In the baseball-rich culture of Elk Grove there’s one high
school team that has struggled in that spring sport. Monterey Trail’s program
has gone through four coaches in its relatively-short history and has won only 32
games over the past seven seasons.
The Mustangs have never won more than one league game in a
single year. Since the first varsity season in 2007, their conference record is
3-88.
But, Jordan Vartanian has made it his mission the past
couple years to change that. Blessed with excellent baseball talent, the
Mustang senior has been a diamond-in-the-rough, so to speak, at the school he
loves.
“I like to think of myself as the Michael Jordan of Monterey
Trail baseball,” he proclaimed Friday after his team was blown out by Elk
Grove, 14-3, in five innings.
He hit .431 in 2012 on a squad that averaged .201 as a
team. So far this spring Vartanian is
hitting .548 for a Mustang squad that is 2-12.
And, he’s encouraged with the improvement in the talent of
the teammates.
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| Monterey Trail shortstop Jordan Vartanian |
Vartanian has been a one-man recruiter for the baseball team
at Monterey Trail. He’s plucked several of the Mustangs’ talented football
players out of spring workouts and brought them to the baseball diamond. That
raw athleticism has helped, he says.
“We’re the underdogs and we try to come out and beat (the
opponents),” Vartanian said.
Guys such as Jermaine Bell, Paul Gooden and Josias Stevens
who would normally be in the weight room with football coach T. J. Ewing this
time of year have donned the gloves and spikes and are making it a go for the
Mustang baseball squad.
Last year, huge defensive end Leonard Wood, now a collegiate
football player, was swinging the bat for the Mustangs.
Helping Vartanian to try to put games in the win column is
older brother Nick. Nine years his elder, Nick was one of the starting pitchers
on Elk Grove’s 2003 Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship team. He went
on to play a couple years at CRC, then quit to learn the pipefitting trade.
Nick gets off the construction site each day in time to come
help coach his younger brother’s team.
He likes to reflect on that 2003 Elk Grove team which
featured him and David Hernandez, now one of the National League’s top set-up
men.
“We were just a couple tall, skinny kids then,” Nick said.
He stays in touch with Hernandez occasionally and wishes, at
times, he would have stuck with the sport like Hernandez did.
“I guess I wanted to get a job and make some money,” Vartanian
said.
The income for a pipefitter is a bit more guaranteed than
the dream of pitching professionally. But, Hernandez was one of the few to make
it big.
The love of the sport is behind the Vartanian’s desire to
try to build a program at Monterey Trail. Clearly their work is cut out for
them with baseball powers such as Elk Grove, Franklin and Davis alongside of
them in the Delta Valley Conference.
The younger Vartanian, despite the numerous team defeats
over the past few years, has kept a positive attitude.
“This team humbles me a lot,” he said. “I like working with
people like that and battle against the harder teams.”
Vartanian realizes he’s become a sort of trailblazer for
Mustang baseball.
“I want to try to get people to go (to Monterey Trail),” he
said “They’ll get some good coaching there.”
Jordan knows he’s in the spotlight right now and that if he
can latch onto a college team it will be helpful to promote the Mustangs’
baseball program.
“If I can go somewhere out of Monterey Trail, maybe people
will start coming out here saying, ‘He did it out of here,’” Vartanian said.
A few on the next level have noticed. A community college
coach talked with Vartanian following Friday’s game.
He’s a shortstop and one of the best in the DVC. A year ago
he was somehow left off the All-Conference First Team despite batting over .400.
This year has been forced to pitch, too. The Mustangs are a
bit short of arms. Vartanian doesn’t seem to mind, especially with brother Nick
helping.
He attributes his high school success to his older brother.
“He’s been working with me since I was little,” Jordan said.
“He’s always been at all my games.”
Mustang head coach James Therriault couldn’t have two better
allies.
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