Lee the new man in charge of Westlake baseball team

STEVE AMES/Acorn Newspapers READY TO TEACH—Mike Lee coached at Newbury Park High for three seasons before moving on to Santa Paula last year. This season, Lee’s in charge of getting a talented Westlake squad back to the top of the Marmonte League standings. Mike Lee has taken the reins of the Westlake High baseball program, replacing Josh Eby.

After three seasons as head coach, Eby resigned during the summer to become the dean of attendance at Newbury Park High. Eby’s ’05 Warriors were 13-15 overall, 8-7 in the Marmonte League.

Lee, who served as head coach of the Newbury Park Panthers from 2001-03 and of the Santa Paula High Cardinals last season, worked with the Warriors during the fall baseball season, Oct. 8 through Dec. 3, in preparation for the spring season.

A Thousand Oaks resident, Lee will continue to teach health and physical education at Newbury Park High.

He earned his bachelor of science degree in physical education and kinesiology from Cal Poly SLO in 1997, his teaching credentials in P.E., health and English also from Cal Poly in 1998, and his master of arts degree in education administration from Cal State Northridge in 2001.

As he takes over, Lee said he can tell the Westlake team is thirsty for knowledge about baseball. The players want to improve their skills as they begin getting ready for the spring season through the daily baseball class and weekend fall schedule games, he said.

“They want to get better,” he said. “They take this as an opportunity. They take scout ball as an opportunity. They take what the coaches have to say to all get better. This group has been together for quite some time, so they’re ready and that’s translating over to the field. They’re ready to play.”

Among the players Lee will have on the 2006 varsity are 10 returnees: seniors catcher Stephen Notaro, pitcher/infielder Nick Slezak, infielders Eric Morrison and Jake Salas, outfielder/pitcher Jake Fiss, outfielders Zach Berman, Randy Harmala and Jeff Rapoport; junior infielder/catcher Jason Barmasse and sophomore outfielder/infielder Cutter Dykstra.

“They’ve been playing on the same and different teams since participation in Little League and other organized youth baseball leagues,” Lee said. “It’s a huge help. It makes my job easier. I don’t teach them a whole lot. More, we work on refining certain skills and getting them up to the next level.”

At Santa Paula, Lee had to do a lot more teaching of fundamentals than at Westlake.

“That’s what made me a better coach,” Lee said. “I do focus on the fundamentals. It’s nice when you show up and these guys are already three, four steps ahead of where you think they are. You get to move a little faster.”

Under Lee’s guidance in 2001, the Newbury Park Panthers won a share of the league title and made their first playoff appearance since 1994.

He was named 2002 Marmonte League Coach of the Year. During the 2003 campaign, the Panthers, despite key injuries, were in the playoff hunt all season.

At Santa Paula, Lee said he was in an entirely different environment with Victorian homes, a very small community, good families and a school that involves the community.

“I had not worked in a community like that before,” he said. “It was very positive. I enjoyed it.”

The Cardinals (12-15, overall, 8-4 in the Frontier League) took second place in league, losing to eventual league champion Malibu, 14-2, in the regular season finale.

Santa Paula earned a firstround CIF-SS Division V playoff road victory over the La Salle Lancers of Pasadena, 6-3. It was only the third time in the past 15 years that Santa Paula had won a playoff game. The playoff road led to a home game second-round loss to the No. 2 seed St. Bonaventure Seraphs, 13-2.

Through his experience at Newbury Park and Santa Paula, the coach said his approach to coaching has changed.

“I think I am a more patient coach,” Lee said. “I think I am a more effective coach than I had been. What hasn’t changed is that I am still a player’s coach. I still focus on the players. I still understand it’s their program that I’m working for them.

“In the end, no matter who you are working with, you are trying to bring them up to a certain level and help them meet their individual goals—which I think will happen this year,” the coach said.

Lee said he appreciates the help that Eby has provided to make the transition from the Ebycoached Warriors to the Leecoached Warriors.

“Josh and I have spoken frequently,” Lee said. “He’s been a tremendous help. He was one of the coaches I respected the most when we were both in the league. He’s been very helpful in terms of helping me get my feet wet and tell me where to find things and who to contact.

“He’s just been a tremendous resource,” Lee said. “He’s set aside his very busy job to give me a few minutes, too, which was very important. He did it out of respect for these guys, too. He loves them and thought very highly of them, too. He wanted to make sure they were taken care of, too.”

Lee said that going from CIFSS Division V Santa Paula to Division I Westlake is jumping to a place where players are involved in scout ball and they have their own coaches and eight or nine potential (NCAA) Division I, II and III players in the program.

“It’s very comfortable,” he said. I started off here. I went to school in Thousand Oaks. I coached at Newbury Park. It’s what’s familiar to me. It’s what I like to do. I like to use those connections and help the kids out.

“The level of competition is much different. Santa Paula battled and competed. Here you don’t have a weak spot in the lineup. You don’t have a weak pitcher on the mound. It’s a different level here.”

Lee said he saw a few games the past two seasons and followed the Marmonte League teams more closely through the newspapers.

“Part of me has always been in the Marmonte League and I still followed what went on,” Lee said. “I know Westlake had a very good year.

“Westlake. It’s one of the best programs in Southern California. This is a dream job,” Lee said. “I don’t know too many coaches who would not want to coach at Westlake, with everything that has been done by the previous coaches, I feel very lucky, very lucky.”