Legendary college coach Mike Gillespie and former Major League catcher Brent Mayne talked about the importance of community college baseball and just how good the Orange Empire Conference is at the first ever OEC Baseball Media Day held at Irvine Valley College on Friday.

The Orange Empire Conference is considered the top community college baseball conference in the country, sending dozens of players each year on to four-year schools as well as the Major Leagues.

Orange Empire Conference teams have won 12 of the last 18 community college state titles and the conference coaches are known as some of the best around.

Those points were reinforced by Gillespie, a long-time USC coach and current UC Irvine baseball skipper, and Mayne, a former Orange Coast standout, Cal State Fullerton star and 15-year Major League player.

"This particular conference is without argument the premier conference in the country," said Gillespie, who started his coaching career at College of the Canyons and won three state titles there. "The opportunity to grow and develop and enhance and create additional opportunities when the time comes to make the move to a university is genuine and is real (from the conference baseball programs).

"How many scholarships have come just out of the Orange Empire Conference let alone the state of California. I think it is believable that well over 150 baseball players come out of the state of California community college programs every year with scholarships."

"The coaches in the room know my feeling about community college baseball and about this group of people and this conference specifically," Gillespie added. "There is no debate. A third of our players at the program I am at right now (UC Irvine) are community college players, most of whom are from this conference.
"The proof is really in the pudding with regard to the UCI program as it relates to the community college level."

Mayne, who played in more than 1,200 Major League games, grew up around Orange Empire Conference baseball. As a kid he watched his father Mike Mayne guide the Orange Coast program.

"This league, at the foundation, is the coaches and the amazing lineage that has been through this starting with Wally Kinkaid (Cerritos), Mike Mayne (Orange Coast), Don Sneddon (Santa Ana), Scott Pickler (Cypress), Dennis Rogers (Riverside), Nick Fuscardo (Fullerton), Jon Altobelli (Orange Coast), hopefully not to leave anyone out," Mayne said.

"From having played at the highest level of baseball for a number of years and crossing paths with hundreds and hundreds of coaches I can honestly tell you that the coaches in this league are the best in the world."

"You learn how to live life and how to play baseball in this league and for that I am internally grateful," Mayne added.

The youngest head coach in the group, Irvine Valley's Kent Madole, said he is lucky to be able to match wits with some of the best and most experienced coaches in the country. 

"I really enjoy coaching in this conference," said Madole, who is in his eighth year of guding the IVC program. "I have learned so much from the coaches we go up against every week. I can attribute most of the new wrinkles I have on my face to the Picks (Scott Pickler) and the Sneddons (Don Sneddon) and the Rogers (Dennis Rogers) and all of you guys.

"It is stressful in many ways, but that is good because it means, like these other coaches have said, you can't ever take a day off and you have to bring your best. I appreciate the competition and what I have learned under you guys and I am excited to get after it again this year."