Life’s Complications Don’t Deter Wilson : Baseball: Tustin pitcher nearly quit team to devote more time to soccer, a job and a girlfriend. Now the senior is hitting .447.

As Tim Wilson sat in the Tustin dugout a couple of days after telling his coach he was going to quit the team, his athletic career flashed before his eyes.

He stared onto the field as his teammates beat Irvine--ranked ninth in the nation--and he saw a baseball career filled with questions.

Why was he quitting when he finally had the varsity coaches he wanted and teammates who could help him reach the Southern Section finals for the first time in three years? Why did he need to spend more time with his girlfriend when he planned on being with Angie far beyond the season’s end? Why was he going to disappoint his supportive parents, who had invested about $550 into equipment for him to participate? Was he going to regret his decision in 10 years? What if the team won the championship without him?

Was it really going to be worth it?

The answer was no.

Though feeling pressured to quit so he could concentrate on soccer--his first love--and devote time to a new job--for reasons that go beyond pocket money--the answer was no.

“I felt like I was going to crack and let the pressure get to me,” he said. “I almost did.”

Instead of turning in his uniform to Coach Tim O’Donoghue--and that’s what O’Donoghue thought was coming--Wilson started working out at practices instead of watching them and thinking about his options. He emerged as a cross between Superman and Tony Gwynn. He went five for nine in his first two games, then lit up Las Vegas with a nine-of-13 tournament performance and pitched the Tillers past the No. 4 team in the country, Fresno Bullard, in a 10-2 victory.

“Just kicked their butts,” O’Donoghue said of Wilson’s play. “I think he’s one of the best all-around athletes in the whole county--hitting, fielding, throwing, running. I mean, he’s just a natural. And he’s such a clutch player--he usually plays his best in the big games.”

Wilson’s rebirth as a baseball player has been impressive. After playing in just three of his team’s first 10 games, he has become a staple in the lineup, either in the outfield or on the mound. Through Friday’s games, he was batting .447 and had three victories.

But it almost didn’t happen. Wilson, a Times All-Orange County second-team soccer selection, was going to quit so he could play for the North Huntington Beach Untouchables under-19 team, one of the state’s best club teams. They are two games away--today’s semifinals and Sunday’s championship game at Brea-Olinda High--from advancing to the regional portion of the National Cup, and Wilson, a starting center midfielder who once trained with the U.S. national team, is a central figure in their success.

But there are conflicts with baseball. He played sparingly and continued to miss practices because of his commitment to soccer. The soccer coach didn’t want baseball interfering, the baseball coach didn’t want soccer interfering. They finally compromised, with Wilson trying to fulfill all obligations--and it’s running him ragged. “If I’m not the busiest person in the world,” he said, “I’m one of them.”

Two sports. One in Tustin, the other in Huntington Beach. No car. He practices soccer Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9:30 p.m., and plays games Saturday and Sunday. He practices baseball Monday, Tuesday and Thursday until 6:30 p.m. and plays games Wednesday and Friday. He has a part-time job and a full-time relationship with his church. He has a girlfriend. He has no time for himself.

“That was one of the reasons why I was going to quit, because I didn’t think I could handle all this stuff,” Wilson said. “I didn’t want to be a quitter. My goal going into high school was to be one of the county’s top hitters and top pitchers. I never got that chance to prove it to people (my sophomore and junior years).

“I think now if I had quit, I would have regretted it.”

His dream is to return to Anaheim Stadium and actually play for the Southern Section title. A left-hander, he was called up as a freshman and sat the bench when Tustin lost there in 1990. But he has yet to return. As a sophomore, the Tillers were three outs from the finals but lost, 4-3, to La Mirada; last year, a two-run home run in the sixth gave Corona a 5-3 victory and kept the Tillers from the finals.

“We’ve been so close, and I want to get back there so bad,” he said. “If we can beat Irvine, we’re capable of beating any team.”

There were also the victories over other national top-20 teams, Bullard and No. 12 San Diego Mira Mesa.

“This is a good team,” O’Donoghue said, “but we’re far better with Timmy.”

Wilson almost left this dream team because of soccer, but it was something much worse that almost cost Wilson much more when he was younger.

See, Tim Wilson knows what it’s like to make decisions and regret them later.

Anyone who questions the sway of peer pressure should talk to Wilson. His brush with the law happened three years ago, and he still can’t say anything about it. That’s why holding down a job is so important--it’s one of the conditions of getting off probation. He was supposed to get off when he turned 18 in December. He has had the job a month.

The incident was nothing felonious, just “something stupid,” he says.

It was the offspring of bad choices, of running with the wrong crowd, of getting caught up in appearances and experimentation.

His drug of choice during a four-year period was marijuana, but he says he tried the other stuff, too. Speed. Nitrous oxide. Ecstasy.

It started in the seventh grade. He said it brought him problems at school. He had some friends who were gang members, and he “did a few of the wrong things that kids sometimes do.” He got his first C on a report card. A telltale sign of trouble?

“I totally learned the hard way,” Wilson said. “When I was younger, I was really curious. The people I’ve known since, like, junior high, they’ve just started getting into the sex--I’m disappointed I got involved in that, but I’m glad it happened at a younger age because I was able to learn from the mistakes I made and realize how stupid I was.

“I’m glad I’m not doing the things now, as an adult, that I was doing then. From when I was a little kid to sixth grade, my life was really great. Seventh grade was terrible. Then, in eighth grade, I met people who really pushed me into school and turned me around.”

That happened because he changed schools. He had been at Columbus Tustin, but changed because of all the problems he was encountering. At Hughes Middle, he found himself around positive people, new friends who excelled academically. Wilson, it turned out, was a follower, not a leader. And things were fine. Until high school.

Students who attend Hughes feed into Foothill High. Wilson, because he still lived within Tustin High boundaries and because he thought the athletic programs were better, went to Tustin. He found his old friends and his old ways.

“Those (freshman and sophomore) years were really tough because I had problems with my family--basically because of drugs,” Wilson said.

His mother, Diane, “was very hurt because I had been lying,” Wilson said. “That’s her biggest thing--she can’t stand it--and I was living a lie.”

At the time, Wilson had three younger brothers, Brandon, who was in the eighth grade; Bryce, 2, and Cole, 8 months.

“We told him we were not going to put up with certain things, and if it meant him leaving the home, that’s what it would come to,” Diane Wilson said. “We would not let certain things go on; there are certain things that are unacceptable.

“I think he finally realized we were very serious. Timothy has such a big heart and is such a loving person, we found ourselves continually giving him another chance, and the more chances we gave him, the more he took advantage of us.”

Entrenched in the Christian faith, she is a firm believer that prayer played a role in her son’s turnaround. Wilson agreed that the role of the church had an impact, but pointed toward Angie Sousa--whom he began dating two months into his junior year--as a key element, too.

“My family and her family had a meeting about some problems I can’t talk about, but we helped each other change through the last year and a half, so I’m not with my old friends and neither is she,” Wilson said. “She has really helped me through a lot.” “I’m not the type of person who wants to hide (my past). I have nothing to hide. I tell people, I’m going to be honest with you and you need to be honest with me. I made mistakes, and hopefully I’ve learned from them. . . .”

Was it really going to be worth it? That’s the question he didn’t ask himself often enough during those times.

So maybe that’s why Tim Wilson had to be honest with himself as he sat in the dugout against Irvine and pondered his final three months of high school. His first love is soccer, but he still had a relationship with baseball. And he wasn’t ready to look back and regret another decision made under pressure.