High Praise
July 3rd, 2007, 5:08 pm · Post a Comment · posted by barstowsports
I tried to contact former Barstow High School baseball coach John DeForge while working on my story about Frank Maldonado, but DeForge was catching up on some golf in Silver Lakes and wasn’t able to get a hold me until after the article ran. However, he did have some interesting things to say about Maldonado, the former Barstow Community College assistant coach who has won back-to-back Division II World Series with the University of Tampa
“He was one of the really, really special players I’ve coached,” DeForge said. “You don’t get very many Frank Maldonados in your career.”
DeForge coached the Aztecs from 1990-1996 and currently coaches baseball at Centennial High School in Corona. He got a call from Maldonado about a half hour after the won it’s second consecutive Division II and still talks to him regularly.
Maldonado wasn’t a player with loads of athletic ability, DeForge said. He wasn’t big, and he wasn’t naturally strong. Maldonado, who played as a middle infielder, had a strong work ethic, though. DeForge worked with Maldonado on his hitting stroke, averaging between 200 and 300 swings in a day.
“He stayed late and got there early,” DeForge said. “He was a sponge. I’ll tell you, he just soaked everything up. He just wanted to learn.”
Maldonado began laying his coaching foundation while playing for the Aztecs. Although he still had stops at Victor Valley Community College and Cal Lutheran as a player, DeForge saw a coach in the making. The two share some hitting philosophies that Maldonado uses for players today, and DeForge said he feels proud to have contributed to Maldonado’s career.
“He was a coach on the field when I was there,” DeForge said. “He was practically coaching when he was a high school player.
“The really, really special ones make the players around them better. He’s an awful special player.”
— Matthew Peters
