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"We stay away from Napa kids when we recruit," the community college baseball coach said. "They're soft."
One coach wouldn't be able to prove his belief correct in all cases.
"Oh, the Napa girls have skill, but they don't want to leave the valley and play basketball over here," one East Bay assistant college basketball coach said. "For every one who comes over here and plays well, two or three leave because they ... it's hard to explain ... they're soft."
Two coaches from two different colleges agreed that Napa Valley high school athletes are soft. It didn't take much to get the coaches to explain that they understood that youngsters who grow up in comfort and socio-economic safety of the valley would naturally feel entitled to a certain, more gentle way of being coached.
"They learn to play ball and play for different reasons than kids from inner-city areas, I think," one of the coaches said. "That doesn't make them bad kids. They just expect to be treated a certain way. I get it. I just can't expect a kid who feels entitled to playing time or even a roster spot to play for us."
Kids who grow up in the projects of Solano or Contra Costa counties are looking for a way out and, right or wrong, they usually think sports provides the best path. Those kids can't be soft and survive.
Don't believe it? OK. Go to a high school basketball game at Fairfield or Vallejo high schools. Now, go to a game at Napa, Vintage or Justin-Siena. See if you notice any difference.
My son played baseball for Justin-Siena this past spring. He mentioned that "people in the stands don't really get into the games." Then, we went to watch Rodriguez High's baseball team play in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship game. Instead of a small group of parents and boosters like that which followed Justin, Rodriguez filled have the Sacramento City College baseball stadium with loud, excited fans who hung on every pitch.
Wait. The intent here is not to conclude that Napa Valley athletes are self-entitled and too soft to succeed. Not at all.
A portion of the elite level athletes in the Napa Valley are, indeed, soft. They don't want to go take on the basketball or baseball worlds in most cases. There's nothing wrong with that, unless they expect to succeed as collegiate basketball or baseball players.
Napa Valley football players are far from soft. There's a disconnect between the self-entitled, soft athletes many outside Napa see in most sports and the gritty, determined football talent that comes from the Napa Valley. Napa's John Boyett stars at the University of Oregon. Undersized Jake Croxdale has built a career for himself against long odds at Sacramento State. They're just two kids who leap immediately to mind.
Two baseball players left the Napa Valley and are succeeding in places where there's no room for being soft. UC Davis sophomore CJ Blom and University of Michigan sophomore Ben Ballentine have bright baseball futures ahead of them. They're succeeding at big-time sports schools when their peers couldn't even get recruited outside the Napa Valley -- save for the kids who stream to Santa Rosa Junior College.
Guess what?
Blom and Ballentine were starters and stars for Napa High's traditionally powerful football team. Blom was an all-league lineman. Ballentine was a tall, gifted receiver. They carried the grit and determination needed to star as a Napa High football player and carried into another sport. Blom, in fact, had planned to play college football, but had such a brilliant senior baseball season that he changed his mind and is a key to the UC Davis baseball future.
Blom is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound chemistry major at UC Davis. Chemistry majors are rarely soft.
Blom pitched in 14 games, with three starts, as a freshman. He really didn't pitch a great deal in high school because Napa High had two good starters in Ballentine and Steven Nagy. When Blom had to pitch regularly in the playoffs as a senior, he was magnificent. So, he just scraped the tip of the iceberg on the mound as a college freshman.
Then, Blom became a full-time position player as a sophomore. He batted .345 in 22 games with a .379 slugging percentage and a .441 on-base percentage. Guys who pitch one year, hit the next and can probably do both just fine in college can't be soft.
CJ Blom .345 22 games 29 at-bats 10 hits 1 2B 4RBI .379 slug .441 OBP 6-4 230 lefty sophomore chemistry major
Ballentine led Michigan with a 3-1 record in 18 starts this spring. It's ironic that a pitcher from football-crazy Napa would wind up pitching in the football-crazy Big Ten Conference.
Ballentine, who is a 6-foot-7 righty, made 18 appearances. He struck out 46 and walked 21 with a 4.91 ERA. He made consistent progress after making 11 appearances as a freshman. His victories came over Notre Dame and Penn State after striking out three in two innings against powerful Texas Tech. The pitcher is enrolled in the university's School of Kinesiology as a physical education major.
Blom and Ballentine aren't the only athletes who disprove the general theory that Napa Valley kids are soft. Heck, there are dozens of kids coaches named whose college performances show that, perhaps, growing up playing in the valley did leave them too soft to compete elsewhere.
As is usually the case, two things can be equally true. Napa Valley basketball and baseball players can fall short in the area of desire, work ethic and toughness. However, CJ Blom and Ben Ballentine prove that Napa Valley athletes can succeed anywhere if they really work at it.
It must be the football.
That doesn't sound like the effort of a kid coaches would consider soft.
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