Season Interrupted: Garden Grove Pacifica’s Alyssa Brito lost a coach, then a season
Throughout the spring, The Times will interview high school seniors whose athletic careers were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
Name: Alyssa Brito
School: Garden Grove Pacifica
Sport: Softball, infielder
Key stats: One of the country’s top prospects batted .519 with six home runs in nine games this season. She hit 12 homers in 2019.
Fall plans: She will attend Oregon.
A look at the high school sport standouts whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
On the season being canceled: “It was really disappointing because I felt we had a lot of unfinished business. Our coach, Mark Campbell, passed away [last year]. This was our year to do something big to represent his name.â€
On life without sports: “It’s definitely different because I’m so used to being on the go and having a rigorous routine overall. I watch past softball games that are streaming on ESPN whenever I can because I miss the game. I practice with my brothers.â€
Eagle Rock slugger Elianna Reyes and her mother each contracted the coronavirus, and it created a family scare.
What she misses the most: “Just getting to play and be with my friends. They make everything great, and I love playing softball. Without it, I’m not myself.â€
On the lessons she’s learned: “A lot of us have learned to never take anything for granted, live everything you can in the moment. For me, I didn’t realize my last high school game game would be in the Laughlin tournament. We have to take every opportunity we can.â€
Video interviews of each athlete can be found at latimes.com/sports/highschool.
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