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Chatsworth baseball off to hot start under new coach Marcus Alvarado

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Chatsworth baseball off to hot start under new coach Marcus Alvarado

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Being a new coach under normal circumstances is hard at any level. Marcus Alvarado started his reign as the baseball coach at Chatsworth High amid a worldwide pandemic.

It wasn’t an ideal situation.

Alvarado was hired in June 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the next five months the closest he got to his players was via Zoom. The first official team activity wasn’t until November when LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner permitted schools to hold outdoor conditioning.

That lasted for roughly three weeks. Beutner shut everything down again before December arrived. In March, he permitted outdoor competition to begin, and that’s when Alvarado was really able to establish the culture he wants the prestigious program to have while he’s at the helm.

“There are expectations every day when the players come to the field,” Alvarado said. “I don’t talk about winning as much as I talk about respecting the game.”

For Alvarado, in the infancy of his debut season, it’s important that players have eye contact with coaches when they are speaking, that they hustle from one station to another during practice, and they respect each teammate. Those are key elements to the culture he’s installing.

Despite a short amount of time to practice as a team, from March 3 to late April, the Chancellors are off to a 5-0 start with West Valley League play starting next week – back-to-back games with Granada Hills Charter (8-2) on Tuesday and Thursday.

Due to LAUSD restrictions, Chatsworth can only compete against schools in its district. The team’s five wins are against Palisades (twice), Roosevelt, Narbonne and Marshall.

“The kids are buying in,” Alvarado said. “I tell them to not take any reps for granted. They should always be working, that’s the approach.”

The team’s top performer has been Nate Flores, a senior transfer from San Fernando High. Flores pitches and plays third base. Senior Billy Rusen has been good so far, too. He pitches and plays first base.

The program has had four coaches since 1990. Tom Meusborn (1990-2013; 2015-2017), Curtis Scott (2014), David Kaczor (2018-2020) and now Alvarado, who came from Kennedy High. Chatsworth and El Camino Real each have nine City Section championships, making the race to 10 worth a close watch. The Chancellors’ last City title came in 2009.

Alvarado knows there’s a lot of work to do. But a 5-0 start certainly isn’t a bad thing.

“It’s nice to be 5-0, sure. But I want to finish the season on a four-game winning streak,” he said, alluding to the consecutive victories in the playoffs it takes to win a City championship in the Open Division.

Chatsworth’s West Valley League foe, Birmingham Charter, is the City Section’s reigning three-time Open Division champion.

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