Sears second guessing each other and I’m sure they’re talking baseball.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com