SAN DIEGO — It's mid-January, and light is streaming in through the open windows of a hospitality suite in Fowler Park, one of two such spaces the state-of-the-art ballpark boasts. Outside, morning sunshine drapes its way over the venue as the day slowly advances, blanketing the baseball diamond and the hills beyond it in Alcala Park's signature glow. Inside, half a year removed from the promotion that tasked him with leading the Toreros into a new era, San Diego baseball head coach Brock Ungricht is holding court, with members of USD's coaching, athletic training, facilities, and communications staff present, all situated and seated in a socially distant circle.

Perched on an opulent leather high-top chair (USD doesn't mess around when it comes to hospitality), he seems to cover every aspect of his program, from the health of a few of his pitchers (tracking along for opening day), upgrades to Fowler Park (coming soon), transportation (charter buses over air travel for a trip to Phoenix), and finally, social media strategy and feature story ideas for the upcoming season. 

The conversation slows as the final topic is considered, then the group decides that a profile of the team's new head coach is in order. Ungricht pauses for perhaps the first time all morning as the topic is broached, then speaks quietly, a different, more serious tone than the one he took in the first hour and a half of the meeting. 

"The story shouldn't just be about me," he politely suggests as he motions toward the rest of the suite and the field below, where his players are getting loose before another day of practice. "It should be about us."
Ungricht's desire to shift the limelight from himself back to his team is noble, a gesture that's both understandable and unsurprising. From almost day one on the job, from nearly the moment he was elevated from USD's assistant coach (hitting) to the top job, he's eschewed social media posts trumpeting his arrival as a head coach, instead opting for graphics wishing his players happy birthday, or updates that highlight their off-season achievements. Perhaps also relevant in Ungricht's inclination to feature the group as a whole is an impressive ability to retain the talent last year's roster featured. There was no mass exodus when he was promoted last July, no rush of players exploring other opportunities in the transfer portal when he took the helm. Each member of USD's starting lineup from 2021 that was eligible to return did so, and he was able to retain nearly the entirety of the eligible pitching staff, lending immediate credence to Executive Director of Athletics Bill McGillis' midsummer declaration that Ungricht is a "positive, inspirational leader and gifted communicator who players believe in and want to play for." 

"Over the last three years before this season, we built a great relationship," said star shortstop Cody Jefferis, who slashed .349/.417/.434 in 2021 enroute to an All-WCC Second Team selection and is set to begin his fourth season at USD this spring. "It just felt right to come back if he was going to be the head coach. He has a great balance of being honest and making sure we get our work in, and being laid back."

In addition to Jefferis, sophomore standouts Jack Costello (Freshman All-American) and Kevin Sim (pro pedigree, prodigious power) will return as well, complemented by Will Worthington, who's impressed this fall as he made the switch to first base. Behind the dish, 6-4 catcher Caleb Ricketts figures to step into a full-time role after splitting time with MLB Draftee Shane McGuire last season. On the mound, redshirt sophomore Conner Thurman, who led USD in strikeouts and innings pitched last year, will don Torero Blue once again. So will Ivran Romero (20 straight scoreless innings to begin his college career), Brycen Mautz (mid 90s from the left side), and All-WCC Honorable Mention Ryan Robinson. You get the picture. Ungricht stayed, and so did the players, their belief in him manifesting to the tune of 23 total letterwinners signing up for another year at Fowler Park.

"It was 15, 20 seconds of 'Oh my gosh, this is awesome,' and then it was, 'I gotta call all these players', it went right to business," Ungricht says of his first few days in charge as he worked to preserve the roster that went 33-12 and finished a game away from a postseason berth last year. "I think it's a well-balanced team. We have some good experience back on the mound, we have some good experience back at the plate. There's going to be some new pieces filling in the mix as well."

Those new pieces will come in the form of nine freshmen as well as two transfers, including crafty left-hander Ian Churchill, who brings valuable postseason experience after pitching for the Arizona Wildcats in the 2021 College World Series.

"I love the direction we're headed in as a pitching staff," says Assistant/Pitching Coach Matt Florer, who has worked alongside Ungricht since the pair were hired together in 2018. "We're continuing to improve upon our strengths as a team (from last year), and the new guys have followed suit."

Retaining Florer and tabbing him as the new recruiting coordinator was a no-brainer, Ungricht says, given the duo's close relationship and alignment in on-field philosophy. 

"The two of us have built an extraordinarily close relationship over the last four years," Florer described. "Something that I appreciate with Coach Ungricht is that he just has this superpower of human connection…he's absolutely the right man for the job."

