Beckman's Lavalle is the baseball coach of the year

Kevin Lavalle always knew he would be a high school baseball coach.

"My earliest memories are of when my dad was coaching and I was the team bat boy in the 1970s and the '80s," Lavalle said. "High school baseball has been part of my life as long as I can remember."

His dad was Hi Lavalle, who coached CIF championship teams at Canyon and at Dominguez of Compton. Kevin is the baseball coach at Beckman.

Not only do Hi and Kevin Lavalle have baseball coaching in common. They also have been Orange County coaches of the year.

Kevin Lavalle is the county baseball coach of the year for the 2010 season. He led Beckman to a 15-0 record in the Pacific Coast League. After going to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 championship game in 2009, the Patriots went 27-2 this year and advanced to the Division 3 quarterfinals, where they lost to eventual champion Ocean View.

His father passed away in 2002. Kevin and Hi coached together as assistant coaches at Canyon for three seasons. Hi was county coach of the year in '92 at Canyon, where he was the school's first baseball coach, and then Hi stepped aside for Mike Najera to take over as head coach and Hi stayed on as an assistant. When Joe Hoggatt succeeded Najera, Kevin and Hi got to coach together some more.

Kevin said just about everything he does as a coach was learned from his father.

"Dad took teaching the game very seriously," Kevin said. "He enjoyed the practice part of it, and so do I. He would have a lot of problems with the number of games kids play today.

"We don't play a ton of games in the fall and winter because I like to practice, too. Baseball is not a natural sport. It has so many complexities to it, and kids need to practice to learn how to play."

Lavalle just finished his third year at Beckman. Although this year's Beckman team concluded its season two rounds before the '09 team did, he said the 2010 Patriots compare favorably with last year's group.

"I think we were just as good as last year," he said, "and this year maybe we were more consistent, too."

Lavalle, 37, is married with a 12-year-old son – Ryan DiMaggio Lavalle. Kevin is a graduate of Servite, class of 1991.

He teaches world history at Beckman, where he hopes to make a long career out of high school baseball coaching just like his father did.

"I love this place," Lavelle said of Beckman. "It's an incredible school. I've got a beautiful gig here."