Five Seniors End High School Careers As Champs

In order to appreciate La Cañada’s success this past year, one must first look back. The year was 2007, and the Spartans were coming off a dismal 4-14 season. Justin Valassadis had called it quits after just one year at the helm. The Spartans hadn’t enjoyed a winning season in years, and they didn’t get a new coach until December of that year when KC Mathews decided to come in and mop up the mess.

“When I joined, my only thought was to stay alive,” Mathews said. “All I wanted to do was to restore some order into the program. These girls had fallen on some hard times every year, and I just wanted to help out a little bit and make a difference.”

At the same time, five freshmen in 2007 saw this as an opportunity to maybe get a break from dressing in loaner PE clothes and represent the maroon and gold as softball players. Never did they think that this program would actually develop into something monumental. But that’s exactly what happened Friday night when Lauren O’Leary, Anna Edwards, Shirley Drange, Kayla McCue and Megan Siepler culminated their careers at La Canada with a CIF-Southern Section Division 5 championship.

All five seniors played a part in the win. O’Leary led the charge in the circle, tossing a three-hit shutout (her 15th shutout of the season). Edwards provided the only offense of the game with a solo home run in the top of the third. Drange and Siepler started in the field and McCue singled as a pinch-hitter in the fourth inning.

“I can’t even describe it,” Edwards said after the game. “We’ve been working not even just this season, not just like this postseason, our whole high school careers to do this. For it to happen and to happen like this, I can’t even put it into words. The best way to end my high school career. I don’t even know what to say.”

In 2009, Edwards and Siepler emerged for their team, each batting well over .400, and  O’Leary was just getting started to strut her stuff in the circle, spotting an ERA shy of above one. The Spartans also had their first winning season in what seems like forever, and they even celebrated a playoff win against Paraclete before falling to eventual runners-up San Dimas that year.

It was their sophomore year though, that these girls had gotten a wake up call that a run could be in them within these next two years.

“When we became sophomores, the chance at making something was there,” Siepler said. “We had a number of solid seniors on our team and we were told that was our year. Losing in the second round told us that the talent was there, but we still had a lot of work to do.”

They came just about an inning away from reaching their first CIF finals appearance in 15 years in 2010 until a minor setback proved otherwise. South Hills scored two runs in the sixth inning to up end La Canada, 3-1.

This year, nearly everyone on the team came back hungrier than ever. Drange saw her stats go up and finished with 10 doubles, good enough for second on the team. O’Leary as well had her best year by far, tossing 15 shutouts on the year. The Spartans ended with their best record in program history at 25-3 and landed as the top seed in the playoffs.

During their playoff run, these seniors had put it all out on the line to get that taste of a division crown they were left out from a year ago. O’Leary threw out a perfect game against Ramona Convent, and the Spartans never let up from there. They easily dispatched Hemet in the second round, cruised past Katella in the quarterfinals and survived South El Monte in the semifinals.

And considering how far the program has come in the past four years, it was fitting that one of the seniors ended years of frustration with one swing of the bat. Edwards hit an 0-2 pitch over the right-center field fence against Beaumont’s Alyssa Fuimaono in the top of the third inning to give the Spartans the one run they’d need to win the title.

“I didn’t think that was going out,” Edwards said. “I thought that was a line drive that was going to bounce in front of the fence. Once I saw it clear out, I couldn’t think anything of it but how great it felt to be ahead and be there for my team once I reached home plate.”

Winning a CIF crown was definitely a four-year process for these girls. When they entered back in 2008, winning was a thing of the past. Now they not only leave with a ring on their fingers and a patch on their letterman jacket, they’ve built themselves a program accustomed to success.

“The one thing that I had learned these four years is that everything is a process,” O’Leary said. “It’s definitely how the saying goes where it’s not how you start but how you finish. Ending my senior year with a shirt that says ‘CIF Champs’ pretty much says it all.”