CROWN JEWELS

Top draft prospects Seth Hernandez, Billy Carlson and Brady Ebel power a Corona High team that might be the most talented ever seen in SoCal

- by CARLOS COLLAZO

Years before Corona High was the powerhouse Southern California program it is today, head coach Andy Wise looked around and wondered why top local ballplayers were heading elsewhere.

Hired to coach Corona in the fall of 2009, Wise remembers watching Cory Hahn play at Mater Dei in Santa Ana as an underclassman. Specifically, he remembers Hahn facing hard-throwing Norco senior righthander Matt Hobgood, whom the Orioles drafted fifth overall that June.

Hahn took Hobgood deep twice and knocked Norco out of the playoffs.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this Cory Hahn guy, he’s phenomenal,’ ” Wise said. “I quickly learned Hahn lived around the corner from Corona but decided to go to Mater Dei.”

That summer, Hahn played for USA Baseball’s 18U National Team alongside Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, then led Mater Dei to a 2010 California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championship as a senior.

A few years later, more of the same. Josh Morgan, a Corona-born shortstop, played 18 miles down the road for Orange Lutheran. The Rangers drafted him in the third round in 2014.

“This guy’s over there. This kid’s transferred to JSerra—nobody was going to Corona,” Wise said. “Nobody was. All the kids who lived around the corner were going to all the other schools.”

So Wise got to work building a program that would not only retain the most talented local players but also draw them from elsewhere.

Wise has California baseball in his blood. He played two seasons with Santa Ana JC, then pitched as a reliever for a Long Beach State team that made the College World Series in 1993. After college, he spent eight seasons pitching in independent leagues and retired from playing in 2001.

His coaching career started with La Quinta High in Westminster, where he learned the ropes from Dave Demarest—a 2023 ABCA Hall of Fame inductee who won 15 straight league championships and is the winningest coach in Orange County history.