[Student Reporters] Home-running through the frist 2 years of YLHS Baseball Team

Hayeung Tiffany Yang
10th grade
Yorba Linda High school

“History Starts Here” certainly describes the first baseball teams of Yorba Linda High School, considering that YLHS baseball teams were established in 2009. So far, these teams have onl won two games. However, within the past two years, Freshman/Sophomore, Junior Varsity, and Varsity players have worked very hard in settling their first teams, building the bases for their followers.

In years 2009-2010, Fresh/Soph and JV players competed at the Varsity level. Now, the same players are playing in the Varsity League. Overcoming this very competition, Coach Stein praises, “Mentally and physically, we have grown tremendously. We’re facing guys through a lot harder than what we saw last year, consistently.”

Coach Stein says that these baseball teams support a philosophy: “Faith, family, education, and baseball. The first three are the priority. Baseball is a privilege, not a student’s right. So the students have to understand how to prioritize their things in life, how to understand that education comes before baseball. But they also have to understand that when they come out to baseball, we expect them to work harder to do practice, [to] take the time to enjoy it because it is a game, and to carry over their experience from practice to game situations, and then to be able to react under various situations calmly”

After two years of coaching these teams, Coach Stein proudly reasons Joe Walls as the most consistent offensive player, Tommy Dedrick as the most consistent defensive player, and Trent Paddon as the most contributing pitcher.

According to Coach Stein, “Besides having the facility built on time and properly, getting the young men to come together and to work together as a team” was the hardest challenge that he had to face.

The proudest moments in the past two years were “the first Varsity when the players were able to achieve, not that I as a coach, but the first varsity win, and watching all the kids achieve at their best possible level.”

Coach Stein confides that what makes this team special is the “nineteen men roster that we have wearing the uniforms.”