He was three years old. His brother Jeff was seven. They both wore Miami Coral Park High ball caps — the bill on his turned up — as they each sat on a knee of their dad, Steve Hertz, who was crouched in a catcher’s stance, wearing his Coral Park uniform.
In front of them was the big Florida’s Class AAAA state baseball championship trophy won by the Rams, who were coached by Steve.
Back then I was a Miami sportswriter, and I covered Coral Park’s run though the tournament. During that title game at Al Lopez Field in Tampa, I sat next to Fran Hertz, who was Steve’s wife and Darren and Jeff’s mom.
She was a vocal, up-on-her-feet supporter of the Rams that day even though she was surrounded by nearly 1,500 rival fans from opposing Riverview East Bay, a nearby school in Hillsborough County.
The 3-1 Coral Park victory capped off a 30-2 season that was preceded by a 28-5 mark in 1977.
Steve Hertz was a budding baseball legend around Miami in those days.
Although born at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, his family moved to Miami when he was a toddler, and he’d become such a baseball star at Miami High — which is also home to Dayton Flyers basketball coach Anthony Grant — that by age 19 he made his Major League debut with the Houston Colt 45s.
The ascension was meteoric — maybe too fast to equip himself with all the layers of development needed to be a longtime big leaguer — and after five games, he settled back into a minor league career playing for seven different teams in five leagues.
His rise to a head coach was rocket-like, as well, and it soon became evident the best was yet to come for Steve Hertz.
After pro ball he took over the Coral Park program and for 41 years — always as a head coach, never an assistant — he won with the Rams, then Southridge High and for a quarter century with national-powerhouse Miami-Dade Community College.
In addition, he was the manager of the Tel Aviv Lightning in the Israel Baseball League and he led two Team USA teams to gold medals in the Pan American Maccabi Games.
Along the way, he developed dozens of Major Leaguers. Off the top of his head, Darren rattled off names like Jamie Navarro, Placido Polanco, Andre Torres and Omar Olivares. And I remember Coral Park’s big first baseman, Orestes Destrade.
By the time Hertz, who’s now 79, had retired, he had a career record as a prep and juco coach of 1,245-420 (.748) and would be enshrined in a few halls of fame.
“As a kid I looked at my dad like he was Superman,” Darren said.
“I remember in the early ‘80s, when he was coaching Southridge, mom would drive us to the games and as soon as we could get her to park the car, me and my brother would run out to get to the game as fast as we could.”
Some of the same excitement was there when Darren went to the University of Florida and his dad’s junior college teams played the state tournament in Kissimmee, a two-hour drive south:
“I’d always drop everything else, and I’d leave on Friday and stay three, four or five days with my dad at the state tournament.”
Darren began working as a student assistant for the Gators basketball team coached by Billy Donovan and would end up spending 19 years there in a variety of positions. That’s where he met Grant, who was a longtime UF assistant coach.
Eventually, he spent two years as an assistant to John Groce at Illinois and then joined Grant’s staff at Dayton, where he’s been the past seven years.
He was offered the Wittenberg job following the departure of coach Matt Croci, who became the Wilmington College athletics director last month.
“I had this conversation with my dad the past couple of weeks,” Darren said. “Our paths to becoming a head coach were completely different and one’s not right compared to the other.
“He became a head coach when he was like 25 and never once was an assistant coach. I was an assistant for 28 years.
“Neither of us probably fully understands what it’s like to do the other, but I think, as cool as my dad’s path was, there’s probably some pros to being an assistant coach first.”
Of course, his dad had the lessons — some quite hard — of toiling away in pro ball with most of his career coming in the minors after his quick rise to the big leagues.
“On the field my dad was successful wherever he went and off the field I saw the positive influence he had on his players,” Darren said. “Through the years, when anyone associated with his programs saw me, what I remember most is them saying how much they loved him.
“They looooved my dad!
“It had to do with the way he treated people and made them feel important.”
When Hertz was introduced the other day by Wittenberg athletics director Brian Agler, the small audience included a real UD presence. Grant and his wife Chris were there. So were Flyers assistant coaches Ricardo Greer and Jermaine Henderson.
Athletics director Neil Sullivan, who Hertz collaborated with annually on the Flyers’ non-conference schedule — “It was a 365-days of the year job,” Hertz said — stood off to the side.
And back behind him was Sam MacKay, the former Flyers women’s star and longtime pro, who’s now an assistant on the Tigers’ women’s staff of Melissa Kolbe, who stood next to her.
Watching the livestream back home — “If they figured out the technology,” Darren joked — were his mom and dad.
Until a year or two ago when health issues cropped up, his dad would make at least an annual trip to Dayton to see the Flyers play and visit his grandkids — Brandon, who’s now 14, and Lexi who’s 12.
“Now he watches the live feed. He doesn’t miss a game,” Darren said
“When I was at Florida, he’d say, ‘You need another guy like Al Horford or Joakim Noah!’ and I’d laugh and say, ‘Yeah, no (kidding)!’ Now the last couple of years he’s said, ‘You need another Obi or DaRon Holmes!’
“Well, he knows you’re not going to win without really good players.”
The people Darren most appreciated at his press conference were his wife Julie – who is a successful speech language therapist in the Dayton area and has, he said, urged him to try his hand as a head coach – and his two children.
Brandon wore a polo shirt that already was the right shade of Wittenberg red.
And Lexi wore a smile, which Darren was glad to see.
“My daughter was probably the only one at first who kind of gave me the look like maybe she wasn’t all in on this move,” he chuckled. “We couldn’t figure it out. She gave it the silent treatment.
“Finally, it dawned on us.
“I said, ‘Lexi, are you worried you’re not gonna be able to go to Dayton games?’
“She shook her head, ‘Yes,’ and we were like, ‘Lexi, you still can root for the Flyers. You should root for them. And you can wear Flyers’ gear and go to Flyers games.
“’There’ll be some conflicts, but we’ll make sure you get to some Flyers games. If I can go to some, I’ll be there, too.’
“I want my kids to still experience that. They love the Flyers. And now they’re getting excited about Wittenberg, too.
“I think they’ll love it here.”
And just like her grandpa did long ago, Lexi may find that when you think you’ve hit the big time, you soon find out the best is yet to come.
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