Mother’s Strength Serves as His Guide

In a life that has been filled with uncertainty, 17-year-old Rigoberto Vargas of Sun Valley Poly knows one person he can always count on: his mother.

“Whenever I’m pitching,” Vargas said, “I turn around and she’s there. That’s been happening since I was 4.”

Raised by a single parent since birth, Vargas is an inspiring example of what a teenager can accomplish with the help of faith, family and education.

Vargas is a starting outfielder and No. 2 pitcher for Poly, the run-away leader in the Sunset Six League. He has received an academic scholarship to UC Riverside thanks to his 3.8 grade-point average in Poly’s math-science magnet.

His story revolves around overcoming obstacles aided by a strong-willed mother, Maria Ruelas.

Since he was 7, Vargas said he has seen his father once, last year at a court hearing for child support.

It was his mother who drove him to Little League practices and stayed to watch.

“You’d see every father from every kid, and there was my mom,” Vargas said.

If a manager wasn’t treating her son with respect, Maria would gladly offer an opinion.

“She would fight for me,” Vargas said. “She would talk to them like she was my father.”

Until Vargas was 11 and started throwing too hard, Maria would serve as his practice catcher.

“My mom is a baseball fanatic,” Vargas said. “She had a chest protector. She had a round helmet, and looked like an astronaut. She had shin guards, and looked like a soccer player.”

Maria knew how to complain about balls thrown into the dirt.

“She was going, ‘Come on,’ and I’d tell her, ‘Mom, you’re supposed to block it,’ ” Vargas said.

Vargas lives with his 10-year-old sister and mother in an apartment in an area of Panorama City where going outside to pick up the mail at 11 a.m. might result in someone offering drugs for sale. Maria works at an electronics assembly plant and speaks little English.

“We’ve always had food on the table, and I don’t know how she does it,” Vargas said.

As a child, Vargas would complain and get angry about not having a father. His mother knew how to respond.

“Get ready, we’re going to church. Get into the car,” she would say. Then she would tell him, “Don’t hate your father. Things were meant to be. Just go on with your life.”

And that’s what Vargas has done, live life to its fullest with the motivation to make his mother proud.

“Every time I see her struggle through life and make it, I want to do well in school,” he said. “The least I can do is graduate and go to a university.”

It will be Vargas’ intelligence and probably not baseball that one day puts him in position to help his mother financially. He’s 5 feet 8, weighs 180 pounds and has a 5-2 record this season.

He sometimes studies until early in the morning. He wants to major in business and economics at Riverside.

Each time he pitches, Maria comes to watch.

“She’s at every game and supports the kid 100%,” Poly Coach Chuck Schwal said. “She’s there to the end.”

In high school, Vargas has encountered uncomfortable moments, such as parents night. He had to explain to each of his teachers why his father wasn’t there.

“This was every period the whole day,” he said.

For Father’s Day, he was usually instructed by his English teacher to write a letter to his father.

“I do one, but it’s for my mother,” he said.

Vargas says his bitterness is gone. The church sermons he listened to at the urging of his mother have helped him embrace forgiveness.

“It’s a process,” he said. “She’s taken me to church so many times. It calms me down. Whatever the priest says soothes me.”

Asked what he has learned from a one-parent life, Vargas said, “I’m going to try my best to do opposite of my father. Have my family, buy a house and be with my children, help them when they need help.”

Today, Mother’s Day, Vargas and his sister will wake up Maria and play a Spanish song that means “Happy Birthday” in English. Then they’ll cook her a meal.

It will be a simple gesture of thanks, but Maria has already received the greatest gift of all: Her son is going to college.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.