California head baseball coach David Esquer represents the best in college baseball - first as a player, then as an assistant coach, and now as the leader of the Golden Bears. As a player, Esquer was the starting shortstop on Stanford’s 1987 national championship squad. As an assistant coach, he helped produce six NCAA postseason teams and one World Series participant at Stanford and Pepperdine. And now entering his 10th year as the head coach of Cal, Esquer has led the Bears to NCAA Regionals in 2001 and 2008, was the 2001 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, has had three players selected in the first round of the professional draft and has produced seven All-Americans.

At age 43, Esquer has amassed a career record of 263-236-2 (.527), including last season when the Bears finished 33-21-2 overall, were ranked as high as No. 5 nationally in early April, advanced to the NCAA Regional in Long Beach, went 3-1-1 against Bay Area rival Stanford and were 2-0 against eventual national champion Fresno State.

In Esquer’s tenure, Cal has had 45 players sign professional contracts. 2008’s squad featured three of Esquer’s seven All-Americans. Esquer also has had 14 players named first-team All-Pac-10 and numerous others listed as Pac-10 honorable mention. Academically, the Bears had an impressive 12 players named Pac-10 All-Academic in 2004, and last season six Bears were Pac-10 All-Academic honorees. In 2007, infielder Brett Munster was a member of ESPN The Magazine’s District 8 All-Academic team.

Esquer became only the 10th coach in Cal baseball history when he was named head coach of the Bears on June 10, 1999, replacing longtime Cal mentor Bob Milano. Esquer came to Berkeley after serving as the top assistant at Pepperdine from 1996-99. Prior to working at Pepperdine, he was the No. 2 assistant coach at Stanford from 1991-96.