Dave Serrano (baseball coach)

College coach infobox
Name = Dave Serrano


Caption =
DateOfBirth =
Birthplace =
DateOfDeath =
Sport = College Baseball
College = Cal State Fullerton
Title = Head coach
CurrentRecord = 0-0-0 (.000)
OverallRecord = 114-66-1 (.633)
Awards = Baseball America National Coach of the Year (2007)
Championships = None
Coach = N
CoachYears =
2005-2007
2007-present
CoachTeams =
UCI (Head Coach)
Cal State Fullerton (Head Coach)

Dave Serrano is the current head coach of the Cal State Fullerton baseball team.

Playing career

Serrano graduated from Cerritos High School in 1982 and pitched two seasons at Cerritos College. He went 12-1 and earned JC All-American honors in 1985 while leading the Falcons to a 39-5 record and a state championship. Serrano then pitched for Cal State Fullerton in 1986, recording a 3-4 mark with one save in 15 appearances. He earned his bachelor's degree from Trinity College and University.

Coaching career

He began his coaching career as an assistant to George Horton at Cerritos College in 1988. He succeeded Horton for the 1991 season after Horton left to become associate head coach to Augie Garrido at Cal State Fullerton. Serrano returned to assistant coaching duties for 1992-94 for the Falcons before going to Tennessee, where he served two seasons as pitching coach for Rod Delmonico. The Volunteers went 97-36 and made their first trip to Omaha in 44 years in 1995, when they were twice routed by Fullerton's third national championship team.

Serrano would become the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for former Titan head coach Horton and the Titans for the 1997 through 2004 seasons. During Serrano's 8-year tenure at Fullerton, the Titans went 356-154-1 (.698) and were in the NCAA Tournament every season. They won six Big West Conference championships, four NCAA Regionals and four NCAA Super Regionals to earn four trips to Omaha.

Every one of Serrano's Fullerton recruiting classes was ranked in the nation's Top 20. He also has nurtured a long list of pitchers who went on to play professionally, including Chad Cordero. He tutored six conference pitchers of the year and of the 25 All-American players at Fullerton during his tenure, 15 were pitchers.

He left after the Titans' fourth national championship to become head coach at UC Irvine, where he compiled a 114-66-1 (.633) record over three seasons and took the Anteaters to their first College World Series appearance in 2007. Their 47-17-1 season earned Serrano national coach of the year honors from Baseball America, which had ranked him as the nation's top assistant coach in 2004 with the Titans. He developed three more All-American pitchers at UCI.

After being hired to replace Horton, Serrano came under criticism for his degree qualification. Serrano received an online Bachelor's degree from Trinity University, which many on the CSU Fullerton campus have questioned. He has since been supported by campus administration.

Personal

He and his wife, Tracy, have three sons: Kyle (12), Zachary (10) and Parker (4).