Prep baseball: Maria Carrillo taps JV coach Greg Boitos to lead varsity program

The most prominent baseball coaching vacancy in the county has been filled.

Maria Carrillo has elevated JV coach Greg Boitos to head varsity coach ahead of the upcoming 2024 spring season. Boitos officially began in late October and replaced Sam Bruno, who resigned from his role in September after a six-year stint. Bruno led the Pumas to three North Coast Section championship games, including in 2023 when they finished as runners-up in Division 2.

“(Greg) has a good baseball background, good relationship with the kids,” Maria Carrillo Athletic Director Jerry Deakins said. “… Bringing him in was a seamless transition.

“We really thank Sammy for all he did to stabilize and build our program after Derek (DeBenedetti) left.”

This will be the first varsity head coaching job for Boitos, a 2007 Piner grad. He began his coaching career at the JV level at Piner in 2016 and then served as a varsity assistant before moving to Maria Carrillo last year.

“I’m kind of living the dream right now,” Boitos said. “I was friends with Coach Bruno and he brought me in to be the JV coach and I was looking forward to doing that for a while, but when it opened up I would have been dumb to say no.”

Before getting into coaching, Boitos worked for seven years training umpires for the Northern Coast Officials Association. He now works as a student advisor at Maria Carrillo and led their offseason baseball program this past summer.

“I started the summer program and over the last year I got to work with the varsity guys basically from the end of last year up until now,” Boitos said. “So, I’ve had them for like 6-7 months now.”

The Pumas, who finished 16-10 overall last season, placed fourth in the North Bay League-Oak at 5-5 before going on a deep run through the section playoffs as the No. 6 seed. They graduated 10 players, including all-league pitcher Josh Volmerding, outfielders Cooper Wood and Gio Lucchesi and infielder Devin O’Keefe.

Ahead of his first season at the helm, Boitos said his goal is to keep up the winning traditions at Maria Carrillo.

“Maria Carrillo baseball was around before I got there and it’ll be around after I leave,” he said. “It helps having the biggest Little League in your backyard with Rincon Valley and how much talent comes out of there. I just want to keep things going in the right direction.”

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.