SEASIDE – Citing a lack of interest, Seaside High has dropped its baseball program for the 2022 season.
The program, which has been around since the inception of the school in 1963, didn’t field a baseball team last year because of the pandemic. Just one player had signed up for this season, which was scheduled to begin on Jan. 31.
“We don’t have enough kids,” Seaside athletic director Alex Jennings said. “I had maybe five kids come talk to me about it. We made a decision this week to drop it for this year.”
During the Spartans last season in 2020, in which it played just one game before the pandemic shutting down all spring sports, the roster hovered around 15 players.
“Traditionally we have never been really strong in baseball,” Jennings said. “Our numbers have continued to go down. I do think the pandemic has something to do with it.”
Stevenson coach Nick Wilcox was stunned when informed that a baseball program with more than 50 years of tradition was keeping its bats and helmets in storage for the spring.
“It’s concerning,” Wilcox said. “I’m sure not playing last year had an impact. Technically that’s two lost years from when the pandemic shut down spring sports in 2020. It’s such a game of repetition. You need innings and at-bats.”
Interest in some sports has been slow to return at Seaside since most programs were allowed to resume last spring by the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District.
“There’s been a shift in our sports culture here,” Jennings said. “We are even seeing it with our girls’ basketball program. There are seven kids in the entire program.”
Three years ago, behind current Sacramento State guard Jordan Olivares, Seaside won its first-ever Central Coast Section Division IV girls basketball title.
The Spartans baseball team was slated to compete this spring in the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Cypress Division. Their last game was a 9-3 non-league win on March 3, 2020.
Seaside hasn’t won a league title since 1981. Its last playoff appearance was in 2013. Before the pandemic, it had gone 38-35 in the last three seasons.
“When we faced them in 2019, there was some talent,” Wilcox said. “Maybe having not played in the last two years had an impact in terms of confidence for the younger players. And kids are finding other things to do other than sports.”
The program has produced some big names. Current Washington pro football coach Ron Rivera was an all-leaguer in 1981, while David Norman was signed by the Atlanta Braves in 1989. Five players have made The Herald’s All-County baseball team since 2001.
“We share a lot of our kids with other sports,” Jennings said. “We tried. There is just no interest. I told our principal we’re not going to have baseball. We’ll come back next year and try and revive it.”
Jennings made one last attempt last week to gauge interest, with little change, ending hope of at least fielding a varsity program.
“I feel you need at least 13 kids to have a team,” Jennings said. “I’ve watched our girl’s basketball coach play with five kids in a game. I didn’t want to see that in baseball. Honestly, it’s not the only program on campus that is concerning.”
Seaside had not hired a baseball coach yet.
Interest in baseball has waned in other places as well. Marina dropped its program in 2019 after a lack of interest following 46 straight losses. The hope is their program will resurface this spring for the first time in three years.
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January 13, 2022 at 04:21AM
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Seaside High drops its baseball program - Monterey Herald
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