Way to go, Seahawks

The photo in last week’s Independent told the story by capturing the

moment.

Members of the Ocean View High School baseball team leaped into

each other’s arms, faces aglow with excitement following their

victory in the CIF-Southern Section Division III championship game.

The 3-2 win capped a season that started out as anything but a title

run, with five players leaving the team.

Those loses, it turned out, didn’t matter much. And other loses

didn’t mount up, as the team turned a 3-4 start into a 25-5 record.

That’s quite a season. The boys deserve all the praise and

enthusiasm and, maybe, rest for combining together in such a

tremendous effort.

Led by Golden West League MVP Jeff Roth, a senior who went 10-1 as

a pitcher, the team finished its season with 16 straight wins. Alex

Burnett, Ocean View’s other ace, went 11-3 as the league’s top

thrower, closing out his season with 10 wins.

But such numbers belie that difficulty, and the heart, of this

team. Its final wins weren’t all runaways. In its playoff run, the

team had to rally for its wins. “Whenever we were down, we never felt

like we were out of any game,” junior leadoff hitter James Kang told

the Independent. “There was always a feeling among us that we’d get

it done, that someone would come through. We would just never quit.”

If only we read about such attitude in our professional athletes

-- or anyone else for that matter. Is it any wonder this team

triumphed? We’re not surprised. Coach Aaron Kavanagh certainly seems

to have done his job well. The team was poised, was intent, was

aggressive and was determined.

You add all that up, and what do you get?

That they were winners, of course.