Brambila Defies System to Play Softball at UCLA

In this era of club mania, where virtually every high school girl who wants to play major college sports is recruited from a club program, Lupe Brambila has accomplished the improbable.

As a nonscholarship player, she is starting right fielder for UCLA’s top-ranked softball team.

She lives at her father’s home in Van Nuys, attends school with the help of financial aid, works part-time at a car rental agency to pay for food, car insurance and clothes, and still doesn’t realize the inspiration she provides to those who hear her story.

“I’m telling you, if I could bottle her personality, I’d anoint every kid that ever walked through this program with it,” said Coach Sue Enquist of UCLA.

Brambila never envisioned playing college sports at a major university.

“It does feel like I’m living in a dream,” she said. “I think it’s beyond my dreams.”

Brambila, 19, was female athlete of the year in 1997 at Monroe High. She lettered in softball, track and field, soccer and volleyball.

“She’s an amazing kid,” said Jodi Ferry, Monroe softball coach. “She was such an incredible athlete we were willing to share her [with other teams] because she was so good.”

She’s 5 feet 6, shy, quiet and with a voice so meek it barely registers on a tape recorder, Brambila doesn’t fit the image of a teenager who has been hitting baseballs and softballs since she was old enough to walk.

She enrolled at UCLA for academics, then decided to show up for an open softball tryout.

“We knew nothing about her,” Enquist said. “My first impression was I didn’t like her. She was just too quiet. I almost felt like she was put out just being there. I totally misjudged her. That’s a dangerous thing as a coach. I learned to be careful in who you’re judging. When she started swinging the stick, I realized I better back off. She has the tools.”

Brambila started 28 of 37 games as a freshman and batted .239 for a team that had six top players redshirt because of an NCAA postseason ban for rule violations. Many probably thought that once the redshirts returned this season, Brambila would be sent to the bench.

Again, she provided a surprise.

She beat out five players for the starting position in right field and is batting .385 with no errors for the 36-1 Bruins.

“The reason she is so incredible is that we’re in an age where there’s so much talent and the talent pool is so deep,” Enquist said.

And yet, Brambila was missed. How is it possible Brambila is good enough to start on the nation’s No. 1 team but no one offered her a scholarship out of high school?

How did all the sophisticated recruiting techniques and strategies used by college coaches to identify top prospects fail to recognize Brambila’s abilities?

The reason is, Brambila did not follow the first commandment of girls’ sports: Thou shall compete in top club tournaments.

From volleyball to soccer, from basketball to softball, club teams have become the primary vehicle college recruiters use to evaluate female athletes.

Softball coaches spend all summer and fall attending club tournaments on weekends, scouting and evaluating talent. Once the summer is over, they make their decisions on which players to recruit--although a few fall tournaments can make a difference in the recruiting process.

It barely matters what a player does during her high school season--or even if she plays for a high school team. Everything is based on club performance because of the quality competition.

Brambila played club ball but was never in a major national summer tournament. She couldn’t afford the more than $3,000 it takes to travel extensively to major club tournaments.

She compiled impressive statistics during her senior year at Monroe, batting .547 with nine home runs, 32 runs batted in and 20 stolen bases. But college coaches perceive City Section softball as weak and her statistics were ignored.

Not anymore.

“What I love about her is that the game doesn’t scare her,” Enquist said. “She’s a competitor, tough, unshakable. I love what she brings to the park every day.”

On Saturday, UCLA will host No. 2 Arizona in a Pacific 10 Conference doubleheader at 11 a.m. Last season, Brambila hit the first home run of her career against the then top-ranked Wildcats.

It was another example that if the odds are stacked against Brambila, she finds a way to succeed.

“I like to show people things can get done,” she said. “When they tell me, ‘You can’t,’ it pushes me harder to do it.”

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.