Three months after dealing with the pressure of helping lead the Miami Springs Golden Hawks baseball team to a first-ever state championship as the team’s pitching coach, one which deemed virtually every player and coach virtual “rock stars” around town, Corey Estrada will now feel a new kind of pressure.
He will be the new man in charge leading the program forward into the 2026 season.
When long-time head coach David Fanshawe announced in late June that he was leaving to become the assistant head coach at Doral Academy, that meant a new head coach had to come in and Estrada, who was Fanshawe’s pitching coach and assistant head coach since 2020, was the natural successor.
Fanshawe recommended him to MSSH principal Nelson Gonzalez and Gonzalez followed suit, hiring Estrada very quickly after the post became available.
“The way it was presented to me was that it was mine as long as I wanted it,” said Estrada. “The only way it would not have been was if I chose not to. Mr. Gonzalez was very supportive, told me the job was mine and was willing to back me up 100 percent. We both want to keep this ship sailing.”
Estrada nevertheless comes into the new post with both eyes open and an understanding that the high bar of success for this program that Fanshawe raised has now been raised even a notch higher in lieu of a state title.
“I understand It’s a big challenge in front of me because of what Coach Fanshawe accomplished here in the nine years he was here but it’s one I’m ready to accept.” said Estrada.
Tough enough having to fill big shoes left by Fanshawe but making it an even bigger challenge for Estrada will be the fact that exactly half of the 24 players on the Hawks roster that day on May 20 when they won the state title, defeating Santa Rosa Beach South Walton 2-1 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, were graduating seniors. And seven of the nine in the starting lineup were seniors.
Meaning even if Fanshawe had not left, the Hawks baseball program, in defense of their Class 3A state title, would’ve been looking at a major re-build in 2026. Something Estrada inherits now and on top of that, he and his team will live the life of being “the hunted” rather than “the hunter” as every opponent will have the reigning state champions circled on their schedule.
“The program is in the best possible hands it could be with Corey,” said Fanshawe who, with current head coach Ralph Suarez on the doorstep to retirement, will be in line to take over the Doral program soon down the road. “He has been an exceptional pitching coach, is as knowledgeable as anyone I know in the game of baseball and a great mentor to the kids. I leave this program in great hands.”
This will not be Estrada’s first head coaching gig either. The 35-year-old actually headed up the program at American High School for four seasons (2016-19) before coming over to Springs to be Fanshawe’s right-hand man.
The two had come to know each other from a distance competing against each other in high school (Estrada played baseball at American and Fanshawe at Brito) before becoming teammates for two seasons at St. Thomas University.
After graduating from STU with a Business major and a minor in Hospitality, Estrada gave pro ball his best shot, signing with the Joliet (Illinois) Slammers of the Independent League in 2013. But after trying to gut it out for a year (making very little money) and not getting any bites from Major League teams, it was time to come back home and enter the work force.
He tapped in on his Hospitality degree, getting a job at the Fountainbleau in Miami Beach before getting hired as a Banquet Captain at the Double Tree Convention Center. But deep down, Estrada knew that baseball was in his DNA and when one of his former coaches at St. Thomas, Arby Sosa was named the new head coach at American, Estrada gave him a call. The very next day, Estrada was on Sosa’s staff for the 2015 season as the team’s pitching coach. A year later, when Sosa stepped down, Estrada was named as his replacement.
“Part of me always wanted to get back into baseball,” said Estrada. “I remember it was Christmas Eve in 2014 and of course, like all Latin families we were celebrating Noche Buena when I had to get up and leave at 7 pm because I had to go to work at Doubletree. It was then that I just thought, ‘is this what I really want?’ and decided no.”
So Estrada became a substitute teacher at American while going to work on getting his teaching certificate. When he finally got it in 2018, much to his disappointment, he discovered that the administration at American “didn’t have anything for him.”
It was here that he and Fanshawe started talking. The Hawks had just finished a magical run in the 2019 season, making it to the state final four in Fort Myers when a spot on the Springs staff came open. Coming to work for Fanshawe was easy. But Estrada needed a job to pay the bills as well.
Fate intervened when, at the exact same time, the head of the Hospitality Department at MSSH left and then-principal Al Torrosian was able to bring him in to fill the post.
As far as what he learned while a head coach at American? And what adjustments he might make now taking his second head coaching stint? Estrada did not hesitate.
“Obviously when I first started there, I was young so I think, because of the close difference in age, I probably tried to be more of a friend to the players than the manager or the boss,” said Estrada. “I think now kids appreciate when they know you’re being honest and straight with them. That’s the way Fanshawe handled it and you saw how the kids always responded to him. I also learned working under him how to lean on your coaching staff. Not to just dictate all the time but listen to what your staff has to say and tap in on that. Dave did that with us and I will do that with my staff now.”
Speaking of his staff, Estrada has brought in an old and familiar name to assist him – Joey Alvarez. Some may remember, Alvarez not only went to Springs but coached the baseball program as well around 15 years ago. He eventually wound up as the head coach at Westland Hialeah and performed a miracle leading the Wildcats to the state final four in 2018, the school’s only state final four appearance in any sport.
A Miami Springs resident, Alvarez comes over from Coral Gables High School where he was a PE teacher and Assistant Athletic Director. He also teamed up with Willie Romay the last two years to help coach the Miami Springs Little League Minors All Stars to back-to-back sectional championships and berth in the state tournament.
While Jorge Dominguez left for personal reasons, Jesus Fernandez will return on the coaching staff as the three will try and somehow put together a competitive program again with the reality that the new-look Hawks will hardly be expected to make the kind of magical run they did last spring.
The one thing that has Estrada encouraged early on though, as he prepares for the team’s fall practice and season, is that of the 12 underclassmen on last year’s team, 11 of them will return to wear a Hawks uniform. That doesn’t always happen. Many times when head coaches take off, returning players scatter as well.
For sure, we understand a lot of talent walked down the graduation aisle,” said Estrada. “But today, this day in age, the way I look at it, you have to count on kids coming into your program and buying into your program. My first approach was looking at the kids coming back and seeing the talent I have and how can I make that group better.
“It’s great that almost all of them have shown their loyalty to this program. That’s how you build things. The way I see it, we’ll come out and battle next season and then the following season (2027), we might have a very similar team to what we had this past season. You bring them in and allow them to grow together.”
But that doesn’t mean Estrada is already throwing in the towel on the 2026 season. Not by a longshot.
“I don’t want to overstep next season though either,” he said. “Yeah, we lost a lot but I’m very confident that we’re going to be competitive. Am I telling you we’re going to make it back to state next year? No. But do we have the kind of team that could get hot and maybe make a special run? Yeah, that could happen.”