Coaches

Play Hard Baseball is exclusive in saying, we are the ONLY youth baseball program with 6 active professional players on staff, over 50 years of professional baseball experience, 12 of our 14 coaches have played at the collegiate level, 9 at Division I. Not to mention, 10 College World Series appearances, and 4 owners of national championship rings. Our staff is second to none, our boys are being developed by the best.....hands down.

Play Hard Director Dan Ricabal

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Coach Danny Ricabal is a successful pitching coach in the Los Angeles Angels organization. In 2008, he will be the pitching coach of the Rancho Cucomonga Quakes.

Danny graduated from San Gabriel High School in 1990, where he was a 3 year letterman, and won numerous honors and he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners.

He continued at Cerritos Junior College, where he was recognized for his baseball achievements and was invited to the prestigious Alaska League where he made the All-Alaska Summer League Team. While at Cerritos he was on 2 South Coast Conference Championship Teams, and was voted Junior College All-American. He earned a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton.

At Cal State Fullerton Ricabal was an All-American and played in the College World Series where he defeated LSU and Florida State. He signed with the Dodgers in 1994.

After his extensive professional baseball career, Ricabal became a coach under the tutelage of Len Mohney, AD at College of the Canyons in 2000. In 2001 Ricabal added to his coaching experience under the tutelage of George Horton, Head Coach at CSUF. From 2002 - 2004, Ricabal was the pitching and recruiting coach at UCSB. In 2004 the Play Hard Baseball Club was born and in 2005 Danny was hired by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as a minor league pitching coach.

Click here to see how the quakes are doing.

Coach Eric Martins

Coach Eric Martins grew up in Whittier, California where he attended La Serna High School. At La Serna Martins was a three sport athlete playing football, basketball and baseball. Martins won the C.I.F. title in 1990 as a Lancer in his Senior Year. Martins earned 1st team all C.I.F. honors and was invited to play in the Olympic Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he won a gold medal.

Martins continued his baseball career at Cerritos College and earned all conference and all state honors. Martins attended Long Beach State University and played in the College World Series in 1993 where they lost in the semi-finals to eventual National Champion LSU. The "Dirtbag" grabbed all conference and 3rd team All-American honors alongside fellow Coach Rolo in 1994.

The Oakland A's selected Martins in the 12th round of the June draft. That same year, Martins was sent to Medford, Oregon of the Northwest League where an All-Star was and led the league in hitting with a .331 battering average. Martins was promoted to Western Michigan (A) of the Midwest League where he batted .310. In Martin's full professional season he was a California League All-Star for the Modesto A's. Martins climbed the ladder fast playing in Huntsville )AA) in 1996 and promoting to Edmonton (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League in 1997 winning the PCL title that same year. Martins played in Triple-A from 1997-2001 for the Edmonton Trappers, Vancouver Canadians, and the Sacramento River Cats winning the Trip-A world series in 1999.

Following the 2001 season, Martins had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. Martins played a rehab season for the Long Beach Breakers of the Western Baseball League where he helped lead them to a league title. Martins holds the record for hitting in 32 straight games. In 2003 Martins played for the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Martins was an All-Star alongside Ricky Henderson and Coach Rolo, and helped lead the Patriots to the Atlantic League title. Martins finished the season batting .303 with 6 home runs and 51 RBI.

In 2004 Martins played his final season in Italy for Nettuno of the Italian Professional Baseball League. Martins finished his career with a .291 career average, 1087 hits and more walks than strikeouts. Martins looks forward to molding future student-athletes and professional baseball players.

Coach Rolo Avila

Rolando "Rolo" Avila has been a professional baseball player for 13 years. He has been part of the Play Hard Baseball Club staff ince 2006.

His baseball career continued at L.A. Harbor Community College where as a freshman and sophomore he earned All State and All American honors. He holds the career records for most hits and most runs scored at L.A. Harbor. Rolo went on to play at Long Beach State where he earned All American honors. He also holds the Long Beach State single season record for stolen bases with 45.

The Baltimore Orioles drafted Rolo after his junior year in the 20th round. He was an All-Star in the California League (A) while playing with the High Desert Mavericks. Rolo made it as high as Triple A Rochester in '96. In the off season, he was traded to the Log Angeles Dodgers for 1st round pick Ryan Luzinski, and stole a career high 52 stolen bases for single A San Bernardino. After asking for his release in 1998 he went on to play in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for 8 years, ('98-'05) during which time he was a 5 time All-Star and led the league in hits at 150 in 2002 and again led at 160 in 2003 breaking the single season record for hits.

In 2003 Rolo was named the Atlantic Leagues M.V.P. He also played that year on Team U.S. A. World Cup Team that traveled to Cuba. He holds the USA Baseball World CUp Team Invidividual Records for stolen bases in a game with 3 and overall stolen bases in a World Cup with 7. Averaging 30 stolen bases during his 13-year career, 1500 hits and 395 stolen bases.

Coach Josh Schmidt

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Coach Josh Schmidt grew up in Sierra Madre Ca where he played Little League and Pony Baseball. He then attended La Salle High School where he was a three year letterman and helped lead his team to two league championships and three CIF playoff appearances.

From there Schmidt attended Citrus College in Glendora Ca where he went 12-5 over two seasons and earned a scholarship to the University of the Pacific. At Pacific he became the school’s all-time saves leader, and ranked second in the nation with 13.3 Kper9 during his senior season. He also finished with a 1.79 ERA which was good enough for him to be named to the All-Big West Second Team.

After that season Schmidt was drafted by the Yankees in the 15th round, and was then assigned to the short season Staten Island Yankees. While playing for Staten Island, he was named to the All-Star team and led his team to a league championship. After finishing the season with a record of 5-1, with 13 saves and a 0.27 era, he was named a Baseball America Short Season All-Star and the MiLB.com Short Season Relief Pitcher of the Year.

For the ‘06 and ‘07 seasons Schmidt played for the Tampa Yankees. Having played three seasons, he continues to work to move up the ranks of the Yankees system.