Sports shorts: Basketball, roller hockey and Escondido Youth Baseball

Escondido High basketball coach reaches 300 wins

(Sport Shorts1) Escondido High boys basketball coach Paul Baldwin.

Paul Baldwin, who is in his 18th season as boys basketball coach at Escondido, and Pat Moramarco, who is in his 19th season as girls coach at Vista have joined the 300-win club.

Baldwin, now 303-211, has had six 20-win seasons, with seven league championships and three San Diego Section titles, including Division I last season. He led two other Escondido teams to the section finals.

“A lot of hard work, but a lot of really good players have gone into this,” said Baldwin, who graduated from Escondido High in1988. “Plus, we have a great support system here.”

The Cougars were 1-25 the year before Baldwin took the job and 4-48 in the previous two years.

“People thought I was crazy for taking the job,” said Baldwin, who was coaching the JV team at Santa Rosa High when was hired at Escondido. “But it was my school; it was where I played. It was a chance to come home.”

The Cougars were 14-15 in Baldwin’s first season and won a league title in his fourth. This year they were 18-10, 9-1 in league play before falling 82-62 to Kearney High School in the CIF San Diego 2016 Boys Basketball section Championship.

Roller Hockey Championship at Escondido Sports Center

Roller Hockey championship brackets.

The Escondido Sports Center was the place to be for local high school roller hockey fans earlier this month.

Westview High School out of the Poway Unified School District took home the Metro Conference Championship with a 13-3 blowout over Cathedral Catholic. This was the fifth championship for Westview, which opened its doors in 2002. The team finished 16-6 this year.

Westview started the season slowly before getting its act together. “We were 2-3 after five games before the holidays,” Westview coach Ron Smith said. “But we spent some quality time together off the rink and really found ourselves. And that’s the key to these guys. They are a young group that really came together.”

While this was Westview’s fifth title, it also represented the school’s first championship since Smith took over the program in 2011. “We have made the finals three years before this,” Smith said. “With this group being so young, I can’t wait until next year.

Cathedral Catholic finished the season at 14-6 mark under coach Luke Storno, They reached the finals through eliminating Rancho Bernardo, the three-time defending champion.

Rancho Bernardo defeated the Cathedral Catholic in last season’s championship game and prevailed in a pair of  regular-season wins over Cathedral this season. However, the third time wasn’t the charm for Rancho Bernardo as Cathedral Catholic beat Rancho Bernardo 6-3 in the tourney semifinal.

Escondido Youth Baseball

Escondido Youth Baseball, offering programs for children aged 3 to 18 at a range of instructional and competitive levels, opened its spring season this month. The season continues through May. The All Star season begins in June and extends into the summer.

The Spring Season features levels of recreational and competitive baseball from Shetland to Pony. It also features a Morgan program for children challenged with mental and physical disabilities, ages 5-22.

For more information about the program, visit http://escondidoponybaseball.com.