Prep notes: Hughson baseball, softball teams connected like their coaches

Mike Bava and Rod Cree are connected by more than gold trophies and the seats they occupy.

Bava is the skipper of the Hughson baseball team (19-4), the two-time defending Trans Valley League champions.

Cree sits a little higher on the mountain. He manages the school’s golden girls, a softball team feared by many throughout the Sac-Joaquin Section. The Huskies (22-1) have won five straight Division V championships.

“It’s been nice to have both programs doing so well,” Bava said modestly.

The bond between coaches stretches beyond that success.

Bava and Cree are products of the same generation, graduates of Hughson High whose lives have been intertwined ever since the tassel flip.

Bava was classmates with Cree’s wife, Janice, members of the Class of 1980. Cree graduated one year earlier.

Cree’s daughter, Julianna, a Southern Oregon softball alum, was Bava’s assistant coach for a spell with the overachieving Modesto Lady Warriors travel team. And Bava’s daughter, Krista, honed her game under coach Cree and eventually finished her playing career at UC Davis.

Yes, Bava and Cree are connected, and at virtually every point along the way, Hughson High has benefited. The spring season offered just the latest example.

Through Bava and Cree, the Huskies’ baseball and softball teams developed a close kinship, cheering each other on at every chance. They became brothers and sisters of the glove, galvanized by their pursuit of small-school championships.

“It was kind of fun,” said Bava, who would cut short practices so that his boys could be in the stands when the softball team played Trans Valley League rival Ripon.

“We’d get our work done and they’d cut out early,” he added. “Whenever they played Ripon, they made sure they were there for those.”

The softball team reciprocated during the postseason, leaving Stockton’s Arnaiz Softball Complex – the site of the Division IV and V tournaments – to catch the baseball team across town at Billy Hebert Field.

Cree and his girls even postponed their awards banquet to attend the baseball team’s best-of-three semifinal series with Capital Christian. How’s that for support?

While this kind of synergy isn’t uncommon in high school athletics, Bava said it makes it no less special.

“It was fantastic. In the postseason, there was no doubt we had the most fans,” he said. “We had a cheering section that wouldn’t end, and it went both ways.

“It was genuine. It wasn’t like there was a boyfriend-girlfriend thing going on there. It was mutual respect. They were pleased each was doing so well.”

Fittingly, the two programs wrapped up the season together, staging a joint banquet in Reeder Hall on campus.

The party lasted four hours.

“It was a long evening,” Bava said, “because there was a lot to celebrate.”

Volleyball: Taylor made for success at Master’s College?

Former Enochs outside hitter Haley Taylor will continue her volleyball career at The Master’s College, a Santa Clarita-based NAIA program.

Taylor ranked second on the Eagles in sets played (83) and third in kills (76) and blocks (27). Enochs captured the Modesto Metro Conference title and qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs.

She joins a program that went 19-12 overall and 9-7 in the Golden State Athletic Conference this past season.

“I want to grow as a player and always make a difference for the better on the court,” Taylor said in a news release published by the college. “I also want to work hard and help the team become first in our conference.”

Banks’ shot: Central Catholic grad headed to Central College

Central Catholic graduate Matthew Banks will join the Central College (Iowa) baseball program.

Banks was used primarily as a pitcher for the Raiders this spring, appearing in eight games.

He logged 301/3 innings, third most on the team, and was 2-3 with a 2.54 ERA. He went the distance in two games and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 3-to-1.

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Prep notes: Hughson baseball, softball teams connected like their coaches."