Heading into the season, Mike Willey understood his potential starting lineup was going to be young.
Real young.
For Willey, in his 15th year as Savanna’s softball coach, throwing freshmen onto the field is nothing new. A season ago, the Rebels started four first-year players and went 17-9.
With 10 seniors graduating from that squad, Willey was ready for the Rebels’ youth movement to continue.
“The expectations again were to compete for a league championship and have a better showing in the playoffs,” he said. “I knew I had five starters returning, so that was a good foundation.”
The Rebels saw five freshmen make the varsity roster over the summer months, while also receiving word that a sophomore transfer from Mater Dei, Jezabelle Quintana, would be joining the program.
“Right away, I’m thinking I’m going to have 11 really good players to field nine positions,” Willey added. “I knew when these girls were in camp, we were going to be pretty good.”
How good was the most shocking part of all.
With eight underclassmen starting, Savanna produced arguably its best team in school history.
The Rebels compiled a 26-3 record, won the Orange League for an 11th consecutive season, earned the No. 2 seed in the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs, and advanced to the semifinals for the second time in program history.
For guiding his relatively young group to such heights, Willey has been selected the Register’s Coach of the Year.
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“These girls don’t realize what they’re doing,” Willey said. “All they want to do is play, and play hard. They’ve kept up a winning tradition and did it with sportsmanship. But do they know that they’re the best team ever (in program history)? I don’t think they know the magnitude of what they did.”
The Rebels reeled off 18 straight wins during the second half of the season before losing in the semifinals to Citrus Valley of Redlands, 5-1.
All eight Savanna underclassmen were named first- or second-team all-league.
The future appears mighty bright for Willey and his Rebels.
“If we can keep everybody healthy, everybody happy,” Willey added, “we’re going to be real good next year.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
