Jayda Drake, 12, center, with Almaden Little League, also known as the Almaden Lightning, stands with her father and coach John and mother Lottie in their home in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 1, 2023. Jayda and John were preparing to leave for North Carolina for the Little League Softball World Series. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The tears were eight years in the making.
Live on ESPN last weekend, Almaden Little League softball coach John Drake answered a simple question: What did it mean to watch his daughter, Jayda, throw the final pitch in the game that sent their team to the Little League World Series next week?
Drake started to cry.
“It’s everything,” he said. “It’s everything.”
The interview has been viewed more than 10,000 times on the Little League’s social media pages. But the story behind those tears hasn’t been told.
In 2016, Lottie Drake, John’s wife and Jayda’s mom, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She needed a double mastectomy and heavy chemotherapy.
“It came out of nowhere,” said John, 49, a special education teacher at a San Jose middle school. “It just rocked our family. The kids were so young.”
Jayda was 4, Joelle was 8 and Jordyn was 13. Tommy was a newborn.
There was so much to do every day. Taking the kids to school. Cooking dinner. Helping them with their homework. One of the girls has cerebral palsy. Another has a severe dairy allergy. And there was a newborn baby on top of it all.
“I didn’t realize how much stuff my wife did for the family,” John said. When he saw all that would need to be done… “I’m like, ‘What? She did all this? Are you serious?’”
Lottie, who had always taken care of everything, suddenly needed people to take care of her.
“That’s a hard thing that I had to learn through my treatment,” said Lottie, 48, a human resources professional and talent agent. “You have to take help sometimes. You can’t do it all.”
Folks at Almaden Little League sprung into action.
“It was like having a family member get sick,” said Brian Baggott, the former president of the Almaden girls’ softball program. “It was crushing to everybody. John is one of the most beloved coaches around.”
Baggott and some folks involved with the town softball program came together with a plan. They created a schedule of Lottie’s chores and then took turns filling shifts, getting the kids to school, bringing meals to the house, helping out in any way possible.
“We didn’t have to ask for anything — they just dropped what they were doing and built this support system around us,” Lottie said.
Baggott helped organize regular fundraisers at Little League events to raise money for the family. The girls softball players wore pink socks to raise breast cancer awareness. And Lottie remembers one event in particular, a movie night at the Almaden Community Center, that still makes her emotional when she thinks about it.
Baggott rented a large room to show a movie to the kids in town, hoping to attract families who could provide a donation.
More than 200 people showed up.
“Every kid there made a sign and it was hard to look around and realize, ‘This is for me and my family,’” Lottie said. “I was there physically, but I couldn’t even take it all in and give the proper thanks.”
The tears last Sunday were eight years in the making, the team two fewer. Six years ago, when Jayda began playing softball and formed close bonds with a few girls on the team, John saw something special happening.
“The kids liked each other, the parents were cool, so we were like, ‘It would be cool if we can keep them together for a while,’” John said.
That wasn’t a problem when the girls were 6 years old, but once they got to be 10 and softball became more competitive, other parents began to protest, saying it wasn’t fair to have so many talented players on one team.
John was able to keep the team together and with a standout pitching trio — Jayda, Maya Parada and Auzerais Garibaldi-Munoz — the Lightning won their local tournaments and advanced all the way to the Little League West regionals.
Once there they lost their opening game, 11-4, to Southern California and were relegated to the elimination bracket. A loss would end their season.
But they came from behind to beat Utah, 5-4, then stormed past Nevada and Arizona to reach the championship game, again against Southern California.
This time, John made a change in his pitching rotation. He replaced Jayda as the starting pitcher, putting her at shortstop, and used Parada as his No. 1 pitcher.
With two innings to go, John called Jayda to the mound to close out the game. She struck out the final hitter with the tying run on third base, sealing a 5-4 victory that sent Almaden to the World Series.
Minutes later, John was on camera, telling a national TV audience how much it meant to him to have his daughter on the mound.
Jayda said she watched the video.
“I’m glad I’m making him proud,” she said. “I love having him as my coach.”
World Series or not, this is all so much bigger than Little League.
For Lottie, it’s a chance to thank the community for all it did, “for standing in for me for about a year… I’m so grateful that I’m here, that I can look back on it and really have this opportunity to thank everybody.”
Wednesday morning, the Lightning boarded a bus bound for Greenville, North Carolina. They will play their first game of the Little League World Series on Monday at 1 p.m. (Pacific). The game will be on ESPN+.
Jayda said she’s hoping the team can win at least one game, but she’s just happy she’ll be able to experience it with her family.
Her mom’s battle with cancer “made me realize how brave she is and how strong of a woman she is,” Jayda said. “She means a lot to me. I think she really enjoys watching us play softball. And I like her watching me.”
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED:
Almaden Little League has set up a GoFundMe page to help defray travel costs for the players’ families.
