Riptide Gold making waves

Five years ago, when Barry Grumman took over what is now the Newport Beach Riptide Gold, an 18-and-under fastpitch softball travel team, the squadwas not exactly lighting the softball world on fire.

Grumman, a Newport Beach attorney, was a coach in Pacific Coast Girls’ Fastpitch Softball when his daughters, Samantha and Amanda, competed. Then he took over a floundering Riptide squad and set out to turn the program around with solid coaching and recruiting.

It didn’t take long for Grumman to lead the charge in turning around the club, which was a 16-and-under squad at the time and has since risen in ranks.

“We took it over and immediately the team had some success,” Grumman said. “We brought in a commitment to win. We wanted to make a name for Riptide softball.”

The last three years, the team has been busy doing just that.

In June, the Riptide earned a berth into the Amateur Softball Assn. National Championships for the second time in three years.

In 2004, the Riptide went 77-23-5 and made their first appearance in the ASA National Championships in Clovis, Calif. The Riptide finished 13th out of 120 teams.

“That got us a lot of attention,” said Grumman, who said he believes the Riptide is the first travel softball team from Newport Beach to reach the national tournament at the 18-and-under age level.

The 2004 team included Newport Harbor High’s Julianne Bass and Sasha Grumman (one of Barry’s daughters), as well as Corona del Mar High’s Heather Lohrman.

Fast-forward to 2006, and the Riptide are going to the nationals again, this time to Owensbero, Ky., July 30 to Aug. 6.

The Riptide recently returned from the ASA Hall of Fame Tournament in Oklahoma City, where they went 5-2 to qualify for the nationals. Grumman said 24 of the best teams in the country competed in the tournament.

He said his team consistently wins about 25 tournaments a year and plays about 120 games a year in nine months. The off-season for the Riptide is during the high school softball season, but even then they practice occasionally.

“I think it’s without question the most accomplished travel softball team in the Newport-Mesa area,” Grumman said.

So is it the coaching or the players that should get credit for the success?

“It’s definitely the quality of the players,” Grumman said. “We branched out. We began to get an influx of players from all over Southern California. We are a recognized team now. We are able to draw the best players.”

With top players joining the team from all over Southern California, competition for local players to make the squad is stiff.

This season’s team included just one Newport-Mesa area player, outfielder Darci Pennington, a recent Newport Harbor High graduate. Pennington, Grumman said, quit the team earlier this week.

The Riptide have open tryouts at the end of August. The team calls Bonita Creek Park in Newport Beach its home field and it occasionally plays host to tournaments there.

“We’d love to have more local players,” Grumman said. “We’d be anxious to see them.”

Players who are interested in trying out for the Riptide should polish their gloves.

“We stress defense,” Grumman said. “We’re known for our defense.”

Aside from drawing a lot of the top players around, the coaching style of Grumman, along with pitching coach Jeff Ferguson and assistant coach Willie Brown, appears to be beneficial for the team.

“We give them guidance, and certainly we demand excellence, Grumman said. “But we do it in a positive way. We stress positive reinforcement.”

Players have found that competing for the Riptide has been more enjoyable than high school softball.

“It’s more competition than high school, but it’s less stressful,” said shortstop Katie Jordan, a recent Marina High graduate who will continue her softball career at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where she received a partial softball scholarship.

“In high school, if you mess up, the coaches harp on you about it. With the Riptide, the coaches say don’t worry about it and they prepare you for how to deal with the situation the next time it happens. I’ve learned so much in travel softball.”

Jordan is in her second season with the Riptide. She tried out for the team when her former travel team disbanded.

“I tried out for two teams and I liked the Riptide the best,” Jordan said. “The coaches were really nice. They didn’t sit there and yell at you. They treated you like adults and the girls were a lot of fun.”

Although the Riptide does plenty of winning ? the team is 68-27-4 through Friday ? it’s not necessarily the main objective, but simply a happy by-product of each player getting the best out of their abilities.

“I like travel softball a thousand times better [than high school softball],” said pitcher Rachel Reekstin, who just graduated from Valencia High in Placentia and is continuing her education and softball career at Concordia University in Irvine. “There’s not so much pressure. It’s more like, go out and get noticed.”

The goals the coaches set every year are to get to the nationals and get all of their seniors college scholarships.

Six seniors on the 2005 Riptide earned softball scholarships and it looks like the total will be nine this season.

Pennington said she was still considering opportunities at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Hope International University in Fullerton.

The number of scholarships this season is 10 if you count Newport Harbor High’s Sasha Grumman, who was recruited by Kenyon College in Ohio to play softball and field hockey but will only play field hockey due to injury.

Grumman’s daughters, Samantha and Amanda, stopped playing softball before he took over the Riptide. But Sasha was in full stride when he took the helm.

“She was the great softball player in the family,” Grumman said. “She was always an all-star.”

Sasha Grumman suffered her softball-career-ending injury while playing for the Riptide. In the summer of 2004, she dislocated her left arm doing a diving drill for middle infielders. She was diagnosed with a torn labrum and had surgery.

When she returned to the diamond in 2005, she hit a two-run triple during a Riptide game. When the next batter hit a ground ball to shortstop, she dashed home. “She did a left-hand slide-by and her shoulder popped out,” Barry Grumman said.

The injury has kept her from playing softball, but she’s still able to play field hockey at a high level.

Sasha Grumman led the Newport Harbor girls’ field hockey team to the Tournament of Champions final last season and has a chance to start for Kenyon College next season.

With almost all of the Riptide seniors having secured scholarships, one prize remains ? a trip to the ASA National Championships.

“It’s obviously great going there, with the opening ceremonies and all the great teams,” said Reekstin, who went with the 2004 team. “Plus it’s the only tournament of the year where there’s no pressure at all, because it’s like, ‘We made it.’ ”

dpt.23-riptide-1-CPhotoInfoOB1T7DOU20060723j2txtpncCredit: MARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Riptide Gold Coach Barry Grumman, third from left, talks strategy with, from left: Danielle Lyman, Katy Erickson and Christina Hart in a game on Saturday.