John Dudley’s story starts as a baseball player at Monterey High School. In the fall of 1959, a no name hard nosed coach was hired to lead the plainsmen baseball program. That of course was Bobby Moegle,

“you went through practice dreading what would come at the end cause when it got dark that’s when we would start running but I tell people we came back the next day, and the next day, and the next day. We kept coming back we didn’t quit and I think that’s one of the great things about it he challenged us,” said Dudley.

Dudley was with Moegle for three years and went on to play at Texas Tech. It was there where he decided to go into education,

“didn’t dream I was going to go into coaching I started out at tech thinking I was going to go into business or something and after about a year I noticed that some of the guys I was playing with were going into education. My mom was a teacher and I finally sat down and decided you know what that’s what I want to do.”

In 1966 Dudley joined coach Moegle as an assistant coach at Monterey, watching and learning all he could from the legend. After five years under Moegle, Dudley accepted the head job at Coronado. Despite competing against his mentor, they always remained friends,

“he is coach Moegle to me and he will always be. I always tell people when I get to heaven and I greet him in heaven I’m going to say high coach Moegle,” said the longtime coach.

When he first got to Coronado, Dudley took a page out of Moegle’s book making sure his team knew exactly what was expected of them.

“One of the first things we felt like is they needed more discipline, and when I went over there that was one of my goals right there was to try to instill some more discipline so that those kids would really use the athletic ability that they had to its’ fullest.”

Which begs the question which coach was tougher?

“Oh coach Moegle by far I’m telling you he was tough. Now my kids probably looked at me and they think I was tough but I always tell them that no you don’t know what tough is,” said Dudley who played and coached under Moegle.

Whatever Dudley did it worked, 557 Career wins, 13 Playoff appearances, THSBCA hall of fame, and a member of the LISD hall of honor.

“I really was fortunate to be able to go to Coronado and to be able to stay over there for 30 years as the head baseball coach and 32 years overall,” said Dudley.