When it was announced in late October 2013 that Darren Murphy would become the head baseball coach at South Hills High School in West Covina, Calif., there were nearly unanimous nods of approval from the baseball community all across the San Gabriel Valley.

Murphy would be coming over to South Hills from Northview High School in nearby Covina, Calif. – a 10-miinute drive separates the two schools – basically moving into an adjoining neighborhood where he would be replacing Kevin Smith, the previous head coach. Smith won 14 league titles and the 2009 California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Division 2 championship in 15 years at the school; he left South Hills to take the head coaching job at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC).

But this wasn’t some up-and-comer the South Hills HS administration was hiring. Murphy won his share of league championships at Northview, his alma mater, and also won the CIF Southern Section Division 4 championship in 2008. But despite that success and his personal history with Northview, Murphy felt an overwhelming desire to pack up and move just down the street.

“Anybody who knows the history of San Gabriel Valley baseball knows what South Hills has done,” Murphy told the San Gabriel Valley Times at the time of his hiring. “The players they have produced, the championships; everybody knows that history.

“It’s a school that has expectations,” he continued. “They make baseball one of their priorities on campus and I’m excited to run a program like that. It was the only job I would take.”

Now that Murphy has started his third season as the head coach of the South Hills HS program, he continues to make sure those priorities remain at the forefront. And as the 2016 season kicks off in Southern California, expectations are as high ever with the Huskies ranked No. 17 nationally in the Perfect Game High School Preseason Top 50 Rankings.

They are the fourth highest-ranked team in the PG High School Pacific Region (California, Hawaii) falling in line behind No. 1 Huntington Beach HS (Calif.), No. 6 JSerra Catholic HS (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and No. 14 Dana Hills HS (Dana Point, Calif.). Those three are also CIF Southern Section schools but are in Division 1; South Hills is Division 2.

SHHS has not won a Southern Section championship since Smith led the Huskies to that 2009 title but the word on the streets all across the San Gabriel Valley hint that may change this spring. Murphy can field a junior-dominated lineup that features eight players who have already committed to NCAA Division-I schools, although one of their top seniors is most likely lost for the season due to injury.

“We have very high expectations this season because of the talent we have this year; we know we’re capable of doing a lot of good things,” senior centerfielder Christian Moya told PG this week. “Our first goal is to have a great (regular) season, win our league and then carry that on to where we’re hopefully walking out of the season with a CIF (championship) ring.”

The talk about winning CIF championships rings is prevalent among this year’s group of hungry young Huskies. None of them have experienced it before – most of these guys were in elementary school the last time South Hills won a CIF Section championship – but they seem to realize just how big of an accomplishment it would be.

“We’re looking to win the CIF (Southern Section championship), for sure. At least that’s what I’m hoping for,” standout junior right-hander Andres Alvarez shared with PG this week. “We have the talent and we have everything else, we just have to come together and win as a team.”

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THE HUSKIES FINISHED 21-6-1 OVERALL (11-4 SIERRA LEAGUE) after a loss in the second-round of the Southern Section Division 2 playoffs in 2014, Murphy’s first season; they were 19-9-1 overall (9-5-1 Palomares League) after a second-round loss last season.

“We’ve had some really bad luck with some injuries at the end of each of the first two seasons. The injury bug got us at the wrong time and we’ve come up a little short,” Murphy told PG during a telephone conversation this week. “It’s not an excuse but it is an excuse – it’s just been problematic and bad timing the first two years. But you’ve got to learn from it and you have to look at it like everybody has injuries and we have to deal with it.”

A change of leagues through the years has brought about a change of rivalries for the Huskies. During the five or six seasons they dominated the San Antonio League they consistently battled Nogales for the top spot in the standings.

For four seasons in the Sierra League, Chino Hills – the 2015 CIF Southern Section Division 2 runner-up – provided the highest-end opposition. Ayala and Claremont followed South Hills from the Sierra to the Palomares last season, but the league championship was won by Glendora. The Huskies are back in the Palomares League this season and with the talent on their roster, anything short of a championship will be unacceptable.

First, the bad news. The Huskies are going to be without 6-foot-4, 190-pound left-hander and outfielder Ryan Mauch for most of, and probably all of, the 2016 season. A two-sport standout who has committed to Long Beach State to play baseball, Mauch tore an ACL in the South Hills’ first football game of the season and Murphy said it is very unlikely he will available this spring. He was 8-0 with a 0.76 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 55 innings as a junior.

