Friday, Apr. 18, 2008

Softball notebook: Othello coach closing in on 300 wins

By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

When the Washington State Coaches Association recently announced that Othello coach Rudy Ochoa was due to receive a career milestone plaque for his 200th win, the timing seemed a bit odd.

First, the awards are usually handed out at the coaches meetings in November, so Ochoa won't be getting any hardware for a good seven months.

Moreover, Ochoa sailed by 200 wins more than two years ago and is rapidly approaching 300 -- maybe that plaque will come when 400 is in his rearview mirror.

At 276 wins and counting, Ochoa said the accolades are nice but deflected the credit.

"I've had good athletes; that helps a lot," the 12-year coach said. "That makes coaches look really good. And my assistant coach (Mike Jensen) has been with me most of the time."

Ochoa first started coaching Little League when his daughters, Ciria and Cynthia, took up the game. As they moved up the ladder, so did he, going on to coach Othello's ASA team and then at the high school. He was an easy choice when the school switched from slowpitch to fastpitch in 1996, Ciria's first year.

In 1999, when Ciria was a senior and Cynthia a freshman, the Huskies won their first state title under Ochoa. They've added another championship, two seconds, a third and a fourth since then.

-- Spring break and WASL have taken a bite out of the league schedules the last few weeks, and the CBL remains on hiatus.

The CWAC has a light schedule Saturday with Ephrata (2-4) playing at Grandview (4-4) and Othello (3-1) visiting Prosser (1-5).

The SCAC East, which played last weekend in the Royal Invite, is back in action, with Kiona-Benton visiting Warden, River View playing at Connell and Wahluke hosting Royal.

• Comments
• Add Comment
• Disclaimer