Sunset’s Mendoza and Varela’s Collazo are the Miami-Dade Baseball Coaches of the Year
Miami Sunset and Felix Varela High’s long-suffering baseball programs each reached new heights this season.
Sunset, a team which had one only one game combined over the previous two seasons, exceeded even its own expectations by reaching the Class 4A state semifinals for the first time in school history.
And Varela, which had never even made an appearance before in a regional playoff, won its first postseason game and set a new single-season high for victories.
As such, their coaches, Sunset’s Julio Mendoza and Varela’s Lazer Collazo are the Miami Herald’s Baseball Coaches of the Year for Miami-Dade County.
Mendoza, who is in his second year at the helm of the Knights, took over a program that went winless in 2021 and led them to a 1-14, albeit more competitive 2022 campaign.
Everything changed this season though.
Sunset, a program which had made only one regional playoff appearance in 2013, went 17-9, qualifying for the GMAC tournament and finishing runner-up in its district. The Knights, as the No. 6 seed in the region, pulled off two postseason road upsets at Jensen Beach and later at top-seeded Key West to advance to the state final four.
Sunset’s dream season ended abruptly after a 5-4 walk-off loss against eventual champion Citra North Marion in the state semifinals. But the Knights may have set a foundation for sustained success.
“The goal now is to compete for this every year. It’s hard to get here and even harder to win it,” Mendoza said after the state semifinal defeat. “But the goal is to be this good and enough years of getting here we’re bound to win one.”
It had been quite some time since the Vipers had even come close to a winning season like the one they put together this year under veteran coach Collazo, who led Gulliver to a state title in 2004.
Varela went 17-5-1 and advanced to its first GMAC tournament final, beating Sunset in a walk-off thriller along the way before falling to Class 7A regional finalist Columbus in the championship round.
The Vipers, who went unbeaten (10-0-1) on their home field, would later win their first regional playoff game before falling in the region semifinal round to Class 6A state semifinalist Doral Academy.
“Our guys never, never gave up and that’s what it’s all about,” Collazo said after the regional playoff loss. “...Next year, we will return a lot and … watch out.”
