Honors for coaching legends at annual Orange County all-star baseball game

Cypress High School’s John Weber will lead the North in Wednesday’s all-star game. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; additional photos courtesy Ryan Lemmon Foundation.)

John Weber leads North, Chris Price South.

Four Orange County coaching legends will be honored during Wednesday’s 58th annual Orange County All-Star Baseball Game which will feature North Coach John Weber (Cypress) and South Coach Chris Price (Foothill).

The game begins at 6:30 p.m. and includes the top high school senior baseball players from Orange County.

The game is presented for the second year by Guy Lemmon’s Ryan Lemmon Foundation. Dick Owens is the game director.

To see additional photos, click on the first picture:

Weber from Cypress will coach the North. Weber, who completed his 22nd season as the Centurions head coach, has led the team to 17 league championships and two CIF crowns.

Weber, who has more than 400 career victories at Cypress, has been named the Orange County Coach of the Year by the Orange County Register. He was named the Perfect Game National Coach of the Year in 2019 after leading Cypress to the CIF Division 1 crown.

He is a special education teacher at Cypress.

The North assistant coaches will be Jeffrey Gogue (Magnolia), Tanner VanMaanen (Ocean View) and Cory Williams (Oxford Academy).

Price from Foothill will coach the South team. Price has taught at Foothill since 2002 and just completed his sixth year as head coach. He has led the Knights to two league titles and playoff appearances every year, including two quarterfinal appearances.

He led Foothill into the semifinal round of this year’s CIF Division 2 playoffs. The Knights lost to Loyola 6-3.

Before becoming fifth head coach in program history, Price was an assistant coach at Foothill for six years with Vince Brown.

The South assistant coaches will be Kevin LaValle (Beckman), Tony Nieto (Tesoro) and Brett Kay (JSerra).

The Ryan Lemmon Foundation will also present the annual Mr. Baseball Awards to Bob Ickes, Bob Flint, Dave Demarest and Bob Zamora.

Ickes served as Mater Dei’s head coach through 1999 and finished with a 451-181-9 record. He led Mater Dei to the 1980 CIF 4A championship and his teams captured 14 league titles. His 1985 team finished 24-2 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the season and many of his former players advanced to college and professional baseball.

Flint began his coaching career in Texas at Berkner High School. In 1971 he and his wife relocated to Anaheim where he taught and was the head coach at Western for four years.

In 1980 Flint was hired as the head baseball coach at Irvine. In his 20 years at Irvine, his teams won 10
league championships and he led the team to one appearance in the CIF finals. In 2000 Flint took the job at Woodbridge and was able to achieve his 500th career victory.

Flint later was an assistant coach at Orange Coast College, where he helped lead the Pirates to the state title and also had stints at El Toro, Northwood, Irvine and Woodbridge.

Zamora had a stellar career leading the Capistrano Valley baseball program. He coached the Cougars for 43 years and led the program to 17 league championships and seven league titles. Zamora wound up his career with 746 career wins and was one of the winningest coaches in Orange County.

Demarest served as head baseball coach and Westminster and La Quinta where he coached for 34 years from 1974 through 2007. He had 753 career wins and 23 Garden Grove League titles. His teams appeared in the CIF finals seven times and won three championships.

Demarest has been inducted into 10 national hall of fames.

ROSTERS

For rosters of both team’s click on OC Sports Zone story.

TICKET PRICES

General admission is $15. Seniors 60 and over will be admitted for $5, students 13-18 for $3 and children 12 and under admitted free of charge.