Palomar baseball
coach Vetter records 500th
victory
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Palomar
College baseball coach Bob Vetter recorded his
500th collegiate victory when the
Comets defeated Grossmont, 13-4, on April 11 at
home. The Comets then gave him his 400th
win as Palomar’s coach when they defeated
Imperial Valley, 12-11, on April 15 in Imperial.
The Comets went on
to win a third consecutive Pacific Coast
Conference championship and place second behind
eventual State Champion Riverside Community
College in the Southern California Regional
playoffs. Palomar finished the season 32-11, and
Vetter will take records of 513-402-7 (career)
and 412-319-6 into the 2001 season.
Vetter was the
starting center fielder on the 1973 Cal Western
(now USIU) team that won the NAIA World Series.
He joined the Gulls' staff as an assistant coach
the following year and, in 1976, he was named
USIU’s head coach. At 23 years old, he was
the youngest collegiate head coach in the United
States at the time.
He compiled a
101-83-1 record in five seasons as the
Gulls’ head coach. His best season at USIU
was his final one, in 1980, when the Gulls
defeated both Arizona, which went on to win the
College World Series, and San Diego State with
Tony Gwynn in going unbeaten in the Sun Lite
Classic tournament at San Diego State. That team
went 30-12.
Vetter spent the
1981 season as an assistant at Palomar before
being named the Comets’ head coach prior to
the 1982 season.
During
Vetter’s tenure at Palomar, the Comets have
won Pacific Coast Conference championships in
1988, 1989, 1993, 1998, 1999 and 2000. His 1998
team finished the season 30-8 and the 1999 team,
which was ranked No. 1 in Southern California at
the end of the regular season and finally was
eliminated from the postseason by Santa Ana two
games short of advancing to the State Final Four,
was 33-9.
He was honored as
PCC baseball coach of the year five times, and in
1988 he was selected the conference’s coach
of the year for all sports.
Vetter, who
received both Bachelor’s and Master’s
degrees from USIU, also is chairman of
Palomar’s Department of physical education.
Vetter has sent
124 players on to play on the four-year college
level from Palomar and 28 players from Palomar
into pro baseball. His best player at Palomar,
Troy Afenir, was a first-round draft choice in
the old winter draft, being the second player
chosen in the nation in 1982. After two seasons
at Palomar, Afenir signed a pro contract and went
on to play in the Major Leagues for the Houston
Astros, Oakland A’s and Cincinnati Reds as a
catcher.
Of Vetter’s
former Palomar players, Bobby Parry is now head
coach at Poway High School, Billy Dunckel is head
coach at Valley Center and Randy Davila is head
coach at Carlsbad. Numerous other former Comets
are assistant community college andhigh school
coaches. Darren Balsley is a coach in the Padres
organization.
A hitting
instructor for the San Diego School of Baseball
for 22 years, Vetter also serves as the
PCC’s State seeding representative and has
been a member of the California Community College
Baseball Coaches Association Executive Board for
the past 12 years.
Vetter, who grew
up in Tulsa, Okla., and was a high school
baseball standout in Scottsdale, Ariz., lives in
Del Mar with his wife, Sarah; son, Robby, 11; and
daughter, Emily (9).
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