Tom Tice, the softball coach at Rosary of Fullerton, is shown at left on the occasion of his 500th career win this season. At right, baseball coach Darren Murphy from South Hills of Covina gets hugs from the other coaches at the school just after he notched the 500th win of his career. Photos: rosary_softball / Instagram.com & Jeff Serpa / 210prepsports.com.
State record coaching lists for baseball and softball have now all been updated through the 2026 season and there were a number significant milestone wins and section titles that took place. For baseball, Lakewood’s Spud O’Neil wrapped up his career with 985 wins, the second-most in state history. We also had milestone wins for John Diatte of San Jose Valley Christian, Rick Weber from Viewpoint of Calabasas and Darren Murphy from South Hills of West Covina. For softball, Judy Shaubach of Madera is hanging it up with 780 career wins. We had milestone wins as well from Margaret Neill of Lancaster Paraclete, Steve Miklos of Orange Lutheran and Tom Tice of Fullerton Rosary.
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BASEBALL MILESTONES 2026
John Diatte (Valley Christian, San Jose)
Not only did the Warriors get their longtime coach the 800th win of his career, but they went on a run in the CIF Central Coast Section D1 and CIF NorCal D1 playoffs to win the first regional title in his career. Diatte became just the seventh coach in state history to go past 800 career wins. He’s been leading the program at Valley Christian since 1993, which was before the school grew into its current position as a member of the prestigious West Catholic Athletic League.
David Jeans (De La Salle, Concord)
While Coach Jeans doesn’t have the longevity of some other retiring coaches after the 2026 season, what he accomplished in 16 years leading the baseball program at De La Salle will have long-lasting impact. During his tenure, the Spartans raised a whopping 10 CIF North Coast Section championship banners, including six in a row from 2016 to 2023. DLS also was State Team of the Year in 2019 and 2022. Since the CIF added the NorCal and SoCal regional playoffs in 2022, Jeans’ teams won the D1 title in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Just this week, four of his players were chosen the MLB Draft, including Tyler Spangler in the first round by the Phillies.
Legendary Lakewood High baseball coach Spud O’Neil was the 2006 State Coach of the Year. Photo: the562.org.
Tom Muesborn (Sierra Canyon, Chatsworth)
Sierra Canyon had a 24-7 record in 2026 and was inside the State TOP 20 for most of it. Only a few days after a loss in the CIFSS D1 playoffs stopped the season, Muesborn announced he was resigning. He had completed his fourth season at Sierra Canyon. He was at Chatsworth from 1990 to 2013 and then coached the Chancellors for the 2015 through 2017 seasons. His final career total of 774 wins has been updated in our records and he moved up three spots to eighth on the all-time state list.
Darren Murphy (South Hills, Covina)
Some 500th milestone wins are better than others and Murphy’s 500th during the 2026 season qualifies as a very good one. That’s because the 4-3 win from a game in early March came against a La Mirada team, which at the time was a matchup between the top two ranked team in the San Gabriel Valley (South Hills was No. 1). The Huskies didn’t end the season higher ranked than La Mirada, but that was a big win. Murphy began his career as the head coach at Northview of Covina in 1999. He took over the program at South Hills in 2014. He’s also won CIF Southern Section titles at both schools.
Spud O’Neil (Lakewood)
After Spud was honored at the final regular season home game of his career, his team kept winning in the CIF Southern Section D6 playoffs. The Lancers earned their way to the semifinals and were looking to have the final game of his legendary career end in the title game. Covina, however, spoiled the dream sendoff with a 6-1 win. O’Neil is retiring at age 79 after 56 seasons as a baseball coach. His first head coaching job started in 1980 at Colton where he stayed for four seasons. He took over at Lakewood in 1984. The Lancers will play their first season since then without him next spring. Spud’s final record stands at 985-379-2, which is No. 2 in state history and trails only the total of 1,059 by the late John Stevenson of El Segundo.
