Andy Lopez UA baseball head coach

Skipper will not leave for UCLA

The UA athletics department and head baseball coach Andy Lopez have agreed to terms on a multi-year contract extension, putting an end to speculation that Lopez might leave for his alma-mater, UCLA.

The extension, expected to be approved at today's meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents in Tempe, will keep Lopez in Tucson through the end of the 2008 season. He would make just over $86,000 per season.

Lopez is entering his third year at the helm of Arizona's baseball program. His teams have finished 35-23 overall and he led the Wildcats to an NCAA tournament berth last season.

Lopez said that despite the planned retirement of long-time UCLA head coach Gary Adams after the 2004 season, he intends on staying at Arizona through the end of his contract, and not pursuing the job in Westwood.

"I've honored every contract I've ever signed, everywhere I've gone," Lopez said. "I signed the contract here with that intention, and I plan to show good faith and prove it."

Lopez, an inductee to the UCLA baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, has one national championship title under his belt ÷ with Pepperdine in 1992 ÷ and also made two College World Series appearances while at the helm of the Florida Gators. Despite his success at Pepperdine, where he compiled a record of 247-107-3 in six seasons, and at Florida, where he posted a mark of 278-159-1 in seven years, Lopez said that coaching in Tucson has been a dream job for him.

"I've always admired this program at a distance and as an opponent," he said. "I worked at Florida in a very different environment. It was very combustible and just completely different from here.

"I really, truly enjoy working for (UA athletic director) Jim Livengood. I never thought I'd be paid anything to coach, let alone in college baseball at a place like this."

Rumors flared of Lopez taking the UCLA job in June when Adams announced his plans to retire. With the arrival of Dan Guerrero ÷ a good friend of Lopez and former teammate at UCLA ÷ as the Bruin's new athletic director last year, Lopez unofficially made the short list of head coaching candidates.

Lopez admitted that a major factor in his desire to stay in Tucson was how moving would affect his family.

"I'm going into my 23rd year as a college coach," he said. "I've moved my wife and kids multiple times, and I don't want to do that anymore. If (they) told me they did not like living in Tucson, I'd look at it then. But they love it here."