Courtesy of Greg Spirakis
Greg Spirakis Zabriskie Point captured during his trip to Death Valley.
Taking a quick succession of action shots, Greg Spirakis captures a Santa Clara University softball player tagging her opponent as she tries to slide to reach base during the Sac State Tournament in 2019.
Throughout the years, his sports photography has taken him from capturing the SCU softball team all the way to the Greek National Softball team.
A coach and a photographer, Spirakis is taking over as head coach for the softball team this season, after teacher Mike Davey stepped down from the head coach position. However, Spirakis isn’t a new coach to SHS — he previously served as an assistant coach for softball at SHS starting in 2016, but took a break during both the 2021 and 2022 softball seasons, ultimately returning to be assistant coach in 2023.
He got into coaching because of his involvement with his two daughters’, Eleni Spirakis who graduated in 2016 and Yianna Spirakis who graduated in 2017, softball experience.
“Both of my daughters went to Saratoga High and played softball. In fact, my older daughter went on to play softball in college and internationally, so softball is a big thing in our family,” Spirakis said. “I was fortunate that I was given the opportunity to coach them their last couple of years at SHS and continue to be involved ever since.”
Before coaching, Spirakis worked at Intel for 22 years, retiring from his position — VP of Design Technology — in 2024. Now, he gets the chance to truly explore his passions: sports and photography.
Spirakis became interested in photography because of his love for traveling. He took photos all throughout his trips to National Parks and in Europe. Post retirement, he also did sports photography while his daughters played for the volleyball, basketball and softball teams at SHS. Additionally, Spirakis has had the opportunity to take pictures for national level teams across the globe.
He also enjoys landscape photography, publishing his photos on his online portfolio — some of his photos have even been selected to be shown in galleries throughout Oregon, Arizona and California. His most recent photography achievement is having a photo of Yosemite displayed in the 40th Yosemite Renaissance exhibition that just opened in Oakhurst.
Balancing coaching and photography sometimes comes with trade offs. One of his biggest struggles during the softball season is that he cannot travel around for photography. He feels there are many locations that are especially beautiful during the spring, but he cannot go because of his coaching commitment.
In spite of this, he puts his all into coaching. The softball team has made CCS playoffs 8 times in the last 10 years, excluding the years of COVID-19.
This year, the team is one of the few teams favored to win the league. They hope to not only make the playoffs, but advance even further.
Spirakis believes that the key to success is veteran players stepping up to guide new players, as he believes they will play a big role in the team’s performance.
He sees the benefit of utilizing all his players, knowing that to win, all of the team — from ninth grader to 12th — must put their best foot forward.
