The High Schools / John Lynch : Change in Attitude Leads Edwards Back Into Fold at Hart

When Jason Edwards of Hart High blew out his right shoulder before the first pitch of the season, he was the sorriest guy on the team.

He was sorry he threw so hard in a preseason scrimmage, sorry he hadn’t rested his arm in the off-season, and most of all, he felt sorry for himself. He has remained on the team as a designated-hitter, but his senior season as a pitcher was over before it began.

As a junior he was 11-0 with a 1.28 earned-run average and 92 strikeouts in 82 innings. This year, his entire pitching line consists of one-third of an inning, which represents his brief comeback bid.

Edwards, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound right-hander, felt his shoulder pop in a scrimmage against Saugus in February. He has pitched almost constantly since he was 10 years old. Although he didn’t pitch at Hart until last year, he has been the ace of five youth baseball World Series championship teams, compiling a 25-1 record in World Series tournaments.

Edwards is no stranger to shoulder pain. He often felt sore at the start of a season and suffered tendinitis of the rotator cuff as a 14-year-old. This year’s injury originally was diagnosed as tendinitis, but Edwards will undergo arthroscopic surgery when the season ends to repair a torn rotator cuff.

With his season as a pitcher in the tank, his attitude took a dive. Previously one of the team’s fiercest competitors, he sat listlessly on the bench during games.

When he showed any interest during practice, it was usually to disrupt it. When teammates tried to tease him out of his gloom, he snapped back and stormed off the field. In a nonleague against Canyon in March, he argued with Coach Bud Murray, who ordered the sulking player off the bench.

Edwards refused to leave. Instead, he sat at the end of the bench and stared sullenly at the field. When his turn in the batting order came, he never moved.

“I was terrible,” Edwards said. “I felt everyone in the world was blaming me. This was supposed to be the best year of my life. Instead, it was a nightmare.”

Murray had had enough. He met with Edwards to clear the air.

“It got pretty nasty between us,” Murray said. “I was tired of him.”

But Murray couldn’t dismiss his affection for Edwards. He convinced him that the team needed him as a designated-hitter and a leader. He also convinced him that it was time to leave the self-pity behind.

“When I left the meeting I felt a load had been lifted from my shoulders,” Edwards said. “I needed to hear something positive from somebody other than my family.”

Edwards, who batted .299 last year, saw his average hover around .160 before a late-season surge raised it to .254. He had a single and knocked in a run in a 23-4 win Friday over La Salle in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs. Hart (20-6) will play Walnut in a second-round game Tuesday.

Murray pointed to Hart’s final game of the regular season as an example of the change in Edwards. Despite a 2-1 loss to San Gabriel that forced the Indians to share the Foothill League title with San Gabriel, Edwards led the team from the dugout.

“I felt so damn good even though we lost the ballgame,” Murray said. “He was tremendous on the bench, leading the team, urging his teammates. I was never as proud of anyone as I was of Jason.”

Add Edwards: Despite the wear and tear his shoulder has endured during his career as a youth-league pitcher, Edwards has no regrets about the innings he has logged. He claims he never pitched when his arm hurt and was never forced to pitch.

Pitching didn’t hurt his shoulder, he claimed, but his failure to strengthen his arm with conditioning and stretching exercises in the off-season did.

“If anyone’s to blame, it’s me,” he said. “People would tell me to build up my arm and lift weights, but I never did much of that.”

Edwards speaks optimistically about his future, saying he is counting on a complete recovery from the injury. And he has adopted a philosophical attitude about this season’s disappointments. A college scholarship seemed a lock before the season started, but he has resigned himself to playing at College of the Canyons next season.

“Schools like USC and Long Beach State were interested in me, but who wants a guy with a bad shoulder,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing at Canyons. But first I want to prove myself in the playoffs. In five games, you can get a lot done.”

Rules-change sought: After Tuesday’s fight-marred volleyball match in San Gabriel, Campbell Hall Coach Kris Ragland intends to petition the Southern Section office for a rules change. Ragland will ask the Southern Section to require that schools hire adult officials as line judges for all playoff matches.

Current rules require schools to appoint two or four line judges to work with a referee and an umpire for each match. However, because the rules don’t expressly state that line judges must be paid officials, schools frequently select junior varsity players to work the lines. A referee earns $37, an umpire $35, and the Southern Section recommends a $12 fee for each line judge.

The Southern Section encourages schools to use paid line judges in the playoffs, but Tuesday’s match was played with San Gabriel junior varsity players working as line judges. It was a call by one that prompted the first of two altercations.

In the fifth game, with San Gabriel serving and holding a 14-9 lead, both officials ruled a serve out of bounds. A student line judge ruled the serve good and when the officials overruled that call, fans spilled onto the court in protest and battled with Campbell Hall players.

After order was restored, Campbell Hall scored seven consecutive points to win the match, prompting a second fight in the stands. The Vikings dashed off the court to the team bus, which was pelted with rocks as it sped off campus.

Southern Section administrator Karen Hellyer sympathizes with Ragland’s position. “Can you think of any other sport where students are used as officials?” she asked. “That’s a difficult responsibility to place on the shoulders of a high school student.”