GRANADA HILLS – The Granada Hills baseball program honored each of its CIF L.A. City Section Championship teams at Darryl Stroh Field before hosting its alumni game on Saturday, Feb. 15.
Fifty years ago, the Highlanders captured the first of five section titles under Stroh. After winning in 1975, Granada Hills added championships in ‘76, ‘78, ‘79 and ‘84.
Stroh — a coach often remembered as a disciplinarian who required players to maintain a clean-cut look that excluded things like long hair or earrings — found himself surrounded by former student-athletes who had nothing but fond memories of playing for him. Even if they remember playing for him was anything but easy.
“Maybe when we were here playing, he wasn’t our favorite coach of all time, because he was pretty tough on us,” said Dave Schmidt, who was on the ‘75 squad and eventually went on to have a 12-year Major League Baseball career.
“What he was doing was trying to get us to a playing level he knew that we were capable of,” Schmidt continued. “So he demanded that. And when we didn’t give it to him, he let us know.”
Schmidt, who traveled from Sarasota, Florida, for the event, was one of nearly two dozen championship-team players who were part of the pregame celebration.
Carlos Fuentes and Jeff Fuller were co-captains on the first championship team and Tim Collins won twice as a player and once as part of Stroh’s coaching staff. They were on hand for the event.
“I wasn’t prepared for this today,” said Stroh. “There’s a lot more guys here than I ever thought would come. And there are guys here I haven’t seen since ‘75 or maybe a year or two after that. We have guys out from Florida and Texas. People are taking their vacations to be a part of it. It’s amazing. I’m real honored and want to thank Coach (Matt) Matuszak for having us here.”
Fuentes went on to play baseball at Cal State Northridge before a lengthy high school coaching career that included stops on Stroh’s staff before tenures at Harvard-Westlake and Chaminade. Now he is serving as an assistant for Matuszak.
He used Saturday’s celebration to deliver a message to the current players.
“I told these kids that every ingredient of every championship team is love,” said Fuentes. “The guys have got to love each other, and have got to love doing this together. This was a bunch of guys who love each other, coming together and showing that at Granada Hills we’re a family.
“When you win a championship, nobody can take that away from you. You’ve done it, you’ve earned it and that’s a memory you keep for your life. And this event was the testimony of that. We all came together because this is ours. This is something we earned, and we’ll have it for the rest of our lives.”