LJ softball: Reminiscences

Viking softball players take instructions before

entering the paintball battle area for

mortal combat. (Photos by Ed Piper, Jr.)



By Ed Piper, Jr.

I was emoting to my wife Sat., June 3, driving home from the La Jolla softball team's paintball team party on Clairemont Mesa.

It was a happy time, being invited to hang out with the players and their families in the after-season event.

But it was also emotional and tinged with sadness, because some players and staff will move on. Dylan Thomas (a Brit who never played softball or baseball) said you can never go home again? I was going to my home, but I will never see this concoction of softball players and coaches again as they have been this night and for the past four years.

Anthony Sarain, who was the Vikings' head coach the last seven seasons until this year, was welcoming to me from the first time I wandered onto the La Jolla softball field with my (now-retired) mega-camera way back when.

Tracy Brown, the team's assistant coach and Viking helmet wearer the past four years (until the helmet was retired and pitcher Kyra Ferenczy brought her giraffe stuffed animals, Pancho and George (and Geo for the semifinal and final), carried on the friendly tenor--which people don't always do to a media person sticking a camera in their face--I can tell you stories.

Tracy, among the coaches, went above and beyond the normal, treating me as a personal friend, which I consider him. Emily Alvarez, she of the video skills who plays first base, and Ava Verbrugghen, the much-improved left fielder, both brought me on board and made me an honorary team member.

Teammates Hailey Ramos (in front) and Ava

Verbrugghen (behind) grin as they receive

verbal directions on paintball Saturday.

At the semifinals at the Poway Sportsplex, as the Vikings' win over Coronado became more evident in the later innings and the players could start thinking--though it's dangerous to do--about being in the finals two days later, one of them called out in the dugout, "Ed, you're one of the team." I said, "Even though I was gone a long time and just came back?" (My wife and I took a trip and were gone two weeks during the regular season.) "Yeah." I think it was Emily.

Having played 10 years of baseball, I know enough about baseball that transfers to softball. This year I sometimes offered counsel and advice to players, and no one said, "Stop doing that." So I felt more comfortable to jump in there and say something when it would seem to help.

Keep in mind, there are girls on the team who had never played softball before a teammate asked them to join the team.

What's kind of funny is that in baseball, with Gary Frank's team, the ethic is much different. Any baseball team is like this now: You don't say too much, there is a rule that says you don't step out of line and emote a la Bryce Harper on the Washington Nationals. So, to go from Nick Ferenczy's Viking baseball games, where I keep my mouth shut and attend to my scorebook, to his sister Kyra Ferenczy's softball games is quite a mindbender.

Earlier in the softball season, before our trip, when I attended a few games, I was surprised at how emotional and involved I got in the Vikings' games. I was calling stuff out, and getting choked up. As a player, I was never a yeller or shouter. It really surprised me.

In other words, I have felt welcomed and included on this team more than any other team I have covered in the past 13 years at La Jolla High. Oh, what a feeling. I'm going to miss this particular group.