The Los Angeles Times reported the hiring of Coach Moore with this headline: “Los Alamitos has pulled off a coaching coup, hiring long-time Riverside Poly Coach Aaron Moore to take over its baseball program.” Your editors interviewed Coach Moore on Wednesday of this week and now there is an opportunity for parents, friends, and members of the community to meet in person the new man on the field.
Here is an edited transcript of your Editors interview with Aaron Moore, conducted on 7/15/09:
What attracted you to Los Alamitos?
“We have 6 high schools in our district. That was one of the appealing things that looked good to me about Los Alamitos…being the only high school in the district. I like to get in the community and do a lot of community things…all the little leagues and the pony leagues are the feeder programs into your high school. One of my strengths is working with 11, 12 year olds and get them excited about when they get to high school, they want to go to Los Alamitos High School. It’s a community deal where everybody is excited about the high school…when they’re 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, when you have 5 or 6 high schools in a city, you never know where a kid is going to go.”
What kind of programs for pre high school kids?
“We do a lot of instructional camps and even doing summer tournaments or Christmas time tournaments. We might use different parks and have a 12 year old division, a 14 and under division, and a 16 and under division which would play on the varsity field. It would be one big tournament throughout the whole city, and, what I am going to start doing is sports specific camps on a Saturday for 2 or 3 hours.”
What are your near term priorities or goals?
“It’s establishing a type of philosophy that I think has been pretty successful. We’re going to play extremely hard and we’re going to have a lot of fun. But, we’re going to get after it. We’re going to run and hustle with every position and we’re going to play the game extremely hard and compete at the highest level. Starting in the fall, we’re going to play the best” {teams in scrimmages}…I’m going to schedule Orange Lutheran, Matre Dei, and Chapel valley. That’s the expectation that I’m going to expect my players to play at. If we’re going to play in division 1, we’re going to play at the highest level. Expectations are going to be high right away.”
What would the people notice you have changed after 6 months?
“I think the biggest thing that they’re going to see different from the past teams at Los Al…is that we’re going to be one of those teams that never goes away. Never stop playing until the final out is played…weather we’re down by 10 or up by 10, we’re still going to go out and compete. Compete is a big word for me.
What about the relationship with the booster club and the parents?
“We’re going to all get on the same page and the number one thing to do is to support the baseball team. We’re there for the kids and we’re there for the school and we’re going to represent the school and the kids to the best of our ability…we’re going to get out there and Everything is going to be positive and we’re going to do the best that we can. They {the booster club} has been very receptive and very helpful in every way.”
How do you think your approach would differ from that of Mark Clabough?
“I’ve never met Mark, so I talked to him on the phone about 2 weeks ago to introduce myself. He’s going to teach on campus too…we’re going to sit down and talk and I’ll always listen to his points. He was there for 9 years so obviously he’s someone who is established and has an idea of the community and the league. This will be my nineteenth year and I kind of have an idea of what I’m doing and what I want to accomplish and I just take information from the outside and put it where I think it is best and go in that direction.”
{Hunter Cairns is a 14 year old Los Al High baseball player who, at a Los Al game on June 25 of this year, was hit in the heart by a pitch. The injury that resulted is rare, but often fatal. His life was saved by the quick application of CPR by his father and grandfather and the coincidental close by location of paramedics who used a defibrillator to get Hunter’s heart pumping. It has been reported that if Hunter did not receive CPR and the defibrillator treatment within 2 or 3 minutes of the accident, the injury would have been fatal.}
Have you ever run into a situation like that?
“No, the worse I’ve ever had is a broken leg from sliding into home plate.”
What about CPR certification and a defibrillator on site?
“I think it’s a CIF rule that all the coaches have to be CPR and emergency certified.”
(Coach Moore is CPR and emergency certified.)
What about defibrillators on site?
“If that’s something that can be on site and cost efficient, I think it would be great.”
Is that something that you will be looking into?
“I’m going to find out what the district policy is, but if that’s an option in our district and it’s going to benefit in a case like this…thank goodness there wasn’t a tragic loss…if we looked at having something like that, because this is what it can do, it can save somebody’s life.”
{The Los Alamitos Baseball Booster Club will hold a meet and greet wine tasting fundraiser this Saturday, July 18,2009, 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. According to president JoAnn Springer , the public is welcome and the $20.00 tickets can be purchased at the door without reservation. The event will be held at The Winery, 3379 E. Cerritos Ave. Los Alamitos, just passed the Sizzler. She said “We’re going to be pretty much outside, now that the coach is coming, we’re expecting a larger crowd.” Springer may be reached at 562 833 1527.}
regarding the wine tasting?
“I’m going to be able to meet the parents and introduce myself and they will be able to meet my family. I like to intermingle my family with my job. I have an 11 year old and a 7 year old that both play baseball and they hang around the park. That’s important to me…if I’m going to spend that much time with other people’s kids, that my kids are involved in it too.”
He concluded, “I’m really looking forward to it. I’m really excited, I think it’s a great opportunity, I think I can bring a lot of things to the school, and with the tradition of the school being such an athletic powerhouse, especially the football team, I think we can get the baseball team up to that level too.”
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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