Rock Canyon hires Garrett Duman as baseball coach
In looking for its new baseball coach, Rock Canyon has planted some seed from the Marc Johnson tree.
Athletic director Thomas Brieske announced on Twitter Thursday that Garrett Duman has been hired as the new coach of the Jaguars.
Duman spent 11 years on the Cherry Creek coaching staff and says he’s ready to take charge of a job that hasn’t been far off his line of sight.
“It’s a job that I’ve always had my eye on,” Duman said. “I always felt it was a great place. The community is similar to Cherry Creek so that transition won’t be so hard. It’s a place that’s still relatively young, but already had success. It’s a proven winner.”
The Jaguars’ new coach played for Johnson in high school and played collegiately at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Upon returning to Colorado, he threw himself back into baseball, joining Johnson’s staff where he eventually learned the ins and outs of coaching from one of the best Colorado has to offer.
“I’d be hard-pressed to find a better mentor,” Duman said. “What I admire most about Coach J is throughout all of his success, he’s had other opportunities to coach in college or professionally, that he’s been committed to staying in his community at Cherry Creek.”
Duman now leaves that community and will try to entrench himself with a new one. But he’s a baseball-minded guy and he knows that as long as he has kids that are willing to work hard, he’ll reach a level of success that can’t be measured in wins and losses.
And along the way, he’s embracing perhaps the biggest challenge that comes with coaching in high school. He doesn’t just want to teach the kids about baseball, he wants to help them develop life skills.
“I want to give the kids a good experience on the baseball field and develop as people,” Duman. “That part is going to be rewarding. As a head coach, you feel like you’re responsible for that and I’m excited about that task.”
