L ATIMES.COM/SPORTS SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020D3
[the players] in functional
football shape as well as be-
ing able to physically put in
those systems is crucial.”
No offseason training or
practices will be allowed un-
til USC reopens its campus
to students. With fall camp
still slated for the start of
August, staying on the cur-
rent football schedule with a
month of ramp-up would re-
quire campus to reopen by
the start of July.
A memo from USC’s pro-
vost office Friday said that
campus would not be open
to students through at least
the university’s first sum-
mer term, which ends June- A decision on the second
summer term, which
stretches from July 1 to Aug.
11, would be made late in
April, the memo said. That
decision could have a pro-
found effect on USC’s foot-
ball plans. If university lead-
ers opt to keep campus
closed to students for that
second summer term, it’s
unclear how any sports at
USC would be able to pro-
ceed before Aug. 11.
USC is scheduled to open
the season Sept. 5 against
Alabama in Arlington,
Texas.
In the meantime, Helton
and his staff have tried to
keep players engaged.
Thanks to an NCAA deci-
sion this week, coaches are
now allowed four hours of in-
struction per week, as op-
posed to two. Strength and
conditioning coach Aaron
Ausmus has continued to
film workouts and post them
on a private Instagram feedfor players.
Ausmus explained on
USC’s “Trojans Live radio”
show that players will need
time to reacquaint them-
selves with a training re-
gimen before being ready for
football. Helton reiterated
that necessity Friday, com-
paring the process to former
USC cornerback Adoree’
Jackson’s re-acclimation to
football after track season.
“We took the time to take
a month to get Adoree’ in
football shape, before we
even thought about puttinghim in a situation where he
could hurt himself,” Helton
said. “I think this is going to
be very similar.
“You’re going to end up
having a situation, where ...
you come together, and
you’re getting back in foot-
ball shape as a team, as well
as doing physical installa-
tions, probably like NFL
OTAs, and going through
things without contact.
Then you start physical
training camp, when every-
one is ready to put that type
of pressure on the body.”When that might hap-
pen, Helton can’t begin to
know.
“We’ll get back to it,” he
said. “The game will open up
at some time. But right now,
let’s put priorities first.”
Until it does, Helton will
have to settle for coaching
his own kids on their school-
work. Unlike with his play-
ers, that patience is wearing
thin.
“The kids are over-
coached right now,” he said,
with a laugh. “I know they’re
already sick of me.”Start of college football season still up in the air
[USC, from D1]
mother and an older sister.
When he needs space, he
goes to his room or practices
hitting outside. He’s been
taking walks, playing card
games, taking out the trash,
washing dishes and watch-
ing television.
“I love my mom, but we
butt heads sometimes as all
kids do and growing up with
two older sisters is not the
best,” he said. “But they’d do
anything for me and I’d do
anything for them.”
Sarabia said he’s plan-
ning to attend junior college,
and he’s good with that.
While his baseball dreams
are on hold, he’s passing on
lessons he learned to the
younger players at Simi Val-
ley.
“Never take anything for
granted,” he said. “Always
appreciate what you have. I
told the underclassmen this
could be taken away any
time.”bia said.
He accomplished that. It
just came to an end earlier
than he could have imag-
ined.
The final game he played
was an 8-0 loss to Moorpark
on March 11. The next day,
during a team dinner, it was
announced the season had
been suspended.
“The first thing is denial,”
he said. “No, no, no. We’ll be
fine. As soon as we heard
Rudy Gobert tested positive
for the coronavirus, it was,
‘Oh, maybe there’s a shot.’
Then we heard the NBA sus-
pended its season. Yeah,
we’re done.”
Sarabia, a catcher, had a
streak in which he collected
nine consecutive hits. All the
hard work he did last sum-
mer and in the winter, stay-
ing after practice to hit and
working with coaches on the
weekend, was paying off.
“I was trying to open theSebastien Sarabia of
Simi Valley had 20 hits in
nine games and a .588 bat-
ting average, giving him
hope that his performance
would attract the attention
of college baseball recruit-
ers.
Then came word March
12 that the high school
sports season would be sus-
pended because of social
distancing measures associ-
ated with the COVID-19
pandemic.
The Simi Valley Unified
School District announced
Wednesday that campuses
would remain closed for the
rest of the school year, effec-
tively ending Sarabia’s sen-
ior season.
“This was something out
of our control and it sucks,”
he said.
Life has been turned up-
side down for seniors with
aspirations of earning col-
lege scholarships through
their spring sports perform-
ances.
“I was trying to be the
best player possible and
have fun in my last year in
high school and be able to
play with my friends,” Sara-
door and hoped this season
would help out,” he said of
his college ambitions. “One
thing led to another and now
I’m stuck at home.”
Simi Valley coach John
Arisohn said he has been im-
pressed with the maturity of
Sarabia.
“It sucks for him, but he’s
going after the things he can
control,” he said. “With the
season ending, he could be
real bitter or upset. He’s
more upset he didn’t get to
finish with all his friends.”
That lost opportunity to
say goodbye to teammates is
what pains many. Sarabia
has known most since mid-
dle school. One Simi Valley
player he has known since
kindergarten.
