Queen Creek's Mikel Moreno The Republic's 2024 high school baseball Coach of the Year
Mikel Moreno won a state championship as a high school athlete. Now he's won one as a coach.
Moreno has been chosen by The Arizona Republic as the 2024 high school baseball Coach of the Year, after leading Queen Creek through the 6A double-elimination tournament without a loss for the school's first state title in a big-school conference. Queen Creek won a state baseball title in 1989, when it was a 2A school.
In 1992, Moreno was quarterback at Mesa High, leading the Jackrabbits to the big-school state football championship.
Moreno's first state championship as a coach came a year after he removed himself from the program so that the Bulldogs wouldn't be banned from the 2023 postseason. That team ended up in the state championship game, before losing to Chandler Hamilton 4-1.
This team needed 10 innings in the 6A final to beat Phoenix Sandra Day O'Connor 7-6 on a walkoff hit by sophomore Tait Reynolds, who also is quarterback on the football team. Moreno went straight from winning a state championship to Sierra Vista the next day, doing work for the Army Reserves.
This Bulldogs started out 2-5, losing four of those games in a challenging tournament in Dallas.
"We were competitive in those games," Moreno said. "Two of those were walkoff losses. It's not like we got spanked over there. We saw really good pitching. It was a great experience. When teams do it right and they make sure it's about business, it's about the baseball, the team bonded."
The Bulldogs played six games in three days. That gave Moreno enough time to adjust his lineup and pitching.
Queen Creek won 23 of its final 25 games, gave Brophy Prep its last regular-season loss, and wound up with the No. 1 seed at state, much to Moreno's surprise. Moreno wasn't scoreboard watching. He was too focused on his own team.
Early in the season, Dylan Weekly was a catcher. He was moved to pitcher and ended up coming through in the biggest game, pitching 8⅔ innings of relief for the win in the 7-6, 10-inning win over O'Connor.
"That game on (May 14) was a microcosm of our season. We're down 5-0 and it looks really bad. We had a good inning, a good inning. The boys kept believing. They believed in the program. They believed in each other."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Queen Creek's Mikel Moreno chosen The Republic's HS baseball COY
