By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor One might think dominating their way to a Prep League championship and a 10-0 victory over Estancia in the first round of the CIF playoffs would be reason for at least some celebration. But that wasn’t the case for Poly coach Jennifer Bond. Bond’s faith in her talent was immeasurable […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
One might think dominating their way to a Prep League championship and a 10-0 victory over Estancia in the first round of the CIF playoffs would be reason for at least some celebration.
But that wasn’t the case for Poly coach Jennifer Bond.
Bond’s faith in her talent was immeasurable and there were times, especially early on in the season, when the Panthers didn’t play up to their potential.
The Panthers, though, turned it on in Prep League play, and went 11-1 to earn back the league championship from reigning champion, Chadwick.
In fact, Chadwick’s only two (league) losses came at the hands of Poly this season.
Poly went on to crush Estancia in a 10-0 victory in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs, before falling to top-seeded Sierra Canyon in the second round.
The bracket seemed oddly unfair for a league champion to face the No. 1 seed in the second round.
But the Panthers had no say in their bracket and finished the season 16-8 overall, including their 11-1 run in Prep League play.
For getting her team to peak at the right time of the year, and winning back their coveted Prep League championship, Jennifer Bond has been named the Pasadena Sports Now Softball Coach of the Year.
Poly is 47-23 overall in her three years at the helm and 31-5 in league.
Despite much success this season and players she genuinely enjoys being around, Bond had a couple heartbreaking issues come up that took away a significant amount of her joy.
For much of the season, her hero, Doug Moulden, who is also her father, was diagnosed with cancer and was given very little time to live.
Bond didn’t burden many with her dilemma, and battled through running a respected program with high expectations and doing her best to go see her parents in Arizona to help her mother, Leslie, manage her father’s final months.
Mr. Moulden fell a couple weeks ago and his condition worsened rapidly, and Jenn’s father passed away last week at the age of 69.
“He impacted my life in so many ways. He taught me to always work hard and never expect anything,” Bond said. “If you want something then go after it and never give up. Things will not come easy, but if you have perseverance you will prevail. Do the work correctly the first time and don’t do a half-ass job. He taught me to be kind and friendly to everyone.”
Bond went on to explain her quandary.
Said Bond: “It was so terribly hard to deal with both him and the season. I wanted to be in both places at one time and everyone knows that is not possible. I did not want to let the girls down, but I also wanted to be with my dad. I felt like if I wasn’t there for the girls, I wouldn’t be living up to my commitment, and I follow through with everything I do. But on the other hand, I only had my dad for a couple more weeks. Every night I would fight with my emotions and seriously could not figure out where I was supposed to be. They both mean the world to me. Sometimes it was so hard to concentrate on games and practices, because I wanted to be with my dad. It was a very difficult struggle between the two.
Back to the fun part of the 2017 season for a minute.
Bond’s run towards another Prep League title was spearheaded by pitcher Brennah Bronk, who finished 11-6 in the circle with a 1.72 ERA and 131 strikeouts.
Bronk also led the Panthers offensively with a .525 average and 33 hits.
Catalina Alonso (.403, 23 hits, 27 RBI), Maddie Magee (.306, 19 hits, 13 RBI) and Vivian Wheeler (.360, 27 hits, 28 runs) all played major roles in the recapturing of the Prep League championship.
“The team had such a great run this year, because they are very hard working and everyone of them has a passion for the game,” Bond said. “They come out on to the field for practice and leave all school work behind them and focus completely on getting better for the team and working at it the whole practice. These girls know it takes hard work to win anything at all and they are not afraid of this hard work.”
Aside from the loss of her father, Bond also felt terribly that she had let her team down at the All-League meetings.
Bond was from that old school where coaches don’t post stats online after each game and the other coaches in the Prep League used that to minimize Poly’s presence on the first team, despite going 11-1.
In fact, she spoke with this reporter and asked if statistics were the end-all for picking league awards and when I told her yes, she expressed great remorse, because she felt like she had inadvertently taken away from their hard work and success.
“It (keeping stats) wasn’t something we had done and it hadn’t really affected our league meetings, but knowing it was used against my players is my fault and I feel terrible about it,” Bond said. “We should have had at least four players on the first team and we got just two. I apologize and can promise that will never be the case again.”
Bond’s candor and accountability are rare in this world, and makes her message of each person being responsible for their own actions hold so much more weight than those coaches who do not practice what they preach.
The two heartbreaks, though, still can not take away from the Panthers reclaiming their place in the Prep League hierarchy.
Even better, the core of this championship team will be back in 2018.
Lastly, Bond looks back on her most memorable moment of the 2017 season.
Said Bond: “My favorite moment of the season was when we were playing Mayfield for the first time. We were short some players and all the girls were scrambling to get anyone to help us out and play. Never mind the girls we did get to agree and help us out had never played softball before. Every girl was quickly trying to teach them the game and all the rules.
Every girl had some kind of advice for them, but they were nice enough to help us out. So it came to the end of the game and we were tied. One of the girls had to leave but was due up soon. I thought we were going to have to take the out, but then out comes one of our girls, Tara Adarkar, on the team just to give us support because her thing finished early.
I quickly got her to change into the uniform that the girl was taking off to leave. As she is scrambling to put her socks and shoes on, I said you better hurry up because you are up to bat. She goes to the plate with a runner on and two outs, with no warm ups or stretching. Keep in mind it was Tara’s first year playing softball last year, except one year when she was 8 years old.
So Tara gets 2 strikes on her and I am thinking this game is going into extra innings. Well Tara comes through and gets a hit and we win the game. This is my favorite moment for so many reasons, but the main reason is because we came together as a team helped each other out when the game was on the line.”
2017 Prep League Standings:
Poly (16-8 overall, 11-1 in league)
Chadwick (12-6, 10-2)
Mayfield (15-8, 8-4)
Rio Hondo Prep (10-10, 5-7)
Flintridge Prep (9-9, 4-8)
Westridge (5-10, 4-8)
Firebaugh (5-16, 0-12)
