WATSONVILLE — Watsonville High filled its coaching vacancies with a pair of familiar faces.
James Garza was hired to lead the school’s baseball program, and Zach Cook was tabbed to take over the girls basketball team, Watsonville Athletic Director Mark Northcutt recently told the Pajaronian.
Garza served as the head coach of the junior varsity baseball team for the last four seasons, but stepped in as the interim head coach of the varsity squad after the school dismissed Leroy Dozal just five games into his first season with the Wildcatz.
Cook was also a junior varsity coach at Watsonville in the past, running the girls team under coach Annette Guerrero before taking over the program at North Monterey County in 2007.
Additionally, Northcutt will be back as the head coach of the boys basketball program with assistants Mike Blum and Art Haduca flanking him.
The additions fill Watsonville’s final two coaching vacancies, and brings some stability to a pair of programs that were surprisingly left without a leader heading into the summer.
“We’re all filled, and we feel great about both hires,” Northcutt said.
After stepping in for Dozal last spring, Garza steadied the flailing ’Catz to help them finish fourth in the now-defunct Monterey Bay League Pacific division with a 10-8 record.
Watsonville had enough talent to beat runner-up Alvarez and third-place finisher Seaside, but could not overcome a tumultuous start to the season, and finished the year with a 10-14 overall record after losing seven of its last eight.
“I think last season was rewarding in a way that [Garza] wasn’t expecting,” Northcutt said. “I think it kind of got him thinking of what he could do as the head coach.”
Along with coaching the junior varsity team under Dozal and longtime coach James Gomez before him, Garza has coached youth baseball at multiple levels in his hometown for more than 20 years.
His experience and familiarity with the kids, Northcutt said, helped him rise above the other candidates.
“I don’t see it as something new. It’s not going to be anything new,” said Garza, who has also coached junior varsity basketball at Watsonville over the years. “It’ll be varsity, so that’s a little new, but coaching is nothing new to me.”
Garza, a 1989 Watsonville grad, said stepping in for Dozal last season gave him a small taste of the day-to-day grind of running a varsity baseball program.
That experience solidified his “love” for the game, and convinced him to throw his hat in the ring for the head coaching position at the end of the season.
“I definitely always wanted to be involved in coaching at the high school, but varsity is a little different than J.V.,” Garza said. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that has little to do with baseball… It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s a challenge I’m ready for. I’m excited.”
Garza said his son P.J., who was an assistant coach for Watsonville last season, will be part of his staff. Daniel Hernandez, a Watsonville alumnus who helped Garza last season, will run the junior varsity team, and also assist the varsity team.
“Having [Garza] and Daniel is big,” Northcutt said. “We ended up with two varsity-level coaches in our program.”
Watsonville, which will play in the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Mission division against Alisal, Carmel, Alvarez, King City, North Salinas, Pacific Grove and Soledad in the upcoming spring, graduated five players from last year’s team, but will have eight projected returning players, including senior catcher Dylan Vargas and senior outfielders James Sandoval and James Flota.
Garza said there are plenty of talented baseball players at the school this year, and his goal is to make sure he creates an environment in which the athletes want to play in.
“We have to get the players out there,” Garza said. “We have to get them to play, and we have to help them get better.”
Garza will have to wait until Jan. 29 to coach up his players.
Cook, however, is less than a month away from running his first practice, as the winter season starts on Oct. 29.
He said he’s excited to start the yearly process of bringing a group of players together and molding them into a team.
“That’s the one thing I missed the most, building up a program and developing players,” Cook said.
Cook takes over for Randy Braga, who stepped down during the summer because of issues with his health.
Braga, a three-time Central Coast Section champion coach at St. Francis of Watsonville, led the black and gold to a pair of winning seasons after taking over the team in the summer of 2016.
Last winter, Braga’s ’Catz finished 16-10 overall, and earned the program’s first CCS playoff win since the 2007-08 season.
Cook was no stranger to the CCS playoffs during his nine seasons as N.M.C.’s head coach, as the alumnus took the Condors to the postseason seven times before stepping down following the 2015-16 season.
Cook posted a 122-110 overall record in that time, and was named the league’s Coach of the Year a trio of times.
He served as an assistant for Palma’s lower levels last year.
“I’m impressed already,” Northcutt said. “I’ve seen him interact with the girls, and the people around the program… He does it the right way. He’s a professional.”
Watsonville graduated six players from last year’s group, including four starters, but projects to return six.
“I sense a lot of excitement already, and we have good numbers — there’s a lot of interest for basketball,” Cook said.
