Walnut Creek baseball 'kids' honor revered coach Bill Piona - Contra Costa Times
WALNUT CREEK -- They were the then-politically OK Aztecs and Apaches, and the Creeks from walnut land -- teams of aged-out Little Leaguers and high school baseball players from around the Diablo Valley who wanted to keep their gloves limber and... So the boys prolonged their dusty summers and dreams of drawing a scout's interest by joining teams organized in the 1970s and '80s by coach Bill Piona to play around the Bay Area. We played very hard, and very well," said Piona, now 84, retired from PG&E and living in Benicia with his wife, Jackie. Right off the bat, "We played an El Cerrito team that had just won the American Legion world championship," Piona said. The bonds Piona forged among his players held together over the years as many of them went on to coach their own teams. Piona came to Walnut Creek with his family in 1937, and he played football and baseball at Acalanes High School, graduating in 1948. He went on to play baseball at Modesto Junior College, where he got a tryout with a Boston Red Sox farm team in... He ended his budding career after unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a $225-a-month offer up to $250. When Piona turned to coaching, his teams played so well that he began to draw young players. Greg Thys had just turned 16 and was a Las Lomas High School player when Piona recruited him for the Aztecs in 1973. "I was pretty shy and naive. Piona asked if I wanted to play on the team. Source: www.contracostatimes.com
