Coach Jack Hodges founded the American Eagles Baseball Club in 1984 to compete internationally and promote the game of baseball worldwide. Coach Hodges has taken former Eagles teams to Taiwan, Hawaii, Europe, and Australia. From 1984 to 1989 (and again in 1999) Coach Hodges managed hundreds of Eagles players on tour abroad. Coach Hodges has also coached the USA Junior National Team for many years (including 2007) and is currently the Head Coach at Saddleback College in southern California.
In 1988 Vince Askey, a former Head Coach at the University of California at San Diego, took the Eagles to Sydney, Australia as Head Coach and led the Eagles to become champions of the annual International Youth Friendship Series that features the best youth baseball players in Australia. Mr. Askey has since become the Executive Director of the Eagles and heads the program to this day. In addition to his duties with the Eagles, Vince Askey assists teams from all over the United States travel to Australia for competition as part of the USA/Australia Baseball Exchange program. Askey also was one of the original founders of the Australian Baseball League in 1989 and was a national TV sportscaster covering baseball in Australia from 1991-93.
Over the years, several renowned coaches have guided the Eagles in Australia, including former Major Leaguers Rene Gonzales & Bret Barberie; Dave Demarest, Justin Machado, John Kentera, Rob Ickes, Joe Koh, Dan DeLeon, Vince Askey, Alex Pimentel, Pat Quinn, Mike Neily, Chad Addison, and Don Trujillo. Many Eagles teams in the past years have won tournament championships in Cairns and Brisbane.
In March of 2003 former Major League player RENE GONZALES joined the Eagles coaching staff. Gonzales played for 13 years in MLB and was the starting thrid baseman for the California Angels. He now is a manager in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Gonzales is no stranger to Australian baseball as he was the first Major League player from the USA to play winter ball in Australia in 1988.
BRET BARBERIE joined the Eagles staff in 2004. BARBERIE played six seasons in Major League Baseball after representing the USA on the Gold Medal team in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Coach Barberie is currently on the coaching staff at Cypress College.
The 2007 Eagles were coached in Australia by Chad ADDISON from San Diego, CA Coach ADDISON is currently an Assistant Coach at the University of California, San Diego. He also played on the 1998 Eagles team in Australia after graduating from La Costa Canyon High School.
Other additions to the 2007 Coaching staff included Mike NEILY, Head Varsity Coach at Mira Costa High School, and Pat QUINN, a 5-time Eagles assistant & former player at UCSD.
Coach Don TRUJILLO was an assistant coach on the 1998 Eagles club in Australia. From 1999 to 2002, Coach TRUJILLO has lead the Eagles as Head Coach and guided the squad to Championship titles in both tournaments in 1999 & 2001. From 1999 to 2002, he served on the coaching staff at Redlands East Valley High School. Coach TRUJILLO was an assitant on the 2008 is planning to participate once again with the 2009 Eagles.
The Head Coach for 2008 American Eagles was Mike OSEGUERA. Coach Oseguera is currently an Assistant Coach at U.C. San Diego. Coach Oseguera and Assitant Don Trujillo lead the Eagles to an undefeated 9-0 record on the 2008 Australia tour.
Coach Oseguera and Coach Addison plan to each coach an Eagles squad in 2009.
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