There are times that you remember a stretch of greatness but constantly refer back to when it started. Your reasoning behind that memory tends be without the beginning, there is no middle and end.
Justin-Siena (Napa) High baseball had two stints of greatness under head coach Allen Rossi, 1999-2006 and 2012-2015. Scott Wright was the Braves head coach from 2007-2011. Rossi’s hiatus from coaching in that span was primarily caring for his wife after enduring an automobile accident. Justin won four Section titles in Rossi Part I, one in Sac Joaquin Section Div. III and three more in the North Coast Section Class A with two more title game appearances. The Braves won a pair of NCS Div. IV titles in Rossi Part II.
However, it was the 1999-2000 teams that sowed the seeds for greatness. Before the 1999 season, Steve Meyer stepped down as the Braves head coach after 12 seasons. The fact that Meyer juggled Dean of Students duties with varsity baseball head coach was a tough task. Rossi’s teams had a long run of success as a manager for the Joe DiMaggio Baseball League, compiling a record of 238-55 with six league titles and a state championship in 1993. The Justin brass doubled down that such success would translate at the high school level.
My goodness did it ever.
Rossi’s philosophy centered around making practices the hard part so games were the easy part. Whether it was on the record or off, Rossi frequently uttered: “Throw strikes, make the routine plays and put the ball in play.” The license plate on his truck read “EXECUTE” and his teams did with aplomb.
Assistant coaches Mitch Boggs and Mark Dunn, each complemented Rossi. Boggs, who died after a sudden illness in 2003, preached a disciplined hitting approach. Dunn, who was the pitching coach, got senior left-handers Matt Tindall and Kirk Spreiter to anchor the staff in 1999 followed by right-handers Jon Foreman Justin Aspegren in 2000.
Offensively, the Braves resembled a 1980s National League team. Get the leadoff man aboard, bunt him over to advance a base and put relentless pressure on opposing defenses and pitchers. As for Rossi’s offensive approach, Earl Weaver he was not.
Rossi immediately made the Braves relevant by going 17-9 in 1999 to win a share of the Superior California Athletic League title. Though the season ended in the first round of the playoffs, it was clear that a new day had dawned for Justin baseball as it made its first postseason appearance since 1989 under the aforementioned Meyer, who remained in the program as the Braves’ JV coach and led Justin to a co-SCAL title in 2000, going 25-1 (5-0 against Monticello Empire League teams).
The 1999 season started 0-3 for Rossi. When I read that stat researching for this story, I nearly fell out of my chair because looking at the subsequent success, it was so hard to fathom.
I recall two moments that changed the baseball culture at Justin. Rossi shared one with me publically. Before the 1999 season, Rossi had players write down their goals centered around individual and team. Many players had written down “beat St. Helena.” The Braves and Saints had, at times, a heated rivalry in various sports but in baseball, Justin won the vast majority. Rossi put the kibosh on that being the main goal and emphasized beating Vanden and St. Patrick’s (Vallejo) because they were the ones that owned SCAL, which was a five-team, 15-game schedule with each team playing each other three times.
Against St. Pat’s, Justin lost 3-1 in the first meeting and beat the Bruins 2-1 and 6-5 in the ensuing matchups. Against Vanden, Justin lost 2-0 and 7-2 in the first two meetings before winning the third one 12-5 in eight innings. The 3-1 loss to St. Pat’s was followed by the 2-0 loss to Vanden. I remembered interviewing Rossi and Tindall after the St. Pat’s loss, both echoed the sentiments of being tired of moral victories.
Each team had both similar and different casts of characters. In 1999, it was Tindall and Spreiter dominating on the mound and at the plate as seniors. I also be remiss not to mention fellow senior Joe Roualdes, who after struggling as a junior hitting just .205, thought about forgoing baseball before Rossi convinced him he could be an asset. Roualdes rewarded Rossi by batting .375 with 15 RBIs. Then there was sophomore shortstop A.J. Paniagua, who showed why he belonged on the varsity right away both offensively and defensively.
In 2000, the Braves rewrote the school record-book led by co-SCAL MVPs Rick Carpenter and Foreman. As a team, Justin broke the school record for batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored and total bases, all of which stood since 1984. With that lineup, there were no soft spots featuring Paniagua, Steve Andres, Foreman, Ron Duvall, Carl Gray, Eduardo Borrego and Ji-Hoon Kim to name a few.
Andres, who went on to play college baseball at Notre Dame, batted a .621 with runners in scoring position and closed the season on a 23-for-47 tear. Andres’ grand-slam cemented a 10-0, six-inning, 10-run rule win over Vanden to seal the SCAL.
Justin won its first ten games of the season with the lone defeat being a 10-9 loss to Vanden in which the Braves led 9-3. Justin would not lose again until the 2001 regular season.
The 2000 Braves had many cast of characters with Carpenter being the ringleader. With the eye-black, the lambchop sideburns and the tenacity he displayed as a catcher, Carpenter looked more like a 1970s Pittsburgh Steeler or Oakland Raider linebacker than a high school baseball catcher.
With the starting pitching tandem of Foreman and Justin Aspegren, opponents were in for long days with 0.82 and 2.32 ERAs respectively. When Foreman wasn’t silencing opposing hitters, he was creating havoc for opposing pitching as he batted .338.
I could spend all day reciting stats but what stood out most about these two Braves teams that paved the way for others were the intangibles. From Day One, Rossi demanded nothing less than the best effort from players. Rossi’s practices and pregame warmups were a model of efficiency so much so that come game time, the Braves were rarely caught out of position.
Though Rossi had the reputation for being intense in practice, on gameday he could be Tom Landry-like stoic. Translation, Rossi took the approach of “practice time is for coaches, game time is for players.”
Rossi’s license plate read “EXECUTE,” his teams simply executed their opponents.
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