Arias to return as Liberty softball coach
Oct. 13—He's ba-ack.
Following a six-year hiatus, Henry "Spanky" Arias will return to coach the Liberty softball team.
One of the most successful coaches in the area during his 11-year tenure with the Patriots, Arias led his team to five straight league titles and the area's first Central Section Division I softball championship in 2006, solidified with a well-chronicled 1-0 victory over top-seeded Clovis-Buchanan in a 24-inning marathon final.
But the grind of coaching began to take a toll on Arias, and he opted to step away following the 2016 season after compiling a 216-119-4 record (.645 winning percentage) at Liberty.
"At that time, I had been coaching for 20 years and just felt a burn out," said Arias, who coached at Ridgeview before taking over the Patriots program six games into the 2006 season.
Arias' departure to replacement was a smooth transition, with Ryne Petersen taking over, and continuing the school's success on the softball diamond. Following three runner-up finishes in the Southwest Yosemite League, and a two-year interruption due to COVID, Liberty captured its first league title since 2010 last year, sharing the crown with Centennial.
But when Peterson opted to step down, Arias decided to apply. He was interviewed and officially hired in late August, Arias said.
"I'm very excited," Arias said. "I'm glad I have a few months to kind of ease into it. It's definitely allowed me to get to know the girls, allowed me to reestablish the program, and how I want to do things. There's excitement, I'm ready to get started."
It was a bit of deja vu for Tim Davis, Liberty's athletic director. Davis hired Arias back in 2006, and again this time around.
"To me, it's just exciting," David said. "There's a lot of young coaches, and to run a program like ours with three teams and stuff, there's a lot of guys that haven't done that. So it's nice to have him who has been through it at our level and knows what it's all about. We're all excited to have him back."
A big factor in Arias' decision to return to Liberty centered around another choice — to lose a few extra pounds.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the 6-foot-1 coach saw his weight balloon to 305 pounds. Feeling sluggish and a bit unmotivated, Arias said things hit a breaking point and he knew he had to make a change.
During the summer of 2020, he started running, a ritual that has continued the past two years. He now runs 20 minutes a day during lunch or after school in the Rosedale Middle School gymnasium, where he has taught PE for the past three years, and says he runs for 30 to 40 minutes a day during the summer.
The result has been the loss of nearly 90 pounds, and an increase in his energy level.
"My body feels better than it has in the past 10 years," Arias said. "So I do have more energy to go play sports and stuff. I mean, I feel it after I play, but definitely not as much as I did at one point."
So as he looks ahead to his return to the softball field, Arias says he understands there will be a bit of a learning curve, and he welcomes it.
"Everything changes in coaching, and being away for six years," Arias said. "I'm just trying to catch up to speed, remembering everything, what I know and being able to go out to practice and apply it to the girls, teach them things. It's almost like starting over from scratch in some ways, which I enjoy. That's bringing the excitement back for me."
