Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeCommunityWhy We Love This Place Wednesdays: Frank Avilla and Lassen College Baseball

Why We Love This Place Wednesdays: Frank Avilla and Lassen College Baseball

By Terra Avilla

I feel like I’ve waited long enough since starting my weekly feature to showcase a topic that is so near and dear to my heart, that it won’t come off as total nepotism. But I certainly cannot write about reasons I love our community and not mention the Lassen College Baseball Team and of course their incredibly dreamy head coach, Frank Avilla.

After all, the Hustlin’ Cougs and Coach Frank are the very reason I moved here. I was working as a police officer in Reno while we dated, when he convinced me to start our life and our family here in Susanville. And the Avillas have never looked back.

In fact, I spent our honeymoon watching the Cougars take ground balls at Memorial Park. I spent my maternity leave nursing my girls in the bleachers while the boys turned double plays.

I fell in love with Frankie on that field, watching him coach and I love that my girls are growing up surrounded by a clan of respectful boys who melt when they are around my very bossy five-year old and my very busy two-year old.

I just love the program and everything it stands for.

The last ten years of Frankie’s coaching career has not always been smooth sailing. He has had his rough seasons, but the one thing that has stayed constant is how much Frankie loves those boys. All of them.

All of them who have ever played or worn a LCC jersey, I can bet that Frankie can tell you their first and last name, their hometown and what made them unique. They are not just stats of positions to be filled to Frankie, they are his family and he loves every single one of them as human beings, regardless of how they perform on the baseball diamond.

Like, he stays up until 1:00a.m. with them at the hospital with sprained ankles so they are not alone – loves them.

Calls hundreds of coaches every year to get scholarships – loves them.

Listens to them cry over broken hearts in his office, prays for them when he thinks no one is watching, loses sleep over their bad study habits – type of loves.

Coach Frank runs a program where he prides himself in not only making better ball players but making them better men. He wants them to be successful off the field. He challenges them to be grownups and to handle adversity. To work as a team and learn that failure is never final.

I could probably recite ten of his famous speeches where he pleads with them to be accountable for their grades, thankful for their parents and have a servants’ heart.

Which brings me to another point in why I love those baseball players so dang much. They silently do so much for our community.

Every year – every season – those fellas do hundreds and hundreds of hours of work for our community. They were my very first group to volunteer with Holiday with a Hero. They ring the bell for Salvation Army, help set up Toyland every year for Toys for Tots, set up and take down hundreds of chairs for Dancing for a Brand New Me as well as the Margarita Fest, shovel snow for the elderly, chop wood for Community Church, volunteer to take children shopping for Salvation Army, sell concessions and work at our local charitable golf tournaments and so much more. So incredibly much more.

Frankie wants them to learn how to serve others and wants them to give back this community. And the boys do such a great job. I have absolutely, positively, fallen in love with his players year after.

Looking back on our journey I can mark the milestones in our relationship by groups of players he has coached. There was the David Muphy, Walker Gimmel, Trevor Anthony group, who played for Frankie when we were dating. (This was when I learned that they are called Umpires-not referees and that Frankie wears a “uniform” not a “cute costume”.

Then came the Bub Skogsketh, Donald Wanner, Nicholas Domitrovitch group, while we were engaged. (This was when I learned that you don’t yell out “Hey Frankie – Your guy is throwing a no-hitter!” when they are in fact throwing a no hitter).

That group was followed by the “Colby Chavez, Chase Dillon, Paul Bigelow” group, when I was pregnant and I learned that even nineteen-year old boys are smart enough to let the hungry pregnant lady cut in front of them at the snack bar.

And the list goes on and on.

The boys become our family and part of our family’s history.

Sweet Frank, the love of my life, has dedicated his whole career to this community and these sweet boys. He cries happy tears when his former players call him to tell him that they are engaged, graduating, married etc.

One player recently even had him officiate his wedding. “Once a Coug, always a Coug.” Frankie cares about these boys, and the boys care about our town.

The cougars have started their season and they are on fire. I am so happy for this group of such sweet, talented, smart athletes to be doing so well. However, if their season derails – they have a coach who will teach them to overcome adversity and how to succeed no matter what the scoreboard says. They will be successful.

Frankie still gets calls from former players thanking him for how he changed their life. I know I sound bias, and perhaps I am. The Avilla household loves Lassen Baseball. My girls spend a lot of their free time running around on the dirt mound surrounded by “the boys.”

This was not what I envisioned for my life when I was younger – but it is so much cooler than anything I could have dreamed of.

I love Lassen Baseball. The entire program. From the fall practices to the spring games, it is a central part of my life in this community.

I would encourage you all to stop by this weekend as they play their home opener and you will see why that cute, hunk of a Coach and the Hustlin’ Cougs are a huge reason I love the place we live.

Frankie with his former players after officiating the wedding
Jeremy Couso
Jeremy Couso
SusanvilleStuff.com Publisher/Editor
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