But even with Mauch sitting, the Huskies still have one of the deepest and most talented pitching staffs in Southern Section Division 2. Senior left-hander Hayden Petrovick, a San Diego State signee ranked No. 460 nationally, is a top returnee after going 3-0 with six saves and a 0.93 ERA in 15 appearances as the team’s closer in 2015.

“Hayden has been our closer the last two years and he’s now getting an opportunity to step into a starting role – one that he has coveted and wanted – and he’s been given a great opportunity,” Murphy said. “It’s unfortunate what happened with Ryan – you can’t replace Ryan – but our pitching is just really ridiculous; I’m so fortunate with the pitching that we have.”

The other hurlers Murphy will rely on include the junior right-handers Andres Alvarez (No. 160-ranked, uncommitted) and John Dearth (t-500, San Diego State), junior left-hander Karlos Morales (No. 432, Long Beach State) and sophomore right-hander/middle-infielder Brandon Deiter (No. 100, Stanford).

“It’s been really cool; it was a good experience coming in as a sophomore,” said Alvarez, who was 2-1 with a 0.82 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings last season. “It’s hard to make this team because it’s one of the best teams out here in the San Gabriel Valley and it’s a great feeling.”

Added Murphy: “Andres Alvarez is as good as anybody we have. We’re fortunate that we’re deep on the mound and if an injury had to happen, the mound is probably the best place for it to happen since we’re so deep.”

The Huskies are also very deep up the middle with Dieter and juniors Jacob Amaya (No. 55, Cal State Fullerton) and Jacob Dominguez (t-500, Cal State Fullerton). Amaya must sit out the first 30 days after transferring in from Northview and will play shortstop when he returns. Dominguez will play third base and Dieter will start out at short and then move to second when Amaya comes back.

“We have a very nice problem – I have three of the best shortstops in the area,” Murphy said. “Jacob Amaya is as good as they get; he’s pretty special at shortstop. He swings the bat well and he’s just one of those God-given talents.”

Senior Christian Moya (No. 371, Southern Cal) will anchor the outfield from his position in center. Moya hit .265 in 16 games as a junior last year after transferring in from Bishop Amat HS in La Puente but Murphy expects big things from his senior leader this season.

“Christian really came into his own again this fall; he kind of got back to being Christian again,” Murphy said. “Last year he felt a little pressure coming over and put a little undo pressure on himself to perform and this year’s a lot more relaxed. He’s out leadoff hitter and he’s really settled down; he really gets our offense going.”

Moya is ready to go: “When I first came over the coaching staff really brought me in, the players really brought me in, and now we’re like a big family,” he said. “We all have the same goals and it’s been awesome playing with these guys. For my (senior) year I just want it to be very fun and get what we have to get done, and go out there and enjoy it.”

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LEAGUE AFFILATIONS ASIDE, THE HISTORY AND TRADITION AT SOUTH HILLS is strong and rich as any school in the SVG. The CIF has changed its classifications through the years, but Huskies teams won Section championships in Class 3A in 1966, Class 4A in 1992, Class IV in 1997 and Class III in 1998 before winning the SS Division 3 championship in 2009.

South Hills alumni include the big-league brothers Jason and Jeremy Giambi and other big-leaguers like Jeff Cox, Cory Lidle, Aaron Small and Shawn Wooten; 21 SHHS alumni have been selected in the MLB Amateur Draft, according to baseball-reference.com.

Murphy and his staff took the Huskies to Las Vegas in early February for a couple of out-of-season games just to get the blood flowing, if you will. One of the games they played was against No. 23-ranked Bishop Gorman, the prep juggernaut that annually competes for national championships.

The Huskies fell behind early but came back to tie the game at 3, and ultimately pushed across a run in the seventh to pull out the win, but that wasn’t the “coolest” part of the game, according to Murphy. That came when Jason Giambi, who now lives in Las Vegas, showed up and watched from the Huskies’ dugout, and could be seen high-fiving the players after they scored the winning run.

