LAKEPORT — Gary Pickle couldn”t have done any better.
In 27 games during the 2007 high school softball season, Pickle, the longtime coach of the Clear Lake High School softball squad, presided over 27 wins, the best showing ever by a Division IV team (small schools) in the state of California, according to Cal-Hi sports.
Even had that not been the case, 27-0 is still 27-0. The Cardinals added two pennants to their growing collection since Pickle took over a last-place program in 1993, winning North Central League I South and North Coast Section Class A championships on their way to perfection.
Pickle, who will be the first to tell you that his players did most of the work — “I just tried to stay out of their way and let them play” — is the hands-down winner of the Lake County Record-Bee”s Coach of the Year award for girls” sports during the recently completed 2006-07 high school sports season.
It”s the second straight year Pickle has won the award and the third time overall, which ties him with Middletown High School football coach Bill Foltmer for the most Coach of the Year awards.
Though he”s coached many excellent teams in his 15 seasons at Clear Lake, including another section championship club in 2002, Pickle said his 2007 squad, one that had no real weakness, was clearly his best.
“This was first team I”ve ever coached that every starter hit over .300,” Pickle said. “There were no holes in the lineup.”
Buoyed by a strong defense and a hard-throwing Division I pitcher – senior Brittany Rumfelt, who is headed to the University of Oregon on scholarship — the Cardinals had everything a coach could want plus one huge intangible — mental toughness.
“This is the first team I”ve coached that never played down to any level, they kept their level up,” Pickle said. “They never got involved in that record or win streak or anything like that. They had fun with each other in practice, practiced hard and when it came time to play the game, they just played. They would get up more for some of the tougher opponents, but they kept a real even keel.”
In 40 years of coaching baseball and softball, Pickle said he”s never had a better group of players or a more successful team, and that”s saying something considering the teams he”s coached in the past, both at Clear Lake and the Little League level.
“It was fun … but when you”re going through the season, when you win a game, you enjoy it, but by the next morning you”re thinking what you have to do to win the next one,” Pickle said.
“I”ve enjoyed it more after the fact.”