Scott Pearson (Troy, Fullerton)
Coaches in the past have announced they are retiring and then decide to start back up again somewhere else. The trick for us in following the coaching records is that we may not find out about it. Pearson stepped down from the top spot at Warren of Downey after the 2023 season. He decided to go back to head coaching for the 2025 season at Troy of Fullerton, but we didn’t see that until this season. Pearson recorded the 600th win of his career late this season over South Pasadena and will start next season with 601. Before Warren, he also had successful baseball coaching stints at Roosevelt of Los Angeles and Cathedral of Los Angeles.
Rick Weber (Viewpoint, Calabasas)
Needing only four more wins to get to 700 for his career, Weber got it early in the season when his team defeated Brentwood of Los Angeles, 6-1. The team finished 17-11 with a loss to Patriot of Riverside in the CIFSS D7 playoffs. We actually don’t have the year-by-year breakdowns of his various coaching stops, but Rick has had seasons at Bel-Air Prep of Los Angeles (now closed), Birmingham of Lake Balboa, Montclair Prep of Van Nuys (also now closed), Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth and Viewpoint. According to the team’s MaxPreps page, Weber has been the head coach at Viewpoint since the 2018-19 season.
SOFTBALL MILESTONES 2026
Dan Hay & Shelly Luth (Marina, Huntington Beach)
They’ve been listed as co-head coaches at Marina the past few seasons and both are stepping down after the 2026 season. Marina had a 19-9 season and earned a spot in the CIFSS D1 playoffs. Hay is more known as the leader of Premier Girls Fastpitch, a national travel ball association that this week will be hosting the PGF national finals. Luth has been either the head coach or co-coach at Marina in two different stints from 1991 to 2014 and then again from 2019 to 2026. She also has been given the coaching win for all of Marina’s wins in those years (we previously didn’t know what to do with them) and has now been added to the state records with 599 career wins. In co-coaching situations, one coach and not two get the coaching win since there is no such thing as two wins for one game or half a win, either.
One of the highlights of Judy Shaubach’s long career at Madera was winning the 700th game of her career during the 2022 season. Photo: maderacoyotes1 / X.com.
Steve Miklos (Rosary, Fullerton)
With daughter Jenny there as an assistant coach and wife Janet serving as scorekeeper, Miklos was very much able to enjoy the afternoon when he won the 600th game of his career. He got it with a 6-1 win over Thousand Oaks in April that gave the Lancers the title at the Best of the West tournament in Santa Maria. Steve has been OLu’s head coach in softball for 29 years.
Margaret Neill (Paraclete, Lancaster)
Margaret’s team in 2025 went 23-2-1 overall, which was her 45th season. Well, year 46 was pretty awesome as well. Paraclete ended with a 24-3 record. Neill already had moved to No. 2 on the all-time state coaching wins list, but now she’s passed the 900-win milestone. There’s only one other coach in state history with more than 900 career wins. The only bad news is that the Spirits had to play in the CIFSS D1 playoffs for the second straight year. A loss in the first round ended their season. In the non-competitive equity era of the playoffs, Paraclete was more correctly placed in lower divisions.
Judy Shaubach (Madera)
After 38 seasons and 781 career wins, our 2016 State Coach of the Year is retiring. Her Coyotes once again reached 20 wins this season with a 20-10 final record, which is appropriate since Shaubach has ended her career with 22 20-win seasons. She also finished with three CIF Central Section championships.
Tom Tice (Rosary, Fullerton)
Coach Tice has always been great to us to let us know about top players in the Rosary program so it was nice to see him get to celebrate winning the 500th game of his career in March of the 2026 season. The 500th win came against Woodbridge at the Dugard Classic tourney. Tom, who also is Rosary’s athletic director, began as the head softball coach in 1994. He led the program for 13 seasons, then stepped away from the head coaching job for a few seasons. He went back to being the Rosary head coach in 2011.
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
