Baseball head coach Robert Parry recently announced his retirement from coaching after 28 years at his position. He leaves following five Palomar League championships, four San Diego Section titles, and 12 players drafted out of Poway High School.

   Parry made the decision for personal reasons. His fiance’s health has worsened measurably in the past year, and he needed to be more available, Parry said. He would not want to be on the road with no way to make it back home if something were to happen during one of his games.

   Parry’s favorite moment of his career came in 2006 when the Titans came back from losing their opening-round game in a double-elimination tournament to defeat Fallbrook in the CIF San Diego Section Championship. It would be the first of four section titles Parry would win.

   Building relationships with the players and seeing them grow will be the biggest part of coaching that Parry will miss.

   “I always liked that, that always made it fun for me,” Parry said.

   Senior Ryan Kroepel, a shortstop and pitcher who has been on Varsity since his freshman year, was one of the team’s top hitters last season. He said he appreciated Parry’s support.

   “He made everything more simple at the plate, and I was able to go up and be relaxed,” Kroepel said.

   Parry’s successor, Caleb Allen, played under Parry for two years before he graduated in 2002 and coached on his staff for about 10 years before moving to other coaching opportunities.

   “He’ll do a really good job running the program here,” Parry said. “He’s got a lot of knowledge, and he’s perfect for that position.”

   Allen loves the game of baseball, and after retiring from playing baseball following college, he chose to stick to the game by coaching.

   He first joined Parry’s staff in 2007 as the Freshman Baseball coach, and then served as an assistant varsity coach for five seasons before taking an assistant coaching job at San Diego Christian College. When he returned to the district, there was no room on Parry’s staff, so he joined Westview as the Varsity Hitting Coach in 2019.

   One thing he is looking forward to as a head coach is getting to build relationships with his players and to pull the trigger on ideas he has had as an assistant coach.

   “I am super excited for Coach Allen. I think he is super determined to win,” Kroepel said. “Every practice has been very efficient and productive.”