“Whatever happens hap-
pen, and you have to deal
with it,” he said.
Sarabia has been spend-
ing most of his time the last
three weeks at home with hisParting
such
sweet
sorrow
for him
SEBASTIEN SARABIAof Simi Valley had hoped to wow college recruiters as a
senior, but the spring season came to an abrupt end because of the coronavirus.Simi Valley baseballSimi Valley’s Sarabia
wanted one last
season with pals but is
ready for next chapter.
By Eric Sondheimer
When Jennifer Soto was
accepted to UCLAon March
20, it was the culmination of
a five-year dream. Ecstatic,
the Downey High senior
took a screenshot of her ac-
ceptance letter and sent it to
her foster father.
Alex Bernard had a fever
and was drained of energy,
but when he saw Soto he
hugged her immediately.
Having been tested for
COVID-19earlier that day,
he wasn’t supposed to be
hugging anyone.
But the father’s love
knew no regulation.
That’s how Soto, a
lacrosse player at Downey,
will always remember her
dad: Bernard was funny, lov-
ing and supportive even in
his final days before dying
from COVID-19 last Sat-
urday, six days after being
admitted to the hospital
with the disease. He was 57.
“He was a good person,”
Soto said. “He helped as
many people as he could and
I’m not just saying that like
everyone would say that
about their dad, but he actu-
ally helped so many people.”
Bernard was an outreach
pastor at Downey’s Desert
Reign Church whose willing-
ness to help others never wa-
vered, even while battling
COVID-19. His fever was
burning, but he still tried to
will himself out of bed to help
deliver food. His children,
Jennifer, her biological sister
Sara Bernard, and foster
siblings Rose and Zack
Pack, tried to persuade him
to stay home. He couldn’t be
swayed.
The family finds a sliver
of solace amid the paralyz-
ing grief knowing Bernard
“did all he could in the
world,” Soto said.
Bernard has been in So-
to’s life since before the 17-
year-old could remember.
The pastor met Soto’s family
through Teen Challenge, a
program that helps addicts
through rehabilitation in
part by studying the Bible,
and Soto had been under
Bernard’s guidance and
care since she was 2days old.
While Jennifer remained
with relatives, she remem-
bers Bernard being a con-
stant figure. He brought her
Christmas presents every
year. He helped her family
move into a home in Po-
mona. He took her to see
fireworks on Fourth of July.
These are bright mo-
ments amid the darkness of
a barelythere childhood.
Soto, who also lived as a
child with her grandmother,
said she had to mature
quickly in an unstable home.
She didn’t have money for
sports. She had to learn to
prepare her own meals from
a young age.
When her grandmother
died in 2015, Soto moved in
with Bernard’s family.
“When I came here, I had
so many more opportuni-
ties,” Soto said.
After never having the
money to play sports, Soto
picked up lacrosse as afreshman. She didn’t know
much about the sport, only
cursory glances of it from the
TV show “Teen Wolf.”
Although Soto missed
the preliminary tryout,
coach Marvin Mires was ap-
proached by another
teacher asking if Soto could
try out for lacrosse. Mires al-
lowed a one-on-one session.
“You could tell that she
was a great kid and she
needed some positive in her
life,” he said. “She needed to
be a part of something be-
cause she was never a part of
anything.”
Soto became a four-year
lacrosse player at Downey
and a three-year varsity
starter. The Vikings were the
No. 2-ranked Division 2 team
in the preseason CIF poll
and No. 3 in the latest rank-
ing. The CIF Southern Sec-
tion approved champi-
onships in boys’ and girls’
lacrosse for the first time
this season.
Soto is positive the Vi-
kings would have won the ti-
tle. But the CIF canceled the
remainder of spring sports
Friday because of the co-
ronavirus outbreak.
Although Soto can’t fin-
ish her lacrosse career with
the opportunity for a title,
she takes lessons that
helped her prepare for life
beyond high school. Mires
requires a 3.0 GPA from his
players when Southern Sec-
tion requirements dictate an
unweighted 2.0; the future
UCLA Bruin reports a 3.75
average.
“It pushed me to get bet-
ter grades and do better,”
Soto said. “[Mires] has this
quote: ‘be a woman for oth-
ers’ and ‘be a man for others,’
and he taught me how to be a
better person, how to just be
somebody for others and it
connects to my dad because
he was such a man for oth-
ers, too.”
Bernard came to as many
of Soto’s games as he could.
He was boisterous. She was
so embarrassed by the way
he cheered even when she
didn’t have the ball.
The teenager chuckles at
the memory.
Soto cycles through raw
emotions while remember-
ing her dad. She laughs
when she says he was funny
—not just dad jokes, she in-
sists — and cries when she
talks about his work with or-
phanages and jails in Mexi-
co.
And she gets angry when
she realizes he is gone.
She still can’t wrap her
mind around why this man,
so devout in his belief of God
and so committed to always
doing good, would have to
die of this disease. She never
thought it could happen.
She pleads to others to take
the outbreak seriously.