“We had that second day in Vegas where we were all a little tired in the morning and when he came into the dugout it just kind of changed the atmosphere,” Murphy said. “He’s one of the many examples we use to show that this is where the bar is set at South Hills and these are the type of guys that played on these fields and wore these uniforms. We have that expectation that we need to keep the program at that level.”

Another person who has watched the SHHS program prosper over the past 17 years is Mike Viera, who owns and operates the highly respected West Covina-based San Gabriel Valley Arsenal Baseball organization.

“South Hills has traditionally been a baseball school with the Giambis and with Wooten – it just goes way back as a baseball school, and it always has been,” Viera told PG. He described the entire city of West Covina as a historically rock-solid baseball community and one that just always has been a good area for developing interest in and promoting he game.

The SGV Arsenal’s fields and facilities are only about a half-mile from the high school – the Huskies’ junior varsity and freshman teams practice there – and most of the kids who grew up in the area became familiar with Arsenal program when they were quite young. Moya, Morales, Dearth, Dominguez, Amaya and Mauch are all involved with SGV Arsenal.

“One of the first calls I made when I moved over to South Hills was to Mike (Viera),” Murphy said. “I wanted to make sure we established a good relationship and there was no arm-wrestling going back-and-forth or putting kids in difficult spots. When it’s summertime he knows that he has them, and I’m good with that, and in return I think he knows his kids are in a good spot with us. An important part is to make sure the kids feel that they should really like playing for both programs.”

Viera’s own children attend school in the Covina-Valley Unified School District and will attend South Hills when they reach high school age. He is active in the PTA and the community at large so all the young baseball players in elementary and middle-schools are eager to jump in if they can get through a tryout. But Viera is also quick to point out he has players from as many as 40 high schools in his program and opens his arms to everyone.

“It’s nice for us because we know so many of the high school coaches and it’s great when they work with you,” Viera said. “We have such a good relationship with a lot of the high schools, and with South Hills being right there where it is, it’s nice to have a good working relationship with the high school coaches.”

The one attribute men like Murphy and Viera both share is the tremendous sense of pride they feel when their players receive college scholarship offers. The South Hills roster already has eight such players and it’s just a matter of time before Alvarez commits to an elite D-I program.

“I tell the kids all the time that winning is awesome and it’s great, and we’ve done it before. We as a staff have won championships at other places and that will never get old,” Murphy said. “But seeing a kid sign on the dotted line is the best because you know that if they continue to make good choices they’re going to live a good life.”

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CHRISTIAN MOYA WAS A FIRST-YEAR HUSKIE A SEASON AGO AS A JUNIOR but he is now a second-year senior and looking to finish his high school career on the highest of notes. When he looks around the South Hills dugout he sees in his teammates as a group where everyone wants the same thing.

“This year we have a new team, a new start, and we have a ton of young guys and they’re ring-hungry – all they want is a ring,” he said. “Everyone is willing to do what we have to do to get a ring … and everyone is playing baseball the way we need it played to be a successful team this year.”

And another thing Moya likes about this Huskies outfit is that even though he is a senior, he doesn’t have to get on the top step of the dugout and be a rah-rah leader:

“I feel like everyone has matured as far as what we have to do because we’ve all played in great programs, whether it’s here or with travel ball,” he said. “Of course I feel like I have to (exhibit) some leadership because there are some guys on the team that look up to me. I enjoy that because I feel like with the younger guys I can teach them and help them progress into becoming great baseball players.”

The Huskies open the season on Feb. 27, begin Palomares League play against Diamond Bar on March 18 and will play in the Boras Spring Break Classic March 28-31; April and May are filled with dates against league foes.

Life in the fast-lane in CIF Southern Section Division 2 can be filled with detours, but the South Hills Huskies are determined to stay the course while doing things on their own terms: “We like to go out and take care of business and we’re a fun team, too. When it’s time to go out on the field we do our thing but we’re really a fun team just to hang out with,” Alvarez said.

It’s pretty much the way Murphy hoped events would play themselves out when he was introduced as the SHHS head coach back in October 2013. The words he spoke then are strikingly similar to the words he spoke when he talked with Perfect Game earlier this week.

“I envisioned going to South Hills as an opportunity where the sky’s the limit,” Murphy said. “I thought that at some point we could get here and get the kids going somewhere and play in these big tournaments, and it’s been an exciting process. We’re starting to get there in my third year … and we’re in a good place right now.”