Doyle takes over Sequoia baseball program

Fortunately for Sequoia athletic director Melissa Schmidt, she said she had two perfect candidates waiting in the wings, with the position eventually being filled by Mike Doyle.

“He’s been a local coach for a long time, former president of San Carlos Little League,” Schmidt said, adding Doyle has been an assistant coach with the Sequoia football team since 2013. “He’s been with the (baseball) program for about six years.”

He took the last couple years off from baseball to watch his son play, but he will return to the Sequoia bench next season as the Ravens’ head man.

“In one capacity or another, I was coming back (to the baseball program). The timing worked out perfectly,” Doyle said. “I couldn’t be happier to pick up where Corey left off.”

This will be Doyle’s first high school varsity head coaching job.

Doyle was a three-sport star in high school in Colorado, going on to play college baseball at University of Wyoming and University of Oklahoma before settling in San Carlos and working in the high-tech industry.

When he got out of the business several years ago, he called Rob Poulos — a friend for several years and Sequoia’s head football coach — to tell him he was ready to begin his coaching career. A year later, he joined Uhalde with the Ravens’ baseball program.

For Schmidt, Doyle was the perfect fit. Having already built connections with many players, she said he should seamlessly transition into the Ravens’ role of manager.

“We’re coming off 10 years of [Uhalde]. It was nice we did have these candidates who were part of the program,” Schmidt said. “[Doyle] is such a huge part of Sequoia athletics.”

Doyle said his plan was to involve himself in athletics at whatever high school his children attended and Sequoia was their neighborhood school. He said his commute to campus in about five minutes.

“I’ve been a huge proponent of Sequoia baseball … and that’s largely because of Corey,” Doyle said. “Just giving back to the community.”

Uhalde, who will stay at Sequoia as the school’s activities director, leaves with an overall record of 152-123-5. An interesting side note: Sequoia played to a tie in each of Uhalde’s first five seasons.

In Peninsula Athletic League play, Uhalde was 76-62, going 53-29 in six Ocean Division seasons, winning three straight division titles. The Ravens were 21-21 in the first three seasons playing in the Bay Division, but a 12-loss 2018 season dragged his Bay Division record to 23-33. In Central Coast Section play, Uhalde was 6-7.

“My wife and I moved to Fairfield three years ago and I continued to commute (to Redwood City). We discussed (my future in) coaching around then,” Uhalde said. “We figured the right time to take a break was when we had a child.

“We now have a 2-month old.”

Uhalde said he knew at the beginning of the season this would be his last with his wife expecting during the season and he was gearing up for one final hurrah. But his retirement tour was snuffed out when the high school sports season was postponed in March and then officially canceled in April.

“I was geared up for this (last season),” said Uhalde, as the Ravens got out to a 4-1 start in 2020. But his final game was an agonizing 3-2 loss to Burlingame, a game the Ravens led 2-0 going into the sixth inning.

“I just wanted to know when the last day was,” Uhalde said. “And I didn’t get that.”

In addition to Sequoia moving on, there was another change in the southern end of the PAL as Carlmont baseball manager Rich Vallero will not be back with the Scots after 15 seasons.

High school coaches are on year-to-year contracts and his contract was not renewed. While the school has yet to confirm Vallero’s departure, a number of sources have confirmed he will not return and the position of baseball coach has been listed on edjoin.org, an employment website for teachers and coaches.

During his 15 seasons at Carlmont, Vallero compiled an overall record of 254-148-3. In PAL play, Vallero led his team to a record of 130-64, winning outright or sharing five straight Bay Division championships from 2013 to 2017 and returned to the top of the Bay in 2019.

Both Carlmont diamonds will have new coaching staffs next year as Marco Giuliacci has decided to step down as head coach of the Scots softball program. While the school has not verified it, there is a job opening listed for Carlmont softball on edjoin.org.

Giuliacci is just the third head softball coach in Carlmont history, having taken over in 2017 from Jim Liggett, who took over the program in 1977, retired after 2016 and passed away following the 2017 season. Guiliacci had served as assistant for several years before Liggett stepped aside.

In his four seasons, Giuliacci had an overall record of 69-20, going 41-3 in PAL Bay Division play and winning three straight Bay Division titles. In three CCS appearances, Giuliacci’s teams were 2-3.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to show Giuliacci was the third softball coach in Carlmont history.