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The Last Inning (Feb 11, 2020): Media Day for the Talent-Loaded Trinity League

From left to right: Sean Brashear of Mater Dei High of Santa Ana, CA, Steve Miklos of Orange Lutheran High, CA, John Fitzpatrick of Santa Margarita Catholic of Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, Katie Stith of JSerra Catholic of San Juan Capistrano, CA, and Tom Tice of Rosary Academy of Fullerton, CA.

Get on board with Extra Inning Softball’s regular feature, The Last Inning.

We are scouring the Internet and Social Media and keeping our ears to the street for the latest going on in the softball community.

To contribute information, insights, thoughts or content ideas, email us at [email protected]. You can also send items/story ideas to Carlos Arias via email at [email protected] or via Twitter @Los_Stuff.

Here’s our TLI for Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020…

*****

TLI traveled to So Cal for the first Trinity League media day for softball on Tuesday at Mater Dei High of Santa Ana, CA.

The Trinity League is considered one of the toughest league’s in the nation, producing D1-bound athletes in all sports and producing nationally-recognized teams in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.

TLI got a chance to speak with the star players and coaches from Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran High, CA, Santa Margarita Catholic High of Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, Rosary Academy of Fullerton, CA, and JSerra Catholic High of San Juan Capistrano, CA.

The 2019 JSerra High team with coaches Chip Bennett (red shirt) and Katie Stith (back row, fourth from right).

* Katie Stith, the daughter of OC Batbusters head honcho Mike Stith, took over as JSerra’s coach in 2019 and is in her second year with the Lions. Stith is a former Batbusters alum and went on to win three conference championships with Nevada of the Western Athletic Conference. She’s also an assistant coach for her father’s 18U OC Batbusters squad.

* Sean Brashear has won multiple PGF national titles for his Firecrackers-Brashear organization and he has had great success at the high school level for Chino High, CA, and Roosevelt High of Eastvale, CA, before taking over as Mater Dei’s head coach this season.

* Santa Margarita coach John Fitzpatrick just added Toni Mascarenas, a former CIF and national champion at Pacifica High of Garden Grove, CA, and a three-time NCAA All-American at Arizona. Mascarenas also helped Mission Viejo High, CA, win CIF and state championships as an assistant for the Diablos.

An interesting conversation broke out during the Coaches Panel after talking about this influx of high level club coaches joining the Trinity League.

“She is hardcore,” Fitzpatrick said of Mascarenas. “I love Toni. She’s a great coach. As you said, she’s intense and brings a great dynamic to our program and the girls really respect her. That’s one of the things I see. They know she’s played, they know who she’s coached and she’s been elite at both.”

CIF, the governing body in California, is in the process of working toward creating regionals and possibly state championships in the future, which could extend the high school season into June when the major club showcases and tournaments begin.

“On the travel ball side of things, because I’m a part of that, it is a tricky slope,” Brashear said. “Obviously, on the travel ball side there is a lot of recruiting involved and showcases and things of that nature, so it will be something that will have to be navigated. On my end, you would have to have those conversations and present that to your athletes and maybe with the programs on the travel ball side.”

“Hopefully, everybody would always look at it as a great opportunity for the athletes, because ultimately that is what we are supposed to be here for to give them opportunity and high-level opportunities. It’s something that hasn’t really happened yet, so it’s going to be an interesting dynamic because when you get to that first weekend of June almost every female athlete is playing softball with the idea of trying to get a scholarship. That will be something that definitely has to be encountered.”

* Rosary Academy coach Tom Tice has developed many top players that went on to star in college such as Kaitlin Cochran, who went on to become a four-time All-American at Arizona State and a Women’s College World Series champion in 2008.

“I’m happy for the competition,” Tice said of the club coaches in the Trinity League. “You know, we have our own assistant coaches who have travel ball experience too. What I know of these guys is they are teachers. Whether they are involved in travel ball or not, we are all teachers primarily and signed up to be part of academic institutions. Whether you are big-time travel ball or not big-time travel ball, you still have to coach a group of kids. It’s more or less who shows up at your school. It’s fun and any given year you roll with it.”

* Steve Miklos has over two decades as Orange Lutheran’s coach and he also has experience at the club level.

“I think more travel ball coaches is great,” Miklos said. “I think it elevates our sport. It gets more visibility and credibility. High school does play second fiddle to travel ball. That is where the recruiting comes from. So I think that travel ball coaches being involved is a great thing.”

Stith said the other Trinity League coaches have made her feel welcome.

“I just want to say these guys have coached a lot longer than I have,” Stith said. “I coached in a totally different arena and now coaching in high school they’ve been super supportive of us coming in and teaching us. Last year, coming in as a coach I grew ten-fold. The schedule is different. Balancing the kids is very different from high school to travel and they’ve been super supportive. They’ve been welcoming. Sometimes it can be like, ‘Ooh, so and so is coming from travel ball,’ and they’ve really embraced it. The first time I was coming in it was, ‘We’re excited to have you coming in. We’re excited to elevate Trinity League and continue to make it stronger.’ As we elevate our program it’s only going to make the whole Trinity League stronger. Sean and I talked about it earlier and it’s kind of made us better coaches.”

Miklos said there are big differences between high school and travel ball.

“It’s certainly different,” Miklos said. “If you need a third baseman, you can’t just go get one. You get what you get, like Tom said. You see what comes in and that’s what you get to work with. Sometimes they’re playing a position that’s not their first position, but they need to for the team. That’s really the big difference from travel to high school. You can’t just get another pitcher. High school … you get what you get. From a learning and teaching standpoint, it’s definitely different. I think it’s great.”

TLI will have more interviews, previews and features from the Trinity League media day throughout the week … Stay tuned.

Carlos Arias & Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball (Follow Carlos on Twitter @Los_Stuff; follow Brentt on Twitter @ExtraInningSB)

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