Southridge, True North, Springs coaches are Dade Baseball Coaches of the Year
True North’s Adrian Nieto led his team to success it had yet to experience.
Southridge’s Manny Ojeda led his team to success it hadn’t achieved in over two decades.
And Miami Springs’ Corey Estrada led his team to success few expected to happen again so soon.
After remarkable accomplishments for each program, Nieto, Estrada and Ojeda are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade Baseball Coaches of the Year.
Ojeda is the winner for Classes 7A-5A while Nieto and Estrada share honors for Classes 4A-1A.
Nieto, a former major-leaguer who spent time in the Miami Marlins’ organization, helped start True North’s baseball program five years ago.
As head coach for the past five seasons, Nieto has helped transform the Titans from an upstart program to a legit state title contender.
This season, True North advanced to its first state final before losing to Jacksonville Trinity Christian in the Class 2A championship game.
Led by senior pitcher William Foss, the Herald’s 4A-1A Pitcher of the Year, the Titans repeated as district champions and stormed through the playoffs on their way to their first regional title. True North graduates several key starters, but has a strong group on the rise, which will try to take the final step toward a state title next season.
Ojeda has seen a similar evolution at Southridge in his three seasons as coach.
The Spartans advanced to the regional finals in Class 6A and took reigning state champion St. Thomas Aquinas to three games in their best-of-3 series. Southridge managed to win a district title and secure its first GMAC tournament championship since 2001.
The Spartans will have to reload under Ojeda next season, but return ace Isaac Vidal, who is the Miami Herald’s 7A-5A Pitcher of the Year and a University of Miami signee.
Estrada was an assistant coach last season when Miami Springs won its first ever state championship. But with only two starters returning, few expected the Hawks to mount much of a title defense.
Springs defied the odds even after a slow start to this season. The Hawks qualified for the playoffs as the No. 8 and final seed in Region 4-3A. They proceeded to beat St. Brendan, iMater Prep and Gulliver, and became only the second 8th seed to reach state and first ever from Dade. And now the Hawks are in position to make a run next year with a large returning core of seniors.
