DOUG DEATS

Steve Virgen

When Doug Deats played baseball at Costa Mesa High, he was not all

that talented, he said. But he loved the game and it was his time

with the Mustangs that helped him decided to become a teacher and a

coach.

He has been pleased with that decision, especially since he has

had the opportunity to work at his alma mater.

“You always have pride where you work at and you want your program

to be good,” Deats said. “When it happens to be the school you

graduated from, you really take pride in it.”

Deats coached the Mustangs’ baseball team from 1994-97. After

coaching on the lower levels at Corona del Mar High and working as an

assistant with the Orange Coast College softball program, he returned

to the varsity head-coaching ranks in 2000 when he assumed the helm

at Estancia for just more than two seasons.

He began his second tenure as Costa Mesa coach last season.

“I’m not going anyplace else,” Deats said. “I’m dropping my

anchor.”

Deats has found a home at Costa Mesa, from which he graduated in

1980. He played on the varsity team for two years as an outfielder.

Learning from coaches Bob Sheehan and Jim Gmur, Deats chose coaching

as a career. Deats’ parents were both teachers and they also

influenced him.

In 1991, Deats began teaching at Costa Mesa and, two years later,

he started to revitalize the Mustangs’ baseball program. Before

Deats’ arrival as the Mustangs’ coach, Costa Mesa went 14 years

without a playoff appearance.

However, Deats guided teams to the school’s first back-to-back

trips to the CIF Southern Section playoffs in 1995 and ’96. Above

those experiences, Deats pointed to the social aspect with his

players as the primary highlight of his time with the Mustangs.

“More than anything has been some of the relationships you form

with the kids,” Deats said. “I’ve been fortunate to work with some

really great kids. I’ve been to weddings and I’ve been to baptisms.

To me, that is the most important thing, the relationships with the

kids. A few years out of high school, you don’t remember what your

record is. But when they remember me and the time they spent here,

that’s great. A highlight for me is when kids have bought in to what

I try to do and have stayed in touch.”

Amid teaching and coaching, Deats’ family has been his top

priority. Deats, the latest honoree of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of

Fame, lives in Huntington Beach with his wife, Jacqueline and three

children: Lauren, 9, and 4-year-old twins, Megan and Michael.

“All in all, I’ve enjoyed it and I feel very fortunate to be where

I’m at,” Deats said. “I have a great wife and three healthy kids.

When it’s all said and done, that’s the most important thing.”

Coaching at Costa Mesa wasn’t what Deats had originally planned

for his career, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Deats

wanted to be a coach in the college ranks. His first experience as a

coach came at Redlands University, where he had played and then

became a graduate assistant.

In 1985, Deats helped guide Redlands to a berth in the Division

III College World Series, as the Bulldogs knocked off La Verne to

advance.

“That was very exciting and rewarding,” Deats said. “It happened

so early in my career that I don’t think I really appreciated it.”

From Redlands, Deats was an assistant at Long Beach State and

later Pomona College. He also coached at La Verne before he broke

into the prep ranks, first at Warren High in Downey.

He had taught in the Chino school district and coached the

freshman football team before going to Warren, where he first coached

baseball.

“My emphasis was to do college coaching,” Deats said. “It just

wasn’t working out. You could only be poor for so long.”

Deats also coached lower-level football at Costa Mesa when Myron

Miller was the head coach of the varsity squad.

“[Miller] was a great mentor,” Deats said. “He taught me a lot of

things. He has a great work ethic. Nobody outworks him. He just has

an attitude of coaching and he did what he thought was best.

Hopefully, I learned that.”

Deats said he remains at peace working at Costa Mesa and he plans

to continue his career there.

“Wherever you’re coaching, you always want to do a good job,” he

said. “Overall the kids are fun to be around and they are pretty

polite.”