Ron Davini – AHS Class of 1965
While he was an all-around athlete, playing football, basketball, track and field and baseball, it was his outstanding performance as a catcher for the Colonists that led to Ron Davini’s life-long career in the world of baseball as a player, coach and a member of numerous professional organizations supporting America’s favorite pastime.
The journey started for Ron when the skills he displayed at AHS earned him a scholarship to Arizona State. He played on the university’s National Championship team in 1967 as catcher and earned the awards of “College Player of the Year” and “Most Valuable Player” in the College World Series. These awards placed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame, college section, in Cooperstown, New York. He was also a Western Athletic Conference All-Star twice in 1967 and 1968.
His senior year at Arizona State, he signed with the Chicago White Sox after being drafted by numerous other teams, including being drafted two times by the Sox.
(He was first drafted by the Sox in the 20th round of the 1965 amateur draft but refused the invitation. He was drafted again in 1967 in the third round by the New York Yankees, but also turned down the offer. In 1968, he was drafted in the seventh round by the Cleveland Indians, but once again refused to sign. Finally, after being drafted by the White Sox again in the first round (20th overall) of the 1969 draft, he accepted the offer. Although he played professionally for five years on minor league teams, but never made it to the majors.)
Between 1969-1973, he taught high school and played professional baseball. He kept his talents in Arizona and, for more than 30 years, taught and coached in the Tempe Union High School District. For 26 of those years, he served as head baseball coach of the Corona del Sol High School Aztecs, a program he started when the school opened in 1977. The school’s varsity baseball program won its 300th game in 1999.
Throughout his career, Ron has been involved with many professional organizations supporting the game of baseball. He served on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Coaches Association from 1977-97. In that position, he assisted in setting up clinics for coaches, supervised All-Star selection and is co-directed Arizona All-Star baseball games.
In 1997, Ron spearheaded the establishment of the Arizona Baseball Coaches Association to promote Arizona baseball. He currently is the President/Treasurer of this organization with 264 members, both head and assistant baseball coaches throughout the state. This organization sponsors and coordinates four All-Star games, sponsors two Arizona teams to the Sunbelt tournaments (Oklahoma), continues to hold annual coaches clinics, and has established the Arizona Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
He was the President of the National High School Baseball Coaches Association (1997) and is currently Executive Director of this organization.
He has attended the National American Baseball Coaches annual conferences for the past 19 years and all the National Baseball Coaches clinics as well.
Since 1993, Ron has been involved with USA Baseball. He had served on the nominating committee for Arizona athletes to play in the National Olympic Festival games, as well as on the West selection board for USA Baseball in selecting players for the West team for these same games until 1995. Currently, he is on the selection committee for the USA Junior National Baseball Trials.
Ron has coached three Junior National teams in World Championship competition, twice as an assistant (1992 silver medal and 1995 gold medal). As head coach in 1996, the USA Team traveled to Cuba to win the bronze medal. In 1997, he coached the USA Junior Team to the first Pan American qualifying tournament in Brazil. The team qualified for the World Tournament, placing 3rd (bronze medal).
He worked with USA Baseball in setting up the organizational framework for the Junior National Trials (Joplin, MO.) in 1996 and 1997. He continues to work closely with USA Baseball in the summer as Technical Advisor to the Junior Olympic Baseball Tournament in Tucson, AZ.
Ron is actively involved with baseball camps throughout the year. Twelve years ago, he was involved in the first international youth baseball exchange program with Russia. For three summers (1991-93), he traveled to Russia with a team for four weeks and instructed baseball in that country. Seven years ago, he became Co-Director of the Telluride Baseball Camp (Telluride, Colorado) after assisting with its conception 18 years ago. Annually, he runs the “DEVO” fall baseball camp (9 weeks) at Corona drawing about 100 campers from nine different middle and high schools.
Many other accolades belong to Ron. He was selected as Corona del Sol’s Teacher of the Year in the 1991-92 school year. Ron was also the 1995 Corona del Sol Tempe Diablo Award winner in the Physical Education Department. Three times he was selected as a National Finalist for High School (1992/1999 NHSC & 1993 ABCA) Baseball Coach of the Year.
In 1995, Ron was selected by Walt Disney Productions as one of the top 60 teachers in America and his video profile was shown on the Disney Channel. He has been a speaker at many national clinics and also served on the Arizona Baseball Commission for five years (1995-2000).
In 1997, Ron was selected as the USA National Amateur Baseball Coach of the Year. Ron was inducted into the Arizona Coaches Association Hall of Fame on May 6, 2001. He was also inducted into the Arizona Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame on June 1, 2001. He was selected as Arizona’s 2001 HEROS Award winner by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) and the National Sportscaster and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) for what he has done for baseball in Arizona. He is also on the USA Baseball Board of Director (2001-present) representing the National High School Baseball Coaches Association.
