State Medium Schools Baseball Coach of the Year Jerry Lewallen of Glendora also is the athletic director at the school. Photo: 210 Prep Sports / YouTube.com.
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Gary Parcell of Norco, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2026 season going to Jerry Lewallen of Glendora (medium schools) and Jesse Darrah from Minarets of O’Neals (small schools).
FOR MORE ON STATE COACH OF THE YEAR GARY PARCELL, CLICK HERE.
FOR THIS YEAR’S FINAL STATE BASEBALL RANKINGS ACCORDING TO FIVE DIVISIONS, CLICK HERE.
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MEDIUM SCHOOLS STATE
COACH OF THE YEAR
Jerry Lewallen (Glendora)
It certainly helps with these types of coaching honors to be someone who’s been successful coaching in another sport or has been connected to a school for many years. Lewallen is a Glendora grad who played baseball and football there and was on the 1989 football team that won a CIF Southern Section title. He’s been the head football coach of the Tartans before, serving in that role from 2012 to 2017 with a 43-25 record. Before the 2019-2020 school year, Jerry became the Glendora athletic director and picked up being head coach of the baseball program after the 2021 season.
For state coaching honors, we tend to look for those who have been in their head coaching roles for six to seven years or longer so while Lewallen has only been Glendora’s baseball coach for three seasons he’s been coaching at the school for many more years than that.
This brings us to the 2026 season. The Tartans began as the 2025 CIFSS D3 champions and their championship pedigree helped them win a series of close games en route to the CIFSS D4 title. They needed nine innings to edge St. Anthony of Long Beach, 3-2, in the title game, which was their fourth straight one-run playoff win.
That set the stage for a CIF SoCal D3 regional matchup with Culver City. The teams kept going back and forth, back and forth until it was 11-11 in the 12th inning. It had to be stopped due to darkness. The teams came back the next day with Culver City batting in the top of the 13th and the Centaurs took a 12-11 lead. Lewallen’s squad, however, walked it off for a 13-12 win with two runs in the bottom of the 13th.
After that, despite pitching being extremely spent, Glendora posted wins of 13-3 vs Westview of San Diego in the semifinals and then beat Kaiser of Fontana, 7-3, to win the team’s first regional title. Last year’s team lost in the SoCal regionals to Eastlake of Chula Vista.
Glendora principal Rod Tilton told the 210 Prep Sports (210prepsports.com) website when it named Lewallen recently as one of its coaches of the year that the school “is fortunate to have Coach Jerry Lewallen leading our baseball program.” Tilton added: “Some coaches teach athletes how to play the game and become better players. Others help student-athletes become better people. Coach Lewallen does both. Year after year, he builds championship-caliber teams while developing young men of character who will become outstanding husbands, fathers, leaders, and members of their communities.”
Lewallen also has become the first-ever Medium Schools State Coach of the Year in baseball from the the San Gabriel Valley. We have been doing the honor since the 1998 season.
Recent State Medium Schools Coaches of the Year: 2025 – Michael Kunipo-Aguirre (Carson); 2024 – Paul Martinez (Roseville Oakmont); 2023 – Matt Mowry (Lake Balboa Birmingham); 2022 – Tony Nieto (Las Flores Tesoro); 2021 – Daniel Maye (Simi Valley Royal); 2020 – No selection (pandemic); 2019 – Pat Fuentes (Los Banos); 2018 – Ken Arnerich (Alameda); 2017 – Rich Henning (Christian Brothers, Sacramento); 2016 – Jeff Baumback (Redondo Beach Redondo Union); 2015 – Mike Mitchell (El Cajon Christian); 2014 – Ollie Turner (Torrance); 2013 – Wilmer Aaron (Gardena Serra); 2012 – Steve Vickery (Lakeside El Capitan); 2011 – Gary Remiker (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); 2010 – Rich Sciutto (Burlingame); 2009 – Bob Anderson (Lake Shasta Central Valley).
Minarats head coach Jesse Darrah is still a young man, but may have added some gray hairs with some of the games that his team won late in the 2026 season. Photo: Sierra News Online.
SMALL SCHOOLS STATE
COACH OF THE YEAR
Jesse Darrah (Minarets, O’Neals)
Is it safe to say that if Darrah’s team had not won but lost in one of the craziest playoff games in state history (we think the highest scoring for two teams) that he wouldn’t be getting this honor? Yes, it would. But Minarets did indeed come out on top in a 21-20 scorefest with Pacific Grove that earned the team the CIF NorCal D5 championship.
The win capped a 27-8-1 record for the Mustangs and came after they had won the CIF Central Section D5 title in an almost equally crazy 10-9 victory over Shafter. Minarets would have played Coastal Academy of Oceanside for the CIF D5 state title if the CIF had been re-starting the state finals this year instead of next year.
Darrah also became a rare person to have played as a member of the Visalia Rawhide team in the California League and then later coached a team to a section title at Rawhide Stadium in Visalia, which is where the Central Section stages all of its title games.
Following his minor league career, which ended like many others with an injury, Darrah became the head coach at small school Minarets for the 2017 season. He coached the Mustangs for five seasons (through the pandemic) and in those seasons the team posted a 71-25 record with two trips to the section finals.
Darrah returned to lead the Minarets program for the 2025 season after spending three years away from the sport in the solar industry. This year’s success followed a 12-19 record from that 2025 season.
Everything looks great for the Mustangs now. Jesse is the school’s first-ever State Small Schools Coach of the Year. He’s the third Central Section honoree in the category in the last 12 years, joining Scott Neal from Chavez of Delano for 2024 and Jay Preuss of Kerman for 2014.
Recent State Small Schools Coaches of the Year: 2025 – David Trujillo (Atherton Menlo School); 2024 – Scott Neal (Delano Chavez); 2023 – Stewart Peterson (Sutter); 2022 – Kurt Takahashi (Sacramento Bradshaw Christian); 2021 – Eric Lay (Colusa); 2020 – No selection (pandemic); 2019 – Greg Mugg (Sunnyvale The King’s Academy); 2018 – Mack Paciorek (Pasadena Poly); 2017 – Jim Cleveland (San Lorenzo Redwood Christian); 2016 – Troy Ghisetti (Arcata); 2015 – Nelson Randolph (Sacramento Capital Christian); 2014 – Jay Preuss (Kerman); 2013 – Gil Ruiz (Pacific Grove); 2012 – Greg Largent (Escalon); 2011 – Craig Schoof (Atherton Menlo School); 2010 – Glen Prater (Riverside Woodcrest Christian); 2009 – Brad Gunter (Roseville Valley Christian).
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