Softball seeks CIF victory in Skaggs' last year as coach
In coach Debbie Skaggs’ 28 years at Samo, she has led the Lady Vikings to two California Inter- scholastic Federation (CIF) titles, 12 Ocean League Championships and 120 straight wins in league as she looks to bring back one more title to Samo before retiring as the head softball coach this year.After defeating Arroyo High School 10-1 on May 21 and Loara High School 5-1 on May 26, Samo is heading to the third round of the CIF playoffs against Torrance on May 28 with an undefeated record of 12-0.According to pitcher Whitney Jones (’15), Samo’s strong defense helped the Vikings restrict Loara to only one run and score four runs in the fourth inning to secure a 5-1 win.Skaggs will be retiring from her position as the softball coach to support her son Tyler Skaggs (’09) in his baseball career as the starting pitcher for the Major League Base- ball (MLB) team Los Angeles An- gels. Even so, Skaggs will still roam the halls of Samo as a physical edu- cation teacher.
“Success is a choice,” Skaggs said. “You have to practice like a champion, because practice builds champions.”This has been the philoso- phy that Skaggs has upheld for the Samo softball program in 28 years of coaching.According to Skaggs, this last season will be the hardest consider- ing that the team has made it as far as the CIF finals for the last past two years, and she hopes that having competed against several Division 1 schools in non-league and tour- nament games prepared the players well for playoffs.“She has always been there for us,” pitcher Whitney Jones (’15) said. “Everyday she encourages us to improve our skills. For me per- sonally, Skaggs and I work togeth- er on pitch calling so we’ve made a strong relationship in communica- tion.”Whether a player needs to improve defensively or on their hitting, the whole coaching staff stands by them as a unit and helps them progress individually in order to make the team as successful as possible.Even though Skaggs as well as four prominent seniors are leav- ing next year, Skaggs still believes the team will continue to pursue a successful journey in the upcoming years.
“The program still has a lot of strong players, and I’m sure there’s a lot of good freshman that are going to be coming in next year,” Skaggs said.The team will still hold onto several successful players next year, such as first baseman Kenedee Jam- erson (’17) who is currently batting .500.According to shortstop Ashley Rakuljic (’17) losing Skaggs will be a sad loss, however, she still believes that the team will prevail and per- form at its full potential.“We have to keep in mind it’s a one game elimination so we can’t make too many mistakes or it’ll cost us,” Skaggs said. “I remind the girls that this is what we’ve been working for all season: playoffs. Every game we have played prepared us for the playoffs.”At press time the girls were play- ing in the CIF quarterfinals against Torrance high school.