Junipero Serra High School (San Mateo)
Serra High School is excited to announce that Mat Keplinger has been named Serra’s new varsity baseball coach. Keplinger brings more than a decade of baseball coaching experience and a lifetime of experience as a baseball player.
Along with his role as the head varsity baseball coach, Keplinger will join Serra’s administration as the associate dean of students alongside Dean of Students Ray Baldonado.
This blended role provides an opportunity for Keplinger to make connections with the Padres on and off of the baseball diamond.
“Having this administrative seat will make me a better coach. Understanding the policies and procedures at the highest level is a great opportunity to strengthen my relationships with students and build a tighter community,” Keplinger said.
Principal Charlie McGrath said that he is particularly happy to see how well Keplinger’s coaching expertise will help him in his new role.
“This key role supports our student body as they learn what it means to embrace and live out the ideals of the brotherhood - respect, integrity, inclusion and compassion. What it means to be a Padre. Mat’s coaching experience will add tremendous value to this role.”
A Stockton native, Keplinger played youth baseball his entire life. He attended University of Nevada, Reno, where he played Division 1 baseball as a pitcher.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he moved to Germany to play professional baseball. Keplinger said baseball was the vehicle that propelled him to Germany, but it was the work he did with youth baseball there that crystalized his desire to dedicate his life’s work to baseball and education.
“When I returned from Germany, the next few years were truly transformational.
I realized exactly what I wanted to do. I started at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton and spent seven years coaching and as a professor of health and kinesiology and I truly fell in love with all the aspects of what goes into teaching and coaching,” he said.
During his time at Delta, he earned a master’s of arts in kinesiology from Fresno Pacific University.
After seven years at Delta as a professor, assistant baseball coach, recruiting coordinator and strength and conditioning coordinator, Keplinger went to the University of San Francisco, where he worked as the interim head baseball coach, pitching coach and recruitment coordinator. In 2022, he went to San Jose State University, where he worked as an assistant baseball coach.
Keplinger said he is thrilled to head Serra’s baseball team.
“This program is so rich in history with so many great alumni, I am looking forward to connecting with everyone who wants to be a part of what we’re building.
This is a passionate baseball community and I am very excited to meet the players and connect with them,” he said. “ We will be a fundamentally sound team with a high baseball IQ. We want to be physical, fast, and aggressive, while being committed to playing one pitch at a time.”
Acknowledging that baseball is a game of failure, Keplinger said that while winning baseball games is challenging, it is something that a team can accomplish when it works together. Community means everything, he said.
“When you define roles and everybody embraces them and understands what it is - that’s the competitive piece to all of this. Knowing the end goal is part of building culture,” he said.
While his coaching philosophy boasts responsibility and community, Keplinger has developed a PADRE pillar guideline for this role at Serra.
“I have developed program pillars that our team will live by using the PADRE acronym. P - Process - master what we can control; A - Achieve - this is achievement in the classroom, community and on the field; D - Development - instill mental skills necessary for the game and for life, which include skill development, strength and conditioning; R - Respect - Respect the history of the program and the brotherhood and be present in the moment while being grateful for it; E - Execute - we will go pitch by pitch but we will execute in baseball, school and in life.”
He said these pillars will translate to wins on the field, but as important, wins off the field as well. My ultimate vision is to help our student-athletes have a successful transition to college and into the community.
He added, “If we can accomplish this - the wins on the field are going to be great!”
Serra Athletics Director Justin Ferdinand said he is very excited for Keplinger to come on board.
“We are thrilled to have Mat join us as the new baseball coach. His high-level coaching experience, coupled with his baseball acumen and his overall vision for the program, will propel the team forward and continue to produce great baseball players and even better people.”
Keplinger lives in San Mateo with his wife, Yemisi, and two young daughters, Abisola, 2, and Kemi, who is 5 days old.
Keplinger will begin his new role on September 18.
