Late in his third and final season as Ripon Christian coach, Joe Darretta decided it was time step away.

He doubled as athletic director at the school and thought it best to focus on those administrative responsibilities moving forward.

It was then, in April of 2009, that he handed the reins to Ripon Christian alumnus John de Visser, a young and fiery assistant with dreams of raising the program’s profile in a region rich with baseball talent.

“I know that I’ll be leaving the team in better hands from a better coach than myself,” Darretta told the Bulletin.

The Ripon Christian baseball team has since reached milestones that previously only seemed attainable in volleyball and basketball.

On Saturday, the top-seeded Knights (28-3) are making their fifth appearance in a Sac-Joaquin Section final — all under de Visser.

They’re hoping to continue a season that has been both historic and surprising, but they’ll have to get past a battle-tested Amador (24-5-1) club to reach the NorCal playoffs for just the second time. The Division VI championship game takes place at Delta College’s Nick Cecchetti Field starting at 10 a.m.

No matter the outcome, de Visser has already accomplished what he set out to do 17 years ago.

“The primary motivator for me to take this job over some of the other ones I was offered over the years is I want these guys to have a better experience in high school than I had,” de Visser said. “I want them to have opportunities to win championships and go to college. Most importantly, I wanted to help them grow as men of faith and character.”

Ripon Christian was an afterthought in baseball when he was playing there. It wasn’t until his senior year in 2000 that he got to experience his first win in the Trans Valley League, reputed as the top small-school conference in the state across various sports. De Visser played at Modesto Junior College and Division I South Alabama.

In his first full year as head coach, he led the Knights to an 11-4 record in the TVL, and they were runners-up to powerhouse Escalon.

The following year, Ripon Christian began a 12-year run in the Southern League, not counting the 2020 and 21 seasons affected by the coronavirus shutdown. The Knights won six league championships in that stretch, along with the program’s first section titles in 2018 (Division VI) and 2023 (Division VII).

The 2023 team set school records across the board, including most wins in a season with 23. The Knights advanced to the NorCal tournament for the first time and were the top seed in Division V. Ripon Christian, a private school with less than 200 students, lost in the first round to San Francisco-based Lowell, a large public school with nearly 3,000 students.

Lowell went on to claim the NorCal Division V crown, but Ripon Christian’s accomplishments did not go unnoticed. The Knights were named the Cal-Hi Sports Division V Team of the Year, and de Visser received American Baseball Coaches Association High School Division III Regional Coach of the Year honors.

“I always knew we had the athletes; it was just a matter of putting it together and having it go long term,” de Visser said. “It was always here, but it’s one thing for the boys do it in the mind’s eye, and another thing for them to act on it.”

De Visser and the Knights have continued to raise the bar.

They’re back in the TVL for the second year, and for the first time, Ripon Christian’s baseball team is the TVL champion. Additionally, the Knights have blown past their previous high of single-season wins and did so before the start of the playoffs.

And they’ve done it with just two seniors on the roster, both of whom transferred to the school in the last two years.

De Visser has said all season that this group that includes eight sophomores is a year ahead of schedule. He attributes the success to his coaching staff and the players themselves. His assistants — Willem Hoekstra, Nolan Lingley, Steven Vander Molen, Kevin Van Donselaar — are also Ripon Christian alums, and three of them were standout players for de Visser.

“The nice thing about having an entire staff made up of alumni is that they know the system inside and out, and they had the opportunity to go to college and learn a different system, grow on their own and bring some of that back,” de Visser said. “They know the legacy of what we’re trying to do around here.

“They’ve all carved out specific roles within the staff, and that really frees me up to be able to do what I do best. Thing is, we can talk until we’re blue in the face — the kids still gotta go out there and do it. One of my personal favorite sayings is, ‘We can hand the kids the hammer; they still have to swing it.’”

On top of building a winning program, de Visser has spearheaded improvements to the school’s baseball facility. In the summer of 2024, Ripon Christian completed its state-of-the-art batting cage that de Visser dubs the “MegaCage.”

“I want it to be better than it was when I was here,” de Visser said.

He has now coached his alma mater longer than most of his players have been alive, and they’re reaping the benefits of his labor of love.

Ripon Christian is making its third SJS final-round appearance in four years on Saturday and will face a foe as formidable as it has faced in recent years.

Second-seeded Amador has won eight straight games, and four of its five losses this season have come against opponents in the tough Sierra Valley Conference.

Multi-sport star Brad Blankenheim leads the Buffaloes from Sutter Creek. He was named Cal-Hi Sports Northern California Baseball Player of the Week after they swept their best-of-three semifinal with Bear River.

He’s batting 0.542 with seven homers and 37 RBIs. His 51 runs are third most in the state and tops all players in the SJS, according to stats submitted to MaxPreps. Blankenheim is also Amador’s top pitcher, boasting a 5-2 record with a 0.92 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 38 innings.

Later on Saturday, Blankenheim will compete in the SJS Masters Track & Field Championships. He’s one of just 10 finalists in the 100-meter dash. A dual-threat quarterback in the fall, he’ll play football at the next level with MJC.

“They’re the opposite of us in that they’re senior-heavy and very experienced,” de Visser said. “Blankenheim is a problem, but they have a bunch of other guys who can play. That’s a good team, and you don’t get their record in the league they play in and not be a real problem for folks.”

While Ripon Christian has continued to build on the successes of its predecessors, the Buffaloes are enjoying a once-in-a-generation type of season. In fact, they’re in the section final for the first time since winning the Division III crown in 2001. They also claimed the 1978 D-III championship.

“There’s a history of great baseball at that school,” de Visser said. “I assume they’re really going to travel well. I have a feeling this will be a well-attended baseball game, and it’s going to be a nice experience for these high school kids.”

Which is why he’s doing this in the first place.