SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone: Escarcega on Preps: Time to "Win One for Jason."
A win on Saturday would be the perfect ending to an emotional and inspiring story of Cal High softball team and coach Jason Ramirez.
California High School softball coach Jason Ramirez oversees practice on Wednesday. (Escarcega)
IRVINE – Saturday night is the night.
It is the night everyone associated not only with California High School softball but also those who are part of the softball family in the Whittier area.
The California Condors will take Gahr High School at 7:30 P.M. for a CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine.
This is the final weekend of baseball and softball action for the CIF Southern Section. After a break for a week, the CIF State Regionals will take place. With all due respect to our friends in the state office, the baseball/softball playoffs have been a slow embrace by those in the south (Note: We predict that the D-1 baseball and softball winners will opt out and end the season).
Plenty of storylines within the 16 combined games will take place at Lake Elsinore and Irvine. The D-1 softball final will pit the #2 (Garden Grove Pacifica) and #3 (Orange Lutheran) teams in the state (rankings via Cal-Hi Sports), the baseball final will pit the #1 (Corona) and #3 (Harvard-Westlake) teams in the state.
It’s a baseball game featuring 10+ players who will be either playing baseball in college or drafted later this summer in the MLB Draft.
There is Hart’s Jim Ozella going for a CIF-SS Div. 2 baseball title in his last year as coach. And there are many other storylines.
But, if you want emotion mixed in with having your heart touched in a way that only sports can do, then Saturday night at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine is your place to be.
By now, you should know the story, but in case you don’t, let’s refresh your memory.
For the last two years, California High School softball coach Jason Ramirez has been in a fight for his life after being diagnosed with ALS. For those who don’t know anything about this dreaded disease, “ALS is a fatal motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. ALS affects voluntary control of arms and legs and leads to trouble breathing. ALS doesn't affect intelligence, thinking, seeing, or hearing. There is no known cure for ALS,” according to the Johns Hopkins University medical website.
It is truly a dreaded disease.
The life expectancy for anyone who catches ALS is 2-5 years. As you can understand, the time is ticking on Ramirez’s life. It’s for that reason outsiders can feel a sense of urgency from everyone within the program. Coaches, players and parents.
Last year when the Condors defeated Marina in the second round of the playoffs, everyone hugged and cried for Ramirez. At that moment, they knew the clock was ticking and there were no guarantees. Ramirez, who has been the face of the program for almost a decade, cried as well. He has felt the sting of opening-round losses and losing to their rivals, La Serna. At that moment, all he could do was cry. He knew that his girls were performing with big hearts and big dreams.
No words were necessary.
After that win, all of Southern California took notice. Newspaper, TV stations and more were descending on the Whittier-based campus. His fight was now getting much-deserved attention. Despite coming short in the Sectional finals and regionals, Ramirez remained positive.
When a high school sports reporter ran into Ramirez that summer at a Dodger game on the field level, his positivity remained at an all-time high. “I just love being in this stadium,” he told this reporter.
That reporter is the one who is penning the column.
Throughout the year, Ramirez continues to be the face of the program. Whether it is at the program’s annual golf tournament or an on-campus practice, Ramirez has been there. And it’s not like he is not in the middle of everything. He is still as sharp as ever and, as we found out while being in the dugout of last Saturday’s marathon semifinal game against Valley View, he’s still making those critical in-game adjustments.
When it was decided that the Condors were going to have a change in plans for Thursday night’s practice by having it at night, to try and get the players used to playing under the lights, it was Ramirez that made the decision.
This playoff run has been one for the memory books. The Condors had to play 14 innings (in two days; Thursday and Friday) to defeat Whittier Christian. The next day, the Condors had to play 12 innings to defeat Valley View to earn their spot in Saturday night’s showdown with Gahr.
If you think that the players felt sorry for themselves during this three-day run, you would be wrong. Each player we talked to openly said that their pain was nothing when you consider what Ramirez is going through.
And that says a lot when you have played 26 innings of softball in three days.
And it’s easy to understand why. While many of us take it for granted when we get up in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, and get ready to go for the day, that is a struggle for Ramirez. For all the medications he has to take, to get assistance to do the normal routines, it’s an ongoing struggle. That includes physical therapy 7 days a week.
He is confined to a wheelchair. And each coach within the Del Rio League has made sure that he had little trouble getting into the dugout for games.
It is at this point you can understand that being at practice for three hours a day is the best part of the day. When you have a conversation with Ramirez, you not only walk away inspired by his fight against ALS but are thankful that he is still with us.
But you can tell that he misses the little things in life.
After Wednesday’s practice, Ramirez watched his coaches manicure the softball field. Baseball and softball coaches are different in that they love working on their fields. It’s their built-in therapy for all the responsibilities that come from being a coach.
“I missed that so much,” Ramirez said. “I used to love working on the field, getting all the weeds removed. Next year they are renovating our field, and maybe (Whittier Unified) will ask me for some advice. But what do I know?”
What you know Jason is that you are teaching everyone what toughness is all about. What you know that is you are a man with a big heart and a big soul.
And what we know is that if the Condors win a CIF-SS Div. 2 championship, all of us will be crying because we know what courage is all about.
When the Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers to win Super Bowl 32, the first one for quarterback John Elway, Broncos owner, the late Pat Bowlen, gave the Lombardi trophy to Elway and said, “This one’s for John.”
I have a great idea.
If the Condors win on Saturday, someone needs to hand the gold CIF-SS plaque over to Jason and say, “This one’s for Jason.”
It would be a fitting end to a story that has left everyone crying in the last two seasons.