Like her father, Soto
wants to help others. She
plans to major in sociology
and psychology at UCLA,
and wants to go to graduate
school to become a social
worker. Soto knows the
struggle of going through
the foster care system and
just how much help is
needed to keep dreams alive.Foster father,
lacrosse shaped
Soto’s outlook
ALEX BERNARD, second from right, did all he
could to give hope to Jennifer Soto, second from left.Courtesy of Jennifer SotoBy Thuc Nhi Nguyenbeing a senior.
The California Inter-
scholastic Federation’s
cancellation of the rest of
the high school spring
sports season, announced
Friday, means Denhart and
thousands of other high
school athletes around
Southern California won’t
finish what they started.
They understand why the
cancellation had to happen.
That doesn’t make it easier
to accept they’re losing
precious moments they
can’t experience again.
“It’s definitely been
difficult to wrap my head
around,” said Denhart, who
has committed to Southern
Utah. “I’d say it does suck
for all the athletes because
we all had so much ahead of
us. And us as seniors, it was
our last year and we wanted
to make something special
out of it but we didn’t get
that chance.”
Los Alamitos coach Rob
Weil feels wistful too. The
Griffins’ season halted the
day after they learned they
were ranked No. 1 in the
country. They didn’t have a
chance to enjoy that.
“It’s a shame,” he said
Friday. “Our seniors were
great leaders. It was a great
start to a season that we
thought we were going to do
very well at.”
There will be no senior
day or traditional team
banquet, but Weil vowed to
make up for that.
“We always recognize our
seniors with some type of
gift, “ he said, “and we’ll
definitely do that again this
year if that means I’ve got to
personally deliver it to their
house and leave it on their
porch. We just got our pic-
tures back. ... Maybe we’ll
just drive around and take
them to all the kids’ houses
and leave them on the porchand wave to them to try and
cheer them up.”
Chris Vogt, baseball
coach of No. 7-ranked Ayala
High in Chino Hills, has
changed the tone of his
communication with his
players to focus on their
emotional well-being.
“Some of them didn’t
understand it. ‘What do you
mean? Everyone I know is
fine.’ And I think it was hard
initially to understand why
everything was shutting
down,” he said. “I was a
senior in high school when
[the Sept. 11 attacks] hap-
pened and it was a tangible
thing. With the pandemic,
because you don’t see it, it’s
hard.
“Initially I was just ask-
ing, ‘Are you playing catch?’
And stuff like that. Now it’s
more of, ‘How are you do-
ing?’ I talked to a couple of
the seniors at length.
They’re upset. This was a
very, very close-knit group
from seniors down to sopho-
mores.”
The disappointment
lingers for some winter
sports athletes too. Mem-
bers of the girls’ basketball
team at Paloma Valley High
in Menifee, winners of theSouthern Section Division
4AA title, were in the gym
with their bags and vans
packed for the state cham-
pionship game in Sacra-
mento on March 12 when
they learned the final had
been called off. They had
breakfast and parted, a
best-ever 34-3 season over.
It was devastating.
“Especially for the two
seniors who had experi-
enced the program at its
lowest and were part of this
transformation. For their
season to end that way, it
was heartbreaking,” coach
Matthew Dale said. “We’ve
been communicating
through text messages and
group texts but you go from
seeing someone every day
for six months to now we’re
not even getting a sense of
closure.”
Playing for the state
championship, Dale said,
“maybe is a thing that hap-
pens commonly at schools
like Mater Dei or something
like that, but for our little
school to be there and have
that chance, it just doesn’t
happen, maybe ever again.
Who knows?”
That’s the worst part,
losing once-in-a-lifetimeopportunities. “Now, we
don’t have a prom. We don’t
have Grad Night and just
spending senior year with
our friends, making it mem-
orable,” Denhart said. “It is
hard.”
Orange Lutheran pitcher
Christian Rodriguez, a
senior who committed to
Cal State Fullerton but is
awaiting the Major League
Baseball draft, hoped until
recently the CIF would find
a way to finish the season.
“I’m feeling a lot of hurt and
sadness, just like a lot of my
teammates are,” he said.
“The group that we had
this year was really special
and to hear I won’t be able
to step on the field with my
brothers and try to achieve
that goal of winning CIF,
it’s heartbreaking. To say
I played my last varsity
high school baseball game
against Mater Dei [on
March 11] is unreal.”
Every year, Orange Lu-
theran coach Eric Borba
plays his seniors in the
Lancers’ last home game.
He didn’t play them all on
March 11. “Now I wish I
would have,” he said.
Borba hopes to honor
them and the entire team
someday.
“Whenever this is over
with, whether that’s two
weeks, a month, a year, we
will find a way to do some-
thing together as a group,”
he said. “On the field, I
think, where the guys actu-
ally get in their uniforms
and they’re out on the field
together and in the dugout
together.”
Amid a health crisis that
has changed the way we live,
canceling a high school
sports season might seem
inconsequential. Still, it’s a
painful tear in the fabric of
so many lives, a rip that
can’t be completely re-
paired.No closure for area’s senior athletes
[Elliott, from D1]THEREwill be no celebratory dog piles like the one
enjoyed by Birmingham at Dodger Stadium in 2019.Luis SincoLos Angeles Times