Some teams win championships. Others make history.
The 1968 Highlands Owls baseball team pulled off both feats when it beat Pasadena 3-1 for the Class 4A state title, riding a one-hitter by left-hander Glenn Harris to cap a 24-3 season.
Sophomore right-hander Richard Guerra had 16 strikeouts and pitched a no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over Arlington in the state semifinals on June 6 at Nelson Field in Austin. The Owls won it all the next night.
Fifty years later, Highlands remains the only San Antonio team to win a baseball state championship in the largest classification of the University Interscholastic League.
“Time goes by so fast,” said Jesse Causey, who played third base for the 1968 Owls and served as co-captain with catcher Bubba Hermes. “Here it is, 50 years later. I would have thought somebody else would have won it in the big-school division. There have been some schools that have been close. Reagan has come close the last two years. They have a great program.
“It seemed like somebody should have done it by now. Looking back, it just feels so good to know we won it all. Besides winning state, it was just great to play with a great bunch of good guys. We just loved baseball.”
Reagan has lost in the 6A state final the last two years, and has reached the state tournament three times in the last five seasons. Southland Carroll beat the Rattlers 7-2 on Saturday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
“It’s really surprising . . . it’s really unbelievable that 50 years have gone by and no other big high school from San Antonio has brought home a state championship," Guerra said. "It’s really a big feat to win state because it’s tough to do.”
South San West Campus was the last San Antonio school to win state, taking the 4A crown in 1981.
The 1968 Owls are in their late 60s and grandfathers now, but the memories of their historic run to the state championship remain vivid. “I remember standing on that pitcher’s mound when we got the championship trophy,” said Hermes, 68. “You never forget moments like that.”
He also recalled how dominant Guerra and Harris were in the state tournament.
“Both those nights, those two guys were on,” Hermes said. “There was no doubt they were going to go the full game.”
Causey talked about how gratifying it was to win state with players he’d known since he was in elementary school.
“I have great memories of that season, but the main thing is the teammates,” Causey, 68, said. “We played together for so many years growing up, starting with Little League. We played with or against each other in Pony League, Colt League, American Legion. Those were some great programs. We were a close team. There were no egos. Everybody pulled for one another. It was all about teamwork. We played for each other. We had a commitment to one another, and we knew how to play together. We just clicked.”
Highlands’ championship came two years after San Antonio Independent School District baseball teams started competing in the UIL, which sanctioned the sport in 1949. It was also one year after South San ended its storied run of seven 3A titles in 10 seasons under legendary coach Cliff Gustafson.
The Owls won the title in their first season under coach Tom Henslee, who died in August 2016. His assistant coach, Virgil Peterson, died last month.
“Coach Henslee was big on discipline and fundamentals,” Causey said. “That’s why I think we won. The bunting, the pitching, base stealing, the great substitutions he made, he made some great calls throughout the season.”
Hermes has similar memories of Henslee and Peterson, a Trinity grad who helped Hermes land a scholarship at his alma mater.
“Coach Henslee was an all-business kind of guy,” Hermes said. “He didn’t put up with very much. He worked us hard. I didn’t really respect his coaching ability until years after I graduated and I read some of the write-ups of the games we won and how we won the games. It was because of the calls he made. He knew the game. I owe a lot to Coach Peterson. I was able to go to Trinity because of him.”
While Guerra, Harris and sophomore Dennis Bendele gave Highlands an outstanding pitching rotation, Causey (and his .329 batting average) and senior shortstop Andy Dominguez (.323) provided most of the offensive punch.
“What I remember is that we had a great defense and great pitching,” Causey said. “We came up with the big plays and everybody pitched in. Guys would make a play out on the field or get a key hit.”
Causey had special praise for Hermes, who was the Owls’ starting catcher for three seasons.
“One of the most important guys on our team was Bubba,’ Causey said. “He was the catalyst. He made the pitcher pitch. He called the pitches. Without him, I don’t think we would have won the thing. He was that kind of guy.”
Other senior players on the team besides Causey, Dominguez, Harris and were Hermes were outfielders Tommy Dupont, David Hester, Carl Lange and Roy Tieken, first baseman/outfielder Richard Petri and pitcher Gary Turner.
Pitcher Ken Pritchard and second baseman Frank Romero were the only juniors on the squad. The other sophomores on the team besides Guerra and Bendele were first baseman/outfielder Toddy Arrambide, shortstop Herbie Arnold, outfielder Salvador Calvo, catcher Eddie Long, third baseman Greg Sandoval, and outfielders Gary Schroeder and Terry Walker.
Arrambide, Bendele, Romero and Tommy Dupont are deceased.
Guerra played in the San Francisco Giants' and Cleveland Indians’ farm system after graduating from Highlands in 1968. He never made it to the big leagues, but he had a solid career in the Mexican League.
Other seniors besides Hermes who went on to play college baseball were Causey (St. Mary’s), Harris (Trinity), Romero (Trinity) and Dominguez (Blinn College).
Highlands won the District 15-4A title in 1968 and beat Harlandale in a three-game bi-district series. The Owls punched their ticket to the state tournament by sweeping Corpus Christi Carroll in the regional finals.
By the time Highlands rolled into Austin for the state tournament on June 6 at Nelson Field, Henslee’s squad was razor sharp and ready to go. The Owls won the state championship on June 7.
Mike Perez was head baseball coach at Highlands for nine seasons before becoming an SAISD assistant athletic director in 2014.
"I was always a big baseball guy and a history buff," Perez said. "I was proud to coach at a school that won a state championship. I would tell my players that Highlands is the only school in San Antonio that has a baseball state championship in the large classification. It was an honor to coach at Highlands with all that tradition. Our athletic director (Todd Howey) has really put this team up on a pedestal."
The 1968 Owls were recognized in February at the SAISD Sports Complex, where a plaque honoring the team is prominently displayed near the entrance of the baseball stadium. The plaque was erected when the Sports Complex opened in January 2000.
"I think that we played as one,” Guerra said. “We were a unit. We didn’t look at anyone as a star on the team. We all backed up each other and had the same goal in mind when we got on the field: to play together and to do our best, and walk off the field with a victory.”
The 1968 Owls can take pride in knowing they walked off the field as state champions in their last game.
