With the 2014-15 season set to resume after the winter holiday, the HCC baseball team is poised to be the best the school has seen in recent history, just in time to send their longtime head coach off the same way he came in: as a champion.

  After 28 seasons acting as head coach of the HCC baseball team and weightlifting instructor at the Dale Mabry campus, Coach Gary Calhoun is stepping down and retiring from both full-time positions. Coach Calhoun has been a cornerstone for the  athletic program, responsible for guiding countless players and students during his tenure at HCC to reach their full athletic potential, developing over 50 athletes to go on to play baseball on a professional level. Although it was early into his long, illustrious career at HCC, Coach Calhoun was also at the helm in 1988, when the team won the school’s first NJCAA National Championship. This still remains as one of only three teams in the history of HCC athletics to achieve the feat, along with the women’s bowling and tennis teams.

  With one more run in him, Coach Calhoun leads a coaching staff and a Hawks team that looks to channel some of the magic from 27 years ago for this 2015 campaign. Assistant coach Vincent Parisi, an HCC alumni, Olympian, and former player of Coach Calhoun, has high hopes for HCC to return to prominence this season.

  “This year’s team is the strongest it has looked in years. We probably have the strongest pitching staff we’ve had since the 1988 National Championship team. The potential for the season is higher than ever.”

  Parisi, who finished his college career at HCC in 1999, went on to play several years professionally in Italy. Parisi is arguably the most successful former player that Calhoun ever had at HCC, with his career culminating at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he served as catcher for the Italian national team. Parisi is one of countless examples of great ballplayers Coach Calhoun has been able to mold over the duration of time as coach of the Hawks.

  The Hawks are again, as they traditionally are, stocked with local talent. This year’s youthful roster boasts 12 players from bay area high schools, with half of those in their freshman year. The young Hawks will look for leadership from sophomore pitchers Chase Ingram, Nick Nolan and right-hander Robert Garcia. Garcia, who is the only international player on the team, comes from Escuela Virtual de Education Acelerada in Puerto Rico.

  This season’s 45 game schedule is loaded with home games and opportunities to follow the team in person. The majority of games take place on either Mondays, Wednesdays or on the weekend. This well balanced schedule gives any fan of baseball or HCC ample opportunities to catch Coach Calhoun and his Hawks one more time on what is hopefully a championship season as the program looks to send out their longtime leader on top.