It’s Been a Magnificent Run for Seven at L.A. Baptist

Seven L.A. Baptist High seniors who first met as seventh-graders sat together in the school weight room discussing the meaning of friendship and its effect on creating a championship baseball team.

They hardly knew each other when they arrived at the North Hills campus in the fall of 1995. Two immediately thought they’d become bitter enemies.

Brett Emma and Joey Chavez kept making sarcastic remarks about the other.

“He had the ego and I was the little kid to be picked on,” Emma said.

Said Chavez: “He was a little punk.”

Today, they laugh at each other’s jokes and call themselves best friends.

The teenage years can be cruel, if not frightening. So many changes take place physically and emotionally.

Someone who is the shortest at 12 could become the tallest at 18.

Someone who’s the slowest at 13 could become the fastest at 17.

Someone who’s the fattest at 14 could become the thinnest at 18.

Imagine how special it must be to be part of a group of friends who watched each other blossom during one of the most challenging periods of life.

That’s what has happened to the L.A. Baptist seven--pitcher Ryan Rycroft, shortstop Andrew Petersen, catcher Emma, left fielder Chavez, third baseman John Guettler, center fielder Josh Flynn and utility player Robert Williams.

All are starters except Williams. All play multiple sports except Guettler. All are 18 except Chavez and Flynn, who are 17. All are different, but they’ve been brought together because of sports, school and friendship.

“Adolescence is kind of a hard phase to go through,” Flynn said. “Everybody is changing.

“It makes it easier to go through it with close friends.”

Rycroft and Chavez have known each other the longest. There’s supposed to be a photo of them bathing together as infants. Coach Mark Hubbard uses it as blackmail material.

Take away sports and there’s a vast difference in personalities and interests.

Guettler, blond with stubble on his face, is a vocalist for a death metal band. During a trip to Templeton, he brought nine music videos and 125 CDs.

Williams is a surfer dude. Surfing, wakeboarding, snorkeling--anything with water, he jumps in.

Flynn loves extreme sports, particularly snowboarding.

Emma is into classic cars. He has changed the most physically, going from short and husky to compact and fit.

Chavez is the smartest, with a 4.2 grade-point average and acceptance to UCLA. He wants to be a writer.

Rycroft is quiet but mischievous, seemingly plotting when others don’t realize it. He got a tattoo on his forearm for his 18th birthday that spells his nickname, “Rhino.”

Petersen is a starter for the football, basketball and baseball teams, the guy with a steady girlfriend for three years.

“There’s rumors they are married,” someone joked.

They’ve led L.A. Baptist to a 17-5 record and 6-0 mark in the Alpha League.

A Southern Section Division V baseball championship is possible, but not only because of their talent.

“The chemistry is better than wonderful,” Hubbard said.

“Very seldom are they ever negative toward each other.”

There’s a trust and bond that exists, just like between brothers.

“We know we can depend on that person,” Petersen said. “Being friends with them and knowing their emotions really helps you be successful. If one person is hurting, the whole group feels it and we huddle around that person. That’s what friendship is about.

“Every set of parents is like a second set of parents.”

They come to the rescue when someone’s ego needs soothing or someone’s confidence needs strengthening.

“One time I dropped the ball in football,” Flynn said. “I came back to the huddle. Instead of hearing, ‘Josh, you’re horrible, you need to catch the ball or we’re not going to win the game,’ it was, ‘Josh, focus on catching the ball and you’re going to help us win the game.’ ”

They know when to make fun of each other’s embarrassing moments.

There was the time Rycroft broke his wrist while shooting a video for English class. He fell off a brick wall as Emma told him, “It’s OK, back, back, back . . .”

Down went Rycroft, who has been advised not to become a bricklayer.

Chavez caused a furor during the Templeton tournament several years ago when he tried to throw a baseball across a freeway overpass.

The ball slipped, landing on the freeway along with Chavez. Soon, police cars arrived with lights flashing.

“Half us ran to our rooms,” Chavez said.

It was in Templeton where Chavez picked up the nickname, “P.J.” He was seen flipping channels in his hotel room and spending a little too long staring at an adult channel, so someone called him “Porno Joe.”

A week doesn’t go by when Chavez isn’t teased for forgetting his glove, shirt, cup, cleats or pants.

“If something happens, he always blames it on his mother,” Petersen said.

Countered Chavez, “Well, she washes my clothes.”

Times are changing. The seven will soon be going their separate ways, washing their own clothes, making their own decisions and perhaps making new friends.

“People always say when you leave, you’re never going to have the same friends you have in high school,” Petersen said.

“My parents still have friends when they went to high school.

“Yeah, there are friends you’re not going to see, but the core group of friends you have, if they’re truly your friends, you’re going to stay with them.”

Added Flynn: “In football, we decided we were going to do our best to get past the first round of the playoffs. We lost. We were all balling our eyes out because we knew it was going to be the last game we played football together.

“It hurt, but at the same time, we knew it wasn’t all about football. We knew our friendship wasn’t going to end.”

The teenage years can lead to strange alliances.

There will be ups and downs, hits and misses, successes and failures. What the L.A. Baptist seven have discovered are the benefits of friendship.

“I think it’s a good example how people from all different backgrounds can come together and have sports as a common interest,” Flynn said.

“When we were in seventh grade, all of us didn’t know each other, but we’re now some of the closest friends you can find.”

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Eric Sondheimer’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.