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Cypress Coach John Weber looks on as the Saints take infield practice. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Long-time Cypress High School baseball coach John Weber has celebrated many achievements during his tenure.
Weber has led the Centurions to numerous league titles, including a share of 10 consecutive league crowns, celebrated two CIF titles and has coached a number of players who have moved on to the Major Leagues.
Former Centurions David Fletcher (Atlanta Braves), Dominic Fletcher (Chicago White Sox) and Jarren Duran (Boston Red Sox) are on Major League rosters. Dominic Fletcher and Duran have been starting for their teams.
Weber celebrated another achievement recently when he celebrated his 400th career victory.
“It’s obviously a culmination of a lot of things, one is longevity and two, a lot of hard work with a lot of people …. it takes all of us to try and make these things happen,” Weber said in a recent interview after capturing No. 400.
Weber, 55, now in his 19th year at Cypress, put the 400 win mark in perspective, reflecting on former Santa Ana College baseball coach Don Sneddon, who died recently.
“I played for Coach (Don) (Sneddon) and I coached there for 10 years and he just passed away and my phone has been blowing up from ex players with so much support and love for Coach Sneddon and not one time did one guy say, ‘I can’t believe he won twelve hundred games’ or whatever it was,” Weber said.
“So it’s really not about the number as much as it is the connections, those relationships with me and the players, my coaches and players, with me and my coaches and having the ability to go to baby showers and go to weddings and to do all of those things that this 400 wins process has been a part of is way more important than the 400 wins.
“It’s all just kind of a by-product of the love and passion that we all have in doing what we do here.”
Weber said many have contributed to the 400 wins.
“I didn’t win 400 games, I didn’t play one game, we won 400 games, we is a lot of people, like that parent you just saw, he just congratulated me on the 400, and I’ve had two of his sons in my program and he’s been around for a lot of those wins, he’s just as important as I am to those wins, the way he raised his kid and allows him to then play for me and we get to do the things we do within that environment,” Weber said.
Weber said he’s proud of the players who have gone on to the Major Leagues and the estimated 15 currently playing Division 1 college baseball.
“Is that part of the process? Absolutely. Is that what we strive to do with our players to help them get to the next level? Absolutely we do,” he said. “But going to David Fletcher’s wedding is way more important to me than him being a big leaguer. Those kinds of things are way more important.”
Weber is also sharing is advice on coaching to younger coaches.
“As an old guy, I try to pass on to young coaches, we get into this coaching game and secretively we all want to win, and it becomes about us, not that we’re selfish about it, but it’s like, ‘I have to leave this legacy of wins and our success is by these wins,’ and I was super guilty of that, I wanted to be better than Coach Sneddon and Coach (George) Horton, I wanted to do that at my level, I can’t compare each other because they’re at that level and they’re at the high school level,” he said.
“But as you grow and you got older, you realize, that’s not what it is all, it’s my relationship with Coach Horton, it’s my relationship with Coach Sneddon, it’s my relationship with those players that I coached when I was there; my teammates that were there when I played, that’s what it’s all about, that’s what life is about, right?”
This year’s Cypress team is in a familiar spot. In the final week of the season, Cypress is battling for an Empire League title. The Centurions (16-10-1, 7-1) need to win both games of a league series against Pacifica (18-6, 8-0) to win the title. The teams play Tuesday at Cypress and Thursday at Pacifica.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs for sure,” Weber said. “It’s a very young group, we return Nick Montgomery as our only every day starter, and then we return Wyatt Rosales who is our only pitcher with any innings at all, it’s been some trial and error, it’s been kind of a little bit of a difficult task, something we haven’t really had to do over the years. We’ve had changeover for sure, but the changeover to this drastic is something we’ve never really dealt with.
“We still leave our standard at what is has to be and it’s our job as coaches to get our kids to that level, and if we don’t do that, and we haven’t done that 100 percent, it’s really the coaches fault, it’s not the players’ fault.”
Weber said he still enjoys coaching, but isn’t sure how much longer he will coach, pointing out questions he’s often asked and the answers he has given.
“People ask me how much longer do you have? What I can tell you is I think I have six more years to teach. Are you going to coach all the way through? I don’t know. Are you going to coach after retirement? I don’t know. Right now, I enjoy doing it and when I don’t enjoy doing it, I will quit.
“It could be before I retire (from teaching), it could be after I retire. I have no idea, I do love spending the time before the game with Jake (Haney), he does a great job here at Crean (Lutheran), so I love this competitiveness, I like him, I like getting after it with him, I like getting after it with my players. That’s the day to day reasons why you do it, but that’s all part of building those relationships, that trust.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