But a spot was still left to fill on the USD bench, leading him to look outside the program for another assistant. The right fit came in the form of Erich Pfohl, who for the past six seasons had built a program from the ground up at Hope International University as he steered the team from year zero to a conference championship. Coaching at San Diego won't require the same type of upheaval, given that the program will enter its 64th season in 2022, but Pfohl and the Toreros were a match nonetheless.

"This guy, I don't care what college level it is, he's been there, and he's done that," Ungricht said of Pfohl's coaching acumen, which includes three NAIA postseason appearances and 11 players earning All-Golden State Athletic Conference honors. "He's done nothing but check all the boxes…the (coaching staff) has really gelled so far."

His final coaching slot was filled from within, so to speak, adding former San Diego standout Ryan Kirby as his volunteer assistant. Kirby brings familiarity with the program, having played at Fowler Park from 2014-2016 before he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants and went on to a four-year professional career that saw him club 30 home runs and tally 180 runs batted in across 308 games. He also brings a measure of tradition, having played an integral part in the Toreros' most recent conference championship in 2015.

Perhaps the most compelling addition to Ungricht's staff, however, came with the hiring of Joshua Mickles as his Director of Player Development. Mickles joined the Toreros after a decorated career as a Force Recon Marine, and to Ungricht, brings an invaluable perspective on leadership after receiving the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal while forward deployed.

"Our voices are heard all the time as coaches," Ungricht said. "It's always good for players to hear things from somebody from a different background. (Mickles) has all the intangibles of leading people…big groups of young men, serving our country. He knows how to motivate and get to them."
Seven months earlier, Ungricht had assembled neither an official coaching staff nor an official roster. As the sun set on a June evening in 2021, the coach found himself alone, staring down a moment that would shape both his own journey, and the program's.

"It was just me and the field, about eight o'clock at night after a prospect camp," Ungricht recalls. "Coach (Rich) Hill calls to tell me he's leaving for the University of Hawaii. I'm going, 'Man, I'm doing everything in my power to stay here, and I'd love nothing more than to be the head coach."

Two weeks and a nationwide search by the USD athletic department later, it was just Ungricht and the field once again. Only this time, it was midnight, and this time, it was official. Standing on the bluffs that overlook Fowler Park after an hours-long meeting with Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Bill McGillis that stretched deep into the night, he processed the news that he had been named the fourth head coach in San Diego baseball history, that he had been tasked with leading the Toreros into a new era. 

"Two weeks later, I'm standing up top, looking down, going, 'Woah, this is it, this is real.'" 

To his right, his baseball future. To his left, just within view, the place where it all started, where that confidence and that drive to get the most out of people first took hold. 
"They were aligned at the top — perseverance, work ethic, belief in yourself and confidence," Ungricht says of his mother and father, the latter of whom was inducted into the San Diego High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 2015 after an esteemed career coaching cross country athletes. "You gotta sell people on running, you have to be a great salesman on believing in yourself, confidence, fighting through difficulty…I talk to him everyday about how you can challenge people to get the best out of themselves."

A distinguished playing career would come before he'd join his father in the coaching ranks. After a dominant stint at Mission Bay High School as a prep that earned him induction into the Buccaneers' Hall of Fame, Ungricht spent his college years as a student-athlete at San Diego State, batting .373 as a freshman All-American with 48 RBI over 63 games. He finished his SDSU career with a batting average of .318 with 44 doubles and 117 RBI, leaving among the all-time leaders in hits, RBI and total bases. His coach: none other than the revered hall of famer, Tony Gwynn.

"He always preached, 'You gotta do the right thing,'" Ungricht recalls of his time as an Aztec.

The New York Yankees came calling in the 30th round of the 2006 MLB Draft, leading Ungricht to a season in professional baseball, but a different call soon began to ring louder in his mind, leading the corner infielder and catcher to turn his attention to what might be next and consider a path that may have been set for him from the very beginning.

"Coach Gwynn told me, 'Hey look, you're going to be a great coach,'" Ungricht reflected. "Even though I might not have listened to it in the moment, it always stuck out to me. When I got to pro ball, that same message was said to me by my manager with the Yankees, 'You're gonna be a great coach, make sure you follow through on that and go do it…'"

So after his playing career wound to close the following year, Ungricht did just that.
In retrospect, Ungricht being tabbed to lead at the University of San Diego shouldn't seem surprising, considering how much of his life in baseball has unfolded within a 10-mile radius of Alcala Park. After his prep career in Mission Bay and his college stint at San Diego State, a start in local coaching seemed natural. Thus began Ungricht's first foray into the other side of the game, trading his spikes and glove for a lineup card and a fungo bat at nearby Kearny High School, just two and a half miles up Linda Vista road from USD's campus. 

"I was probably a little crazy," he says of his early days coaching the Komets, adding a sheepish chuckle for good measure. "Because I had high standards on how you do things. Those kids…some of them didn't have a mom or a dad, they needed that structure and that discipline, they thrived off of it. But they also needed that love."

