Softball/Baseball Coach Milestones 2025

Bullard of Fresno baseball coach Tom Donald (left) holds plaque in front of banner to celebrate the 600th win of his career. At right, longtime Paraclete of Lancaster softball coach Margaret Neill speaks at event in which field at the school was named for her. Photos: @BullardSports / X.com & Megan Widick / Antelope Valley Press.


State record coaching lists for softball and baseball have now all been updated through the 2025 season and here’s a look at the most significant milestone wins & championships that were celebrated. For softball, Rob Weil of Los Alamitos has moved into the top five on the all-time wins list and Norco’s Rick Robinson won 28 more times, including state’s No. 1 ranking, after getting his 700th win in his first game. For baseball, Daniel Maye from Royal of Simi Valley and Tom Donald from Bullard of Fresno both won 600th games. Go inside as well to see which baseball coach moved up the most on the all-time list.

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SOFTBALL MILESTONES 2025

Margaret Neill (Paraclete, Lancaster)
The good news for Neill was what happened on May 20 when a new scoreboard was unveiled at the Paraclete softball field that also christened the field being named in her honor. She deserves it after completing her 45th season as head coach. The bad news in a way is that the season was over for the Spirits at the time. They were 23-2-1 overall, but under new rules by the CIF Southern Section were bumped way up to the D1 bracket and lost in the first round. With the previous system, Paraclete might have repeated as CIFSS D4 champions. Neill has 888 career wins and is looking to become just the second head coach in state history to get to 900 next season.

Rob Weil of Los Alamitos keeps moving up on the all-time state list and went up four more spots during the 2025 season. Photo: ExtraInningSoftball.com.


Rick Robinson (Norco)
A 6-3 victory over Mater Dei of Santa Ana in the very first game of the season gave Robinson 700 wins for his career, making him just the 15th in state history acheive that milestone. With a team that he had, much more was expected and his girls delivered. They won the CIFSS D1 championship with a victory vs El Modena of Orange and ended the season with 29 wins and the state’s No. 1 ranking. Robinson was able to pass four of those other 14 coaches on the all-time list with the extra wins and might be able to get up into the top five all-time with another similar season in 2026. He’s been the head coach at Norco since 1995 after starting his career with five seasons at Corona Centennial.

Mary Starksen (Warren, Downey)
It takes 500 wins to get onto the all-time state list, but Mary’s total was not reported she notched No. 600 this season. The Bears got her the milestone win by shutting out Bellflower High, 11-0. They went on to win the Gateway League title and ended 20-13 with a loss to Long Beach Poly in the CIFSS D4 championship. Starksen completed the 39th season of being softball head coach at Warren. Counting forward from the 600th win, Mary’s total stopped at 609 after the 2025 season.

Mike Southworth (Colton)
After a difficult resignation early on in the 2020 season at previous school Chino Hills (and just a week before the COVID pandemic really took off), Southworth came back onto the scene for the 2024 season at Colton. The 75-year-old had a team that posted a 16-12 record. His team for the 2025 season was even better and went 24-5. Southworth netted the 500th win of his career with a 12-1 romp over Bloomington on April 30. The Yellowjackets added four more wins during the remainder of the season to put Southworth at 504 wins overall. He was at Chino Hills from 2009 to 2020 and also was head coach at Fontana for nine years prior to that.

Rob Weil (Los Alamitos)
Although it was in D2 and not in D1, the Griffins captured the seventh CIF Southern Section championship for Weil when they got past JSerra of San Juan Capistrano, 3-0 in 10 innings, in a game played on May 30. He would end the weekend tied with Norco’s Rick Robinson with the most CIFSS titles in history. Weil’s squad started 0-7 but finished 21-12 and that was enough to move him up from eighth to fourth on the all-time state list with 753 wins, including his years at Pacifica of Garden Grove. The No. 3 total on the list is 24 wins away and it’s for a retired coach.

Note: Buchanan of Clovis head coach Dean Gregory won 500th game with a victory vs Kingsburg during team’s 23-10 season and has been added to the state records. Gregory has been the head coach at Buchanan since 2004.

BASEBALL MILESTONES 2024

James Davis (Granite Hills, El Cajon)
If there wasn’t a policy that we have followed for many years and that’s to never select an overall State Coach of the Year more than once in any coach’s career, then Davis may have been the winner once again for 2025. The 2014 State Coach of the Year helped Granite Hills win the CIF San Diego Section Open Division title and for the first time the championship team in the section was unbeaten (but with two ties) at the time of its title. Granite Hills didn’t end the season unbeaten after falling in extra innings to Villa Park in the CIF SoCal D1 playoffs. Davis also has been Granite Hills’ athletic director and for the 2023-24 school year he was one of 14 CIF Model Coach Award Winners.

Tom Muesborn also has moved up to No. 11 on the all-time state list by virtue of winning the 750th game of his career during the 2025 season. Photo: Sierra Canyon Athletics.


Tom Donald (Bullard, Fresno)
This season’s team at Bullard got the 600th win for Donald in early May with a 10-0 victory against Fresno High. He became just the fourth coach in CIF Central Section history to get to No. 600, joining James Patrick of Clovis, Mike Noakes also of Bullard and Ken Papi of Fresno High. Noakes and Papi were at the game and greeted Donald afterward. Donald has been at Bullard since the 2021 season and gained most of his wins during a 20-year run at Buchanan of Clovis. Two of his teams at Buchanan in 2011 and 2016 finished No. 1 in the state and were named State Team of the Year.

Justin Machado (La Costa Canyon, Carlsbad)
It wasn’t necessarily one of the great seasons in Machado’s career, which began in 1996 at La Costa Canyon and includes a 32-1 season in 2003 when he was State Coach of the Year, but the Mavericks’ 16-12 record did cause him to jump past 10 others on the all-time state list. He will start the 2026 season with 618 reported wins.

Daniel Maye (Royal, Simi Valley)
A 5-3 win in early April over Moorpark gave Maye the 600th win of his baseball coaching career. The 2021 Cal-Hi Sports State Medium Schools Coach of the Year completed his 36th season at Royal, which has become uncommon in today’s coaching circles with shorter stints and several different schools. Maye also became the first Ventura County baseball coach to get to 600 wins or more. Royal has won seven league titles and has made the CIFSS playoffs 24 times during Coach Maye’s career. He starts next season with 606 wins since the 1989 season.

Tom Muesborn (Sierra Canyon, Chatsworth)
When it was reported that Muesborn had won the 750th game of his career, we thought he had a lower total. That was due to not counting 1990 as his first season at Chatsworth, however, which instead was counted as from 1991. Muesborn’s team topped Alemany of Mission Hills, 9-3, to get him the milestone victory in the final game of the regular season. Unfortunately for the Trailblazers, they didn’t add any more wins in the CIFSS D2 playoffs. Muesborn completed his third season at Sierra Canyon. He was at Chatsworth from 1990 to 2013 and then coached the Chancellors for the 2015 through 2017 seasons. He only needs one more win to move into a tie for 10th on the all-time state list and just three for ninth and seven for eighth.

If there are any other coaches getting close to or who may have 500 or more wins in baseball and softball that we need to start to follow, email info to markjtennis@gmail.com.

Mark Tennis is the editor and publisher of Cal-Hi Sports. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports


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