Santiago assistant coach killed in motorcycle accident

Longtime Corona Santiago assistant baseball coach Ken Hamilton was killed in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident in Los Angeles on Monday morning.
Hamilton, 54, served as varsity assistant under head coach Ty De Trinidad for the last 14 years and was involved with the Sharks baseball program for the last 17.
He most recently served as the hitting and outfielders coach. He also had three children graduate from Santiago.
“It’s indescribable what he meant to the program,” De Trinidad said. “What he did with the field, what he did with the players. He was my right hand guy.”
Hamilton was driving home after working the nightshift as a probation officer at Eastlake Juvenile Facility at the time of the collision. The Los Angeles Police Department told the CBS Los Angeles website that he was killed around 6 a.m at the intersection of Soto Street and Lancaster Avenue in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
According to police, Hamilton was hit by a gray four-door Honda Civic DX that was changing lanes, and the impact sent him into a traffic pole, which then fell on top of him.
“As he’s in the number two lane of traffic, I have a car that doesn’t appear to want to wait for the traffic to stop in the number one lane. He veers in the number two lane, colliding with the motorcycle causing him to subsequently die as a result of the traffic collision,” LAPD Detective Michael Kaden told CBS.
He died at the scene. The LAPD is seeking information on the hit-and-run driver.
“He was a great coach and he was going to be on you, but at the same time before and after practice he let you know he’d always be there for you,” former Santiago outfielder Mike Darr said. “He was the guy that would stay after practice to help you out with extra hitting or fielding … If anybody, it shouldn’t have been him. You hear it and it breaks your heart.”
De Trinidad and other assistants pulled Sharks baseball players out of class on Monday morning to inform them of Hamilton’s death.
“They took it hard and we sent them home to their families, where they should be,” De Trinidad said. “We’ve shut down baseball and we’re trying to deal with it as best as we can together. We lost not only a great coach but a great person and friend in the community.”
The school will hold a memorial service for Hamilton at the baseball field on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Hamilton’s death is the third to affect the Sharks baseball program in the last two years.
Assistant coach John Sawaya died from cancer at age 47 in 2011, and former pitcher Nick Hurtado died from cancer at age 21 last March.