Employing the same principles his father used down the street with his cross country runners, Ungricht was off and running with a baseball team of his own. Kearny won 18 games and a league championship that year, in large part due to their head coach's caring, people-first approach. The team realized their potential after winning just two games in the previous season. And Ungricht discovered, at least for the first time officially, his calling. 

"They bought in, they believed… I was like 'Wow, this is awesome,'" he recounts of that 2009 season. "Spending the time with them, getting to know them as people allowed them to run through the wall for you as athletes. I learned about the value of being yourself, and really caring about the kids, the people."

Perhaps the only theme more central to Ungricht's development as a coach than his local ties is his track record of working with elite teams and organizations. Growing up with an esteemed coach for a father set the tone. Playing for a hall of famer in college proved to be an invaluable, unique experience. But it was at Stanford, Ungricht says, that his coaching acumen soared to the next level, both literally and figuratively.

"It taught me how to listen," he adds of his stint in Palo Alto. "That was a big, pivotal learning point in my coaching career. You're dealing with the smartest, most gifted athletes in the country. Valedictorians, All-Americans, my biggest lessons are coming from my players. I realized that I could learn more from my players than I could learn out of a book, out of a video, some drill…I could learn from what they're feeling, what they're thinking, how they tick, to be able to coach them differently than other people. That open-door policy is something that's trickled down into our program."

Ungricht spent six seasons there, the final two as a full-time assistant coach under longtime Cardinal skipper Mark Marquess. By the time he left, he had coached two first-round draft picks (Stephen Piscotty and Alex Blandino), two All-Americans, two freshmen All-Americans, eight All-Pac-12 honorees and a Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. There'd be one more stop, however — an important one — before Ungricht joined the Toreros.

"Having been in that different world…it's a whole other world being behind the net versus being on the other side of it," Ungricht describes of his two-year stint as a Southern California Area Scout with the St. Louis Cardinals, which is among the most highly-regarded organizations in professional baseball. "You can turn around and say, 'Hey, I respect what you do.' And vice-versa.'"

Beyond simply gaining a greater understanding of how the professional game works, Ungricht maintains that skills he picked up in his time as a scout have paid dividends on the recruiting trail.

"The cool thing about it was seeing the game through a different lens," he recalls. "The game slowed down (for me), watching baseball from a different viewpoint. There was only one thing to do: evaluating the player, and that really helped on the recruiting side, too…to be organized, to write reports, to see things differently." Fifty regular-season games await the Toreros in 2022, up from the pandemic-altered 45-game slate the team completed a year ago that saw them finish just a game back of the West Coast Conference Championship.They'll begin the year with a program-record 11 consecutive home contests, then finally travel to Phoenix in mid-March for their first road games of the season at Grand Canyon. The typical non-conference tilts are there against the likes of Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, and California Baptist, and the rivalry matchups against crosstown opponents UC San Diego and San Diego State are back as well. The WCC will be as formidable as ever, with the Toreros picked to finish third behind Brigham Young and defending champion Gonzaga. As they navigate this winding road of contests, San Diego will attempt to make good on a refrain they've rallied around all offseason, one that was set into motion after coming up painstakingly short in Spokane a year ago — being "One Game Better."

"I think there's a carryover, a little chip on the shoulder from being one game shy," Ungricht says plainly, referring to the season-ending three-game set at No. 14 Gonzaga last May that saw the Toreros outscore the Bulldogs 19-12 and win two of three but fall a single game short of postseason qualification. "Our core group of guys had a taste of how close they were to finishing it out and winning the conference title. That confidence and that belief (that we can do it) has carried over into our practices, and the energy, the buzz here at Fowler Park." This evening, stadium lights will take the place of San Diego sunshine at Fowler Park, illuminating the playing surface as they shine a spotlight on the Toreros' first game before a full-capacity crowd in nearly two years. The stands will be alive as the USD faithful descends upon the venue to support their team, and the hospitality suite where San Diego's new head coach mused about his role in the 2022 team's story will host an its first official guest of the Ungricht era — 2021 WCC Player of the Year Thomas Luevano, who Ungricht helped steer to success in his final season.
 

On the top step of the west dugout at Fowler Park, miles away from the neighborhoods that shaped him and mere feet away from the third base coaching box where he directed the Toreros as an assistant, Ungricht will lead San Diego baseball forward into a new era. But as he mentioned on that sunny January morning, the story isn't just about him.

"It's (about) the resilience, the toughness, the togetherness, the family, the belief, the confidence," Ungricht recounted. "(The story is) that no matter what the score is, we're not going away."

Chapter one begins tonight.