Daughter’s gift is a tribute

Alene “Nene” Casillas still beats herself up over her father’s death. When he died Feb. 1, he was awaiting a kidney for transplant.

Her kidney.

Never mind that Arthur “Artie” Casillas’ body wasn’t prepared to accept his 17-year-old daughter’s organ. Diabetes, infections and physical ailments kept delaying the date of his surgery until he finally succumbed from pneumonia.

Nene Casillas still weeps, thinking that if she had given her kidney sooner, he might have lived beyond 47. But the operation had to take place on his schedule, not hers.

That is why she has crammed as much as she could into her senior year at San Bernardino Cajon High, playing on the varsity golf team for the first time in the fall, then returning to the soccer team in the winter and the track and softball teams in the spring.

She maintained a 3.83 grade-point average, and she played knowing that the moment her biggest fan was capable, Nene would have her kidney removed and, subsequently, lose much of her senior year.

Nene insisted on being the one to make the sacrifice, protesting to her older sisters that they had families.

Artie died a week after his birthday. Nene took her tribute to the softball field.

She asked her coach, Jerry Tivey, to wear her father’s faith-based dog tags. She dyed her hair purple -- Artie’s favorite color -- before changing it to Cajon green because a rival school wore purple. She points to the sky when she steps into the batter’s box.

Tivey said it was an honor to be asked to wear the medallions. “I always tell the kids, ‘People is what’s important,’ ” he said. “I stress that we’re a family, and I respect that more than some of the knuckleheads who get publicity.”

Artie was a knucklehead -- or worse -- until he got clean and sober in 1991. Nene, unlike her older sisters, never saw her father’s dark side.

He was on his own from the time he was about 14, was a father at 15 and a husband at 17. He sold and used heroin. A gang member in his youth, he had been shot and had been in and out of jail -- and prison once -- for drug offenses.

He had also been in and out of the hospital, including a stay for a liver transplant 10 years ago, but bragged often to his children that he had more lives than a cat.

His childhood sweetheart and wife, Victoria Valadez Duron, took a different path, toward law enforcement, working in the areas of probation, juvenile offenders, at-risk youth and drug diversion. It created an improbable marriage environment that eventually crumbled in 2001 after 23 years. They had eight children together, ages 13 to 31, and he has fathered two others since.

After Artie straightened out through a born-again experience and Narcotics Anonymous, he became active in the community. Though divorced, he was in his children’s lives three or four times a week. He was now trying to be a good influence.

“He said, ‘You don’t want people to remember the bad part of you, you want them to remember you in a good way,’ ” Nene said. “You want to be remembered as the person everybody would rather be around.”

Casillas is the ultimate encourager from the dugout.

“I think sports is the only thing keeping her together, to be honest,” said Angela Russell, Nene’s oldest sister. “She’s like, ‘If I can keep busy, I don’t have to think about it.’ ”

Casillas, 4 feet 10 and 110 pounds, runs the 100 and 200 on the track team, and though she may not be the most skilled player on the softball field, Tivey figures that if her teammates had her toughness, they would never lose.

“She’s a bad little dude, but in a good way,” Tivey said.

Small stature, big personality. She takes after her father more than her mother in attitude and features, though she desires to be a lawyer or forensic scientist.

“He didn’t want me going down the same road as him, he wanted better for me than what he had,” Casillas said. “I understood what he wanted for me. He tried.”

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martin.henderson@latimes.com