OEC Pair Inducted into CCCBCA Hall of Fame

A pair or former Orange Empire Conference coaches were inducted into the California Community College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on May 22, 2015, at a dinner banquet in Fresno on the night preceding the start of the baseball state championship tournament.

Don Sneddon (Santa Ana College) and Jack Hodges (Saddleback College) shared the spotlight with Jerry Bartow (Southwestern College) during the induction ceremonies.  Sneddon and Hodges were OEC rivals for over 20 years but were collegial and gracious in sharing the stage on this night.

Coach Sneddon spent 32 years as the head coach at Santa Ana (1982-2013) where he became the all-time winningest coach in California community college baseball history, posting 1,072 victories against just 383 losses and three ties.  He led the Dons to 16 conference titles, three state titles, and three state runner-up finishes.

He guided Santa Ana to 32 consecutive winning seasons, of which 22 of those seasons his team had a winning percentage of .700 or higher.  He was named as the conference coach of the year 16 times, including five-straight seasons from 2007-2011.  

Sneddon has also coached several youth, national, and touring baseball teams, including a championship season with the National Baseball Congress and several seasons in the Alaska Summer League.  He has also coached a college-level touring team which played in Taiwan and assisted with the National Team trials as a precursor to the U.S. Olympic Team.

Coach Hodges spent 22 years as the head coach at Saddleback (1990-2011) where he built a career record of 580-362 along with four ties.  He led the Gauchos to 13 playoff appearances, including three Final Four appearances at the state championship.  The Gauchos won the state championship in 2004 while finishing as state runners up in 1998 and 2003.

Under his guidance, Saddleback posted 18 seasons with 20-or-more victories and eight seasons with 30-or-more victories.  That included 17 consecutive seasons with at least 20 victories (1993-2009).

Hodges coached baseball in Southern California for 41 years at the high school and college levels, amassing 920 victories against 522 losses and six ties.  He also coached American Legion baseball teams, the Orange County Kiwanis All-Star team, California state high school all-star games, California state area code games, and national high school all-star series teams along with USA Junior National and Olympic Festival baseball teams.

Hodges was a four-sport letterman at Kamehameha High School in Hawaii before earning a scholarship to continue his football and baseball careers at Stanford University.  He graduated from Stanford with a bachelor's degree in journalism and an English minor and played professional baseball in the Kansas City Royals organization for two years before returning to Whittier College to earn his California high school teaching credential and a master's degree.

He was selected as the California high school coach of the year in 1987, the Orange Empire Conference coach of the year in both 1996 and 1998, and the Orange County Register coach of the year in 2004.