Cerritos College Athletics - Top Falcon News: 06.29.11 - Five more ex-Falcons land new coaching jobs

Top Falcon News...

06.29.11 - FIVE MORE EX-FALCONS LAND NEW COACHING JOBS

In the last several weeks, there have been a series of coaching changes in the college baseball ranks. First, it was the University of Tennessee naming former Cerritos College baseball player, head coach and assistant coach Dave Serrano as their new head coach. Serrano started the coaching carousel by hiring former Falcon player and assistant coaches Greg Bergeron and Bill Mosiello to his staff. Serrano, who vacated the helm at Cal State Fullerton to take the Vols job, saw the Titans turn to former Falcon player Rick Vanderhook as their new head coach, while he added former Cerritos player and assistant coach Mike Kirby to his staff.

The fifth coaching job comes from the gridiron, where Pasadena City College has named former Cerritos football player and assistant coach Fred Fimbres to run their program.

At Tennessee, Serrano tabbed Bergeron as the associate head coach for the Vols, while Moisello will serve as the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. Bergeron, was a 1st Team All-South Coast Conference third baseman while playing for Serrano in 1991 and then was eventually hired as an assistant coach by Serrano at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton before joining him in Knoxville. Bergeron, 41, has been Serrano's right-hand man for all seven of his seasons as head coach, including three at UC Irvine and four at Cal State Fullerton. He will be charged with installing his "pressure" offense, will lead the team's on-field offensive efforts from the third base coaching box and will tutor the team's infielders.

As for Moisello, he and Serrano are childhood friends, who were also teammates for the Falcons and played on the 1985 State Championship team, where he was a 2nd Team All-SCC catcher. No stranger to the Southeastern Conference, Mosiello brings 17 years of collegiate coaching experience and seven more years of experience as a minor league manager back to Tennessee for his second stint with the Vols. In addition to his responsibilities with recruiting and the team's hitters, Mosiello will also work with UT's catching corps and serve as Serrano's bench coach.

"It is with great pleasure that I welcome Bill Mosiello to our coaching staff," Serrano said on the University of Tennessee website. "He has been a longtime friend and his wealth of baseball knowledge will greatly benefit our program. `Mo' was my batterymate all throughout Little League, high school and junior college and coached with me at Cerritos College at the start of my coaching career.

"Since then, he has been successful at every level of baseball imaginable, both collegiately and professionally. I am extremely excited to be able to add a coach of his caliber to our staff and look forward to working with him and Coach Bergeron to get this program back to the top."

Mosiello's coaching career has taken him from Cerritos College (1987-90) to Cal State Fullerton (1991-92), University of Tennessee (1993-94), University of Mississippi (1995), University of Oklahoma (1996-2000) and Arizona State University in 2001 before joining the professional ranks. He has served as a manager in the New York Yankees organization from 2004-06 before returning to collegiate baseball at USC (2007) and Auburn (2008) before being hired as a manager in the Angels organization since 2009.

Over at Cal State Fullerton, Vanderhook was announced as their new head coach after spending 21 years as an assistant, including stints with Serrano and former Falcon player and head coach George Horton. As a player for Cerritos under Wally Kincaid in 1980 and 1982, he was named the team's Captain his sophomore year. In the last three years, Vanderhook was an assistant coach at UCLA, where he helped lead them to the College World Series championship game in 2010.

Vanderhook's first move was to bring in Kirby, a Cal State Fullerton assistant coach in 1991, 1995 and from 1997-99. Kirby, another former Cerritos College baseball player in 1998-89, was a member of the 1989 State Championship team, while receiving the Team Captain award as a sophomore. He was also the team's Most Inspirational Player as a freshman and is one of only two players to earn the Dallas Moon Award twice. In the last three years, Kirby has been an assistant coach under Horton at the University of Oregon.

On the gridiron, Fimbres moves over to Pasadena City College after spending the last five seasons at College of DuPage (Illinois), a NJCAA community college. At DuPage, Fimbres turned around a program that had just one victory in the two seasons prior to his arrival. From 2007-2010, he directed the Chaparrals to a winning 24-20 record, including four consecutive appearances in the Midwest Football Conference divisional championship game.

Last season, DuPage captured the Graphic Edge Bowl title, defeating pre-season, nationally ranked Coffeyville (Kansas). DuPage finished with a 7-5 overall record.

A former Falcon ballboy, Fimbres eventually fulfilled his dream of playing for head coach Frank Mazzotta in 1990-91 as a defensive back. After his playing career was over, Fimbres returned to Cerritos to serve as an assistant coach and worked with linebackers, defensive backs, and the defensive line, where he was a part of six bowl champion teams in his nine seasons.

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