He Came to Mainland From Maui to Continue Studying Diamonds

Enele Scanlan came to the mainland from his native Hawaii four years ago to get an education . . . in baseball.

Oh, sure, his time at Santiago High obviously includes all the trappings of secondary education: Math. Homeroom. History. Recess. Government. Study Hall. Lunch time. Social Studies. The traditional stuff.

But Scanlan could have done the same in Maui. What really prompted him to move to Garden Grove with his father, Henry, was the opportunity to play what he considered a better brand of high school baseball.

“Our Little League and Pony League teams are pretty good, but besides that, nothing,” Scanlan said. “My parents are divorced and my dad has lived here for a few years. So I called him and asked him if I could come live with him. I told him to look for a school that was good in baseball. He asked a kid from Santiago who didn’t even play baseball and the guy told him, ‘Oh, yeah, we have a great team.’ ”

That kid was either a pathological liar or a very confused young man. When Scanlan enrolled at Santiago midway through his freshman year, the Cavaliers weren’t exactly a high school baseball dynasty. They were 7-7 in league the previous season and 7-8 the year before that.

Scanlan, 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, helped change all that. Now a senior third baseman and relief pitcher, the versatile all-league player is a key factor on a strong Santiago team that’s the favorite to repeat as Garden Grove League champion.

Last season, he batted .304, scored 24 runs and had a team-high 21 runs batted in. He also contributed from the mound with two victories and 10 saves. But his value to the team is also measured in intangibles.

“He leads by example,” Santiago Coach Myron Pines said. “He’s very coachable and has a good makeup. He’s always in the game and is very positive. Nothing seems to bother him.”

Perhaps that’s what makes him such an effective reliever, a position where Pines said Scanlan is indispensable to the team.

“That’s where he can help us the most,” Pines said. “He doesn’t have any outstanding tools but no major weaknesses. He’s got good control and can throw the breaking ball over (for strikes).”

Scanlan, however, would rather play second base. He says other pitchers can throw harder than him and he’s willing to play third base because the team needs him there, but he grew to love second base in Little League and wouldn’t mind a switch.

“Third base is more of a reaction position,” Scanlan said. “At second base, you can see everything and you can use more of your athletic talent. You handle double plays and you cover second (base) when a guy is stealing. I like to be in the middle of the game.”

As a youngster, Scanlan was usually in the middle of other things, particularly the Pacific Ocean. Born in Honolulu to a Samoan father and Hawaiian mother, Scanlan was reared in Maui and might have been one of the few boys in the islands who didn’t surf and aspire to ride the Pipeline, but he enjoyed swimming, snorkeling and fishing.

He even made money at it by teaching tourists on his family’s sea-touring boat how to snorkel. His maternal grandfather owns the business and his mother manages it.

“My main thing was scuba diving,” said Scanlan, whose first name means Henry in Samoan. “I used to make $10 an hour for five hours a day in the summers or on weekends during school time.”

Scanlan said he sometimes misses his mother and three younger sisters. And even the rain. He said the storms that hit the Southland earlier this month somehow don’t compare to the rainfall in Hawaii.

“When it rains over there, it’s this big old raindrops, not this stuff we had here,” Scanlan said.

But when it comes to baseball, Scanlan said, there’s no comparison. And he was convinced enough to change addresses.

1991 IN REVIEW

Team League Overall Santiago 13-1 21-7 La Quinta 10-4 21-7 Garden Grove 9-5 12-10 Pacifica 7-7 13-13 Kennedy 6-8 13-12 Los Amigos 5-9 8-13 Rancho Alamitos 4-10 7-12 Bolsa Grande 2-12 3-18

League MVP: Joe Aguirre (Garden Grove).