Rachel Phillips is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Central High School for AZPreps365.com.

The start of the new decade marks a new look for Central High School baseball with the arrival of a new coach, primed to have an impact both on and off the field.

Over the past few months, former college pitcher and current health insurance manager Randy Aguiar has been making the transition from assistant coach to head coach before the first pitch is thrown out on Friday.

Baseball was always the sport for Aguiar.

“That was my life, especially when I was eight or nine years old,” Aguiar said. “That's when I really fell in love with the game. It was my escape.”

Aguiar grew up in a rough part of San Diego where he needed hobbies to keep him out of trouble. As a result, faith, family and baseball became his pillars. 

Aguiar played college baseball at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri before moving to Tijuana to play in an amateur league for three years. Despite a trial with a minor league team, Aguiar moved to Phoenix to be with his now wife.

“It was hard, but it was that time to kind of grow up and I felt like I’d go further through the work way than through baseball,” Aguiar said.

At the time, Aguiar never envisioned coaching. Instead, he used his degree and got a job in health insurance.

Things didn't change until Brendan Mann, a friend from college and now the Central High School football coach, told him the local middle school needed a baseball volunteer. 

“He’s super smart and knows and understands the game so well, but even more so, he’s good to kids,” Mann said. “Kids feel safe with him and kids feel loved with him and when you have those two things with kids, they’re going to grow.”

Aguiar volunteered for the middle school baseball team and helped Mann coach football before becoming the junior varsity baseball coach at Central, followed by assistant coach of the varsity team and now head coach.

Despite it spiraling quickly, seeing the joy baseball brought other kids renewed Aguiar’s love and passion for the game and gave him a way to help kids who had a similar upbringing.

“I see a lot of what I saw in myself in these kids,” Aguiar said. “They just need attention. They just need somebody they can lean on, because it's bigger than baseball.”

“Both Randy and I have the same philosophy, to leave things better than we found them,” Mann said. “We want to give kids a chance to kind of grow and make their situation better.”

Marco Ruiz is someone Aguiar has been able to watch grow since coaching him in middle school six years ago. In the years since, Ruiz played baseball at Central and since graduating has become a volunteer coach under Aguiar’s guidance.

“We always talked to him like he was just another friend of ours. We were never scared to tell him anything,” Ruiz said. “He always told us to never be afraid of him and to go to him with anything, whether it was in person, on the phone, at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.”

To make it to practice by 3.30 p.m., Aguiar gets to his day job at 5.30 a.m. He transitions from managing 15 employees in a suit to coaching a team of high school students in a cap and shirt.

But for Aguiar, the busy days are worth it.

Aguiar wants baseball to be more than just wins and losses for these kids. He wants to see growth from now until the end of the season. He wants to be someone they can trust and talk to and someone who can have a positive impact on their lives.

“The kids are fortunate to have him,” Mann said. “Not because he played college baseball and knows what he’s doing, but because he really is such a big part in living and breathing and being that good example for these kids.”

“Baseball got me an education, got me a wife, got me amazing connections, this job,” Aguiar said. “I don’t care about the outside [pressure]. It’s these kids, they are everything. I’m always going to be about them.”

Aguiar has had his fair share of coaches over the years so for this season, he’s had to find that fine line of what all of his coaches taught him and relay it in a way the players will be receptive.

Because of this the team motto on the field is simple – outwork, outhustle and outplay. The motto off the field takes a bit more effort from the entire team – kindness, passion and family.

After losing nine seniors last season, Central baseball will have its work cut out for it. But Aguiar is optimistic about that, too.

“I’m a big believer in laying it all out on the field, but if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out,” Aguiar said. “Usually good things happen when you leave it all out there.”

“It’s not the best-looking team, but I know what a good coach can do,” Ruiz said. “They can always impact kids and it doesn’t have to be an impact on the baseball side. It can be school wise, just anything.”

Mann expects Central to be region champions within the next two to three years, purely because Aguiar is at the helm.