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Sometimes the butterflies for an athlete return even stronger in parenthood. And sometimes a high school can become a home for generations.
Willa Valbuena experienced both feelings as she watched her twin daughters Mia and Avi Valbuena help Marina’s softball team capture the CIF-SS Division 3 championship last month in Irvine.
“I had butterflies in my stomach like I did 35 years ago, and they just go out there and they just get it done,” Willa Valbuena said after the Vikings defeated Westlake 8-1 in the final in Irvine on May 30.
“I’m so proud of them. They’re so resilient.”
Known by her maiden Willa Parchen, Willa Valbuena pitched for Marina’s 1990 softball team that claimed the CIF-SS Division 5A title.
Just like her twins, she celebrated a section title as a junior.
And just like her girls, Willa Parchen played at Marina for coach Shelly Luth. In 1990, Luth served as an assistant before taking the helm for the next season.
Luth, now the Vikings’ co-coach with Dan Hay, reconnected with Willa Valbuena — who pitched collegiately at Creighton — at an incoming freshmen night for Marina a few years ago.
“She said, ‘Hey’ and I’m ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Luth recalled of the surprise reunion. “She said, ‘Can you stick around four more years? And at the time, I was like ‘Yeah!’ “
“It’s special,” the coach added of the family’s legacy at Marina. “The amazing thing about Mia and Avi, they’re the first ones in. They hang their bag up and they go straight to the dugout and get the bases out. They put the bases in. They get all the equipment out. Humble as can be.”
Both girls are pitchers who can hit.
Mia is a right-hander committed to Michigan who earned first-team All-County honors this season. Avi is a left-handed pitcher who had four RBIs in the final.
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