Gerardo and Kelly Inouye-Perez share love on and off the diamond
Gerardo Perez, the head baseball coach at Gahr High School, and his wife, Kelly Inouye-Perez, the head softball coach at UCLA. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
CERRITOS - Kelly Inouye-Perez, the UCLA Women’s Softball coach and Gerardo Perez, the Gahr High School baseball coach have had a 23-year love affair, on and off the baseball and softball field.
The couple are both highly successful in their respective “fields.”
Inouye-Perez, in her fifteenth season, has been part of eight NCAA National Championships.
That, of course includes eight rings as a player, assistant coach and now head coach.
Gerardo Perez has been highly successful in getting his players to the next two levels - collegiate and professional.
In his 15 years at Gahr, Gerardo has had nearly 70 players either drafted out of high school or played collegiate baseball and is closing in on 300 wins as a high school coach, along with eight league titles.
However, with all of this championship talk, Gerardo was asked which of his wifes eight rings, all since they have been together, was the most important.
He immediately reacted and said there was a ninth! Did something get missed in the UCLA stats?
Nope. It was not sports related.
“The ring we got in 1997 trumps all the other rings,” said Gerardo, referring to her wedding ring as they stood on the Gahr baseball field for a photo shoot.
Of course he was referring to the ring on Kelly’s finger that started that love affair.
Out of that marriage came two children - Mikey Perez, a sophomore infielder at UCLA and Kylie Perez, a sophomore on the soccer team at Gahr.
Kelly and Gerardo met, of all places, through baseball. Who would have guessed!
“It’s always good to talk about our journey,” Inouye-Perez said.
And quite a journey it has been.
“I was a senior at Gahr and he was at Cerritos College,” said Kelly, who mentioned that he played at Cerritos High, which was Gahr’s rival. “We met through baseball and became friends and trained a lot. I played on a team with Lisa (Fernandez). He would come and catch them. He was very supportive.
“We both wanted to advance to DI.”
They did, as Kelly would start her career at UCLA and Gerardo transferred to Loyola Marymount.
Just prior to LMU, Gerardo was part of the 1989 Junior College National Championship team at Cerritos College.
He later became head coach at Cerritos for a season in 2003 and won a conference title.
While Kelly was beginning her career at UCLA, Gerardo was at Loyola.
“Her first few years, while she was playing, I was at Loyola,” Gerardo said. “Loyola was a very successful program and I was very busy.”
Fast forward to their son Mikey Perez. On going to UCLA, he simply said, “.....to keep that tradition going.”
Mikey had the best of all worlds. He grew up being around mom with the UCLA program and at any given time was being babysat by a Bruin softball player in the early years.
Perez and wife, Inouye-Perez, walk the field together at Gahr High School in Cerritos. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Later, he played for his father as head coach at Gahr.
“It was a huge luxury to have both of their resources,” Mikey said. “It was a lot of fun to be in his system and a good time towards the junior and senior years.”
Once he became a Bruin on the baseball team, he switched back to seeing his mom a lot more on campus, of course.
A special moment for Mikey and his family was his mom, Kelly, coming home fresh off of the Bruins’ National Championship in June of 2019.
“In the Super Regionals mom had just come home from Oklahoma City,” said Mikey, of the moment he saw her.
“It was definitely great to see her up there (in the stands).”
On the pandemic, the family situation has drastically changed, like most people, for the usually very busy Perez family.
“It’s definitely been a good thing,” said Mikey, of the now stay-at-home family situation. “For me, we (UCLA baseball players) haven’t been told anything.
“It’s been a huge change of pace and laughing at how many dinners we have had together. It kind of slowed things down.”
Kelly treasures her moments with her family these days.
“It’s been a blessing to spend more time with my family,” said Kelly, who is still on multiple zoom meetings, but at home. “I was always so busy.
“You can find a positive in everything and you prioritize your time. You can’t get caught up in everything. No excuse now.”
Another blessing for the couple, is their nightly walks.
“My husband and I have been walking down in Long Beach,” Kelly said. “It’s quality time to just walk. And also to slow it down and sit at the dinner table.”
It all slowly began to change once high school started back up last week.
“A funny story was the first day at Gahr,” Kelly said. “Both Gerardo and Kylie were in zoom meetings and class, respectively and I had a zoom meeting with the Pac 12 Conference. The internet was slow and we were back on our crazy schedule.”
Gerardo, who teaches health at Gahr, in addition to coaching baseball, began his first day on the computer for the new school year.
“I’ll tell you what,” Gerardo said. “All of us were zooming and all had two computers each. “I was sitting there and she (Kelly) came down to eat and everyone was grabbing something. The only time we crossed paths was in the hallway.”
As for his (Gerardo) subject - health, “.....part of health is being normal. It (Covid) is part of our curriculum now.
“When it comes to the kids, they really want the interaction. They don’t want to be on a zoom call. Our goal is to try to get the kids to smile.”
As for his baseball program, he zooms with them everyday.
“I break up the varsity in two groups and also the JV’s too,” Gerardo said. “When I started coaching, they really loved it. They felt like they were on the field. I talk about the 29 league championships in the history of Gahr and the 35 years of coach Tom Bergeron.
“G.A.H.R. stands for Get 1% better, Attitude, be Humble and Respect all cultures.”
One big goal for Gerardo is to get his players to college. “Winning a league title is icing on the cake,” he said.
“I’m trying to get the kids to the best college and I sit down with all of my junior and senior parents.
“Kelly has a big alumni (UCLA) following and so do we. Our AD (Greg Marshall) and principal (Janet Simko) are sports people and they are a big part of our success.”
Kelly also says how tight they are in Westwood.
“We are a family here at UCLA and are close,” she said.
All of Inouye-Perez’ staff are UCLA graduates.
In this tough time, both Kelly and Gerardo are coaching at two different levels, but both are dealing with the covid at the same time.
Perhaps Gerardo says it best as he places the ultimate compliment about his wifes’ program - “If I could get my boys (Gahr players) close to the point where they could play for UCLA softball and my wife, I’ll know I’ve made an impact on their lives that go beyond the game.”