Bert Otero has resigned as head coach of the Tucson High School softball program for family reasons, potentially ending a coaching career that earned him a Pima County Sports Hall of Fame induction in 2006.
Otero coached Tucson for three seasons — from 2019 to 2021 — after coming out of an eight-year retirement following his successful tenure at Desert View. He was 34-23-1 with the Badgers, including a 6A Metro region title in 2019 with standout first baseman Carlie Scupin as a junior.
Ramon Morales, an associate head coach under Otero, is taking over the head coaching duties. Otero will continue with the program serving as a consultant.
Otero led Desert View to a runner-up finish in 1991 and a state championship in 2000 coaching in the days of giants such as Billy Lopez at Sahuaro, Armando Quiroz at Flowing Wells and Phil Grunsfelder at Salpointe.
Otero attended Tucson High, was a member was a defensive end for the 1971 state championship football team and then went on to play baseball in college.
His success at Desert View led to an early entrance into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, five years before he retired in 2011.
During his time with the Jaguars he was an active member of the Arizona Air National Guard. During the 2005 season, he had to miss games while serving in the Middle East as a Chaplain assistant with the Air National Guard.
His duty was to counsel troops and lift their morale, and by all accounts, he accomplished that mission with the Air National Guard and his softball teams at Desert View and Tucson High.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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