Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

ray brewer:

Group of former Chap baseball players stepping up to help program

Chaparral Cowboys in Playoffs

Steve Marcus

Chaparral High School baseball coach David Soto addresses players during the 2013 playoffs.

There were so many baseball players at tryouts for the Chaparral High junior varsity team that some didn’t get to practice on the field for their short stints attempting to make the squad.

That was 1991. I was one of the ninth-graders who was cut without stepping foot on the diamond. Coaches knew what they were doing — the varsity team won state that year.

Fast forward more than 20 years. Participation numbers are so low, mostly because the area has drastically changed and is now considered at-risk, that coach David Soto might not be able to field a junior varsity program. There will be no cuts.

“If they are here and they work hard and they are loyal to the program, we are loyal to them,” Soto said.

Soto is loyal because others affiliated with the program are loyal to him.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, a group of former players will come together for the first alumni game, giving Soto two things he desperately lacks — a link to past successes and donations.

Jeff Morgan, part of the 1991 championship team, coordinated the effort, and more than 50 former players from various generations are expected to attend. They’ll bring money for making over an unusable dugout to the basic of new balls.

More important will be sharing memories of yesteryear with players and showing them they still care about the orange and black. Former soccer players have hosted alumni games the past three years, and their efforts in linking the past to the present are credited with the team’s success. Two seasons ago, the team reached the state championship game. (Full disclosure: I’m part of the soccer alumni group).

“We want the players to see how baseball is a tradition at this school,” Soto said.

In 2013, Soto coached Chaparral to the state tournament for the first time since the early 1990s, taking the Cowboys from a two-win program to respectability. But he needs help sustaining the success, and Morgan and others are willing to step up.

In the day and age of social media, which is how the baseball game was planned, schools such as Valley, Clark and Rancho, with decades of traditions, should also be coordinating with alumni. At least at Chaparral, they are eager to give back and could help transform struggling programs.

Contact Morgan at 702-353-0189 or [email protected] for details.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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