Hardball Attitude

Barbara Jordan never realized exactly what her own coaches put up with.

Then she became a coach.

In her first season as softball coach at Westlake High, it’s as if Jordan is looking into a mirror for the first time.

“They have all the answers that I had,” Jordan said. “You say, ‘Do this,’ and they always have something to say. I never saw that in me, [but] now I see they are just like I was.”

If they all played like her, Westlake (15-2, 5-1 in the Marmonte League) would be unbeatable.

Jordan, an alternate on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American at Cal State Northridge.

In softball circles, she was famous for her range in the outfield, her speed and aggressiveness on the bases, and for her forever-in-motion mouth--not necessarily in that order.

“There were days I just looked at her and made her go sit,” said Gary Torgeson, Jordan’s coach at Northridge. “Some days I just didn’t want to put up with [her]. But I tell you what, I wouldn’t have traded Barbara Jordan for anyone else in the world. What a great competitor.”

Jordan was team batting leader in her first three years at Northridge, but she was best known for her competitive spirit. Torgeson once affectionately described her as “gnarly.”

She yelled at umpires, stared down opposing pitchers and barreled into any opposing player in her path. Her personal motto seemed to be, “Get out of the way or suffer the consequences.”

With maturity, Jordan has mellowed some. She had to if she wants to wear a USA jersey in the Olympics next year in Australia.

“I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut more,” said Jordan, who is among the final 60 Olympic candidates. “They want the image player.”

Toward that goal, Jordan is still a work in progress.

Earlier this month, she chased an umpire into the parking lot because he ended a game in which Westlake trailed Chaminade after six innings because of rain.

A minor regression. People close to her say Jordan has learned to bite her tongue. But that doesn’t mean she has curbed her appetite for softball.

At 33 she still loves the game, which is obvious by the way she plays, the way she talks and, now, the way she coaches.

“She’s the type of person you want to be around,” said Tiffany Meadows, a freshman center fielder who lives in Camarillo but enrolled at Westlake partly because of Jordan.

“She has that type of personality where we all kind of build our energy around her.”

To be sure, it’s as if Indeed it seems that Jordan’s bottled her enthusiasm and passion for softball is rubbing off on her players.

Unheralded Westlake, which is ranked No. 5 in the region, can pull into a first-place tie with Newbury Park (14-3, 5-0) in the Marmonte League by defeating the Panthers today.

“She teaches us about what it is to win,” said Katie Kearns, a sophomore second baseman. “She taught me how to be a completely different player. You want to win and not give up.”

Repetition seems to be the key.

“She says it over and over and you start to believe it,” Kearns said. “You have to believe it.”

Teaching self-confidence is an important part of Jordan’s lesson plan.

“If I could teach them all the things that took me my whole playing experience to learn . . . the biggest thing I could teach them is to believe in themselves,” she said.

Jordan and assistant Michelle McAnany, a former teammate at Northridge, have made such a difference at Westlake, even opponents have noticed.

“Those coaches have done wonders with that team,” said Brittney Green, Simi Valley’s top pitcher. “They’re going to be hard to beat this year.”

Only Newbury Park and Chaminade have been able to knock off the Warriors, who have defeated, among others, No. 1 Quartz Hill, No. 8 Hart, No. 9 Thousand Oaks and highly regarded Simi Valley.

Jordan worked as a private investigator for four years in the early 1990s. Even with that challenging experience, taking over Westlake’s softball program was at first an intimidating task.

After meeting her players for the first time last fall, Jordan said she questioned her decision to coach.

“There were so many things I had to tell them and so many things I had to teach them,” Jordan said, laughing.

One of the first lessons was to respect themselves, the team and their sport.

Kearns recalls learning how serious Jordan was when one day during a hitting drill she handed her bat to a friend so he could take a few cuts at the batting tee.

Jordan promptly stopped that exercise and lined everyone up for wind sprints. Everyone except Kearns, who was told to sit and watch her teammates.

Once Jordan calmed down, she explained to Kearns why passersby shouldn’t be included in practices.

“Can you imagine you guys running up to the football field and saying, ‘Hey, Coach [Jim] Benkert, can I take a snap?’ And him letting you do it in the middle of practice. . . . How does that benefit the football team?” Jordan said.

Like many coaches, Jordan throws batting practice to her players. Unlike most, she throws sling-shot style, proof positive that pitching has never been her forte.

Instructions, encouragement and questions fly from her mouth with nearly every pitch.

“Any legs in that swing?” she asks a player before throwing another pitch. “Little better, Bud, pop that right knee.”

Another pitch: “Quicker pivot.”

During a workout, the respect Westlake players have for their coach is obvious.

During batting practice, some apologize to her for popping up even though they have previously sprayed a series of line drives.

In such instances Jordan has been known to “Whip out one of her lines,” Kaitlyn Wilson said.

The result, Wilson said, is “We get refocused.”

Said Jordan: “They are so afraid of making a mistake. I tell them, ‘You are not going to play a perfect game. Nobody can. Are you going to crumble like a piece of coffeecake and be swept under the table never to be heard from again?’

“This is about who stays toughest longest. Who’s going to be tough in the end.”

For Jordan, the end has always been about winning.

“In order, I want to win league. I want to win [the Southern Section title]. I want to make the Olympic team. I want to win a gold medal,” she said.

Lofty goals, each and every one. But if anyone can achieve them, it’s Jordan.

The message on Jordan’s license plate frame explains her method:

“Never Give Up!”