Season Interrupted: Garden Grove Pacifica’s Alyssa Brito lost a coach, then a season
Throughout the spring, The Times will interview high school seniors whose athletic careers were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
Name: Alyssa Brito
School: Garden Grove Pacifica
Sport: Softball, infielder
Key stats: One of the country’s top prospects batted .519 with six home runs in nine games this season. She hit 12 homers in 2019.
Fall plans: She will attend Oregon.
A look at the high school sport standouts whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
On the season being canceled: “It was really disappointing because I felt we had a lot of unfinished business. Our coach, Mark Campbell, passed away [last year]. This was our year to do something big to represent his name.”
On life without sports: “It’s definitely different because I’m so used to being on the go and having a rigorous routine overall. I watch past softball games that are streaming on ESPN whenever I can because I miss the game. I practice with my brothers.”
Eagle Rock slugger Elianna Reyes and her mother each contracted the coronavirus, and it created a family scare.
What she misses the most: “Just getting to play and be with my friends. They make everything great, and I love playing softball. Without it, I’m not myself.”
On the lessons she’s learned: “A lot of us have learned to never take anything for granted, live everything you can in the moment. For me, I didn’t realize my last high school game game would be in the Laughlin tournament. We have to take every opportunity we can.”
Video interviews of each athlete can be found at latimes.com/sports/highschool.
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