THIS YEAR’S MODEL

Capistrano Valley won its first softball league title in 24 years of competition with a model as its pitcher.

Now, Brooke Weekley looks to take the Cougars to the end of the runway in the wide-open Southern Section Division I playoffs.

“Capo Valley has as good a chance as anyone to win this thing,” said Fountain Valley Coach Cary Baker.

Baker should know. His team is also in Division I, and even though Fountain Valley beat Capistrano Valley, 1-0, that didn’t alter Baker’s opinion: “They’re a real good team.”

A good team that is one of Orange County’s bigger surprises this season. Weekley, a sophomore, has been a key to the Cougars’ success.

After finishing with a 20-0 record last season on the junior varsity, Weekley is 17-5 this season. She has a 0.94 earned-run average, inflated mostly by two games--a 7-6 loss to Santa Margarita and a 5-4 victory over Pacifica.

“I think the reason we’ve surprised so many people is because teams didn’t know the caliber of our pitching,” said Bob Janko, first-year coach at Capistrano Valley.

“[Weekley] may have an ERA of one, but if I was the other team, I wouldn’t count on scoring a run against her.”

Weekley, who carries a 3.9 grade-point average, said she would rather earn a softball scholarship than be the next Cindy Crawford.

“I don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up,” she said. “Right now, I’m not going for a future in modeling, but if it happened, it would be cool.”

Weekley, who turned 16 on April 20, has already done some print modeling, mostly catalogs and point-of-sale displays. She doesn’t accept modeling assignments during softball season because of the demands on her time.

Playing sports--and playing in shorts--can also create some professional obstacles. Strawberries, for example.

“I don’t usually get them,” Weekley said, “but if I do, they can usually touch those up with makeup.”

Tougher to cover up are the negatives that come with having a high-profile part-time job or getting most of the recognition on her team.

“I’ve gotten a lot of resentment, but I can’t let it bug me,” Weekley said. “There’s really nothing I can do but try to be extra nice about it. I don’t talk about modeling except with my closest friends.”

Janko has been impressed with the way Weekley has handled the resentment of some parents who don’t like that she is the face of Cougar softball.

“I heard about it through some parents over lunch,” Janko said. “So I talked to the team because that’s who I can control. I told them, ‘You do your job, she’ll do her job.’ ”

The feeling in softball circles is the Cougars will go only as far as Weekley takes them. She disagrees.

“Our coaches stress it’s a 15-player team,” said Weekley, who had only three strikeouts in a perfect game against Mission Viejo and averages less than one per inning. “We can’t win a game on pitching and defense alone. We need hitting. And lately we’ve been hitting awesome.”

Capistrano Valley won the league title by beating Dana Hills last week, 3-0. After being held hitless by Candice Rainwater for six innings, the Cougars broke through with three runs in the seventh. Against El Toro, after falling behind by a run, Capistrano Valley rallied for a 6-2 victory.

“Brooke keeps us in every game,” Janko said, “and it’s up to everyone else to win the game.”

With victories over Esperanza and Pacifica, which are ranked in Orange County and Southern Section polls, the Cougars have shown they can play with anybody.

But Capistrano Valley can also lose to anybody. The Cougars were defeated in the league opener by San Clemente, a team that won only six games this season. It was a pivotal moment for the Cougars, said catcher/third baseman Alicia Thompson, a junior.

“If we couldn’t beat San Clemente, we couldn’t beat anyone in league,” she said. “We needed to focus more and concentrate on softball, and work together as a team.”

The loss to San Clemente was part of a stretch during which the Cougars lost three of four. They lost three in a row during another stretch, proving that while they are good, they are also streaky.

They have won six in a row heading into the playoffs.

“This year’s playoffs are a crapshoot,” Janko said. “We’ll play solid defense, scrap for runs, and try to win some really close ballgames. I think we’re getting hot at the right time.”

Janko doesn’t have any senior starters, but eight players were starters on last year’s team that was 14-14, led by first baseman Kristin Timbers and center fielder Allison Hall, the Cougars’ two .300 hitters.

They delivered Capistrano Valley its first league title in the program’s history, relying largely on a first-year varsity pitcher.

And everybody has something to smile about.