As the Serra High baseball team is put through its paces by its no-nonsense coach Craig Gianinno on a sun-splashed weekday, it is hard not to soak in the tradition of the program.
Glance around Danny Frisella Memorial Stadium and the reminders are everywhere, from the large scoreboard bearing Frisella's name, to the indoor batting cages paid for by alumnus Gregg Jefferies, to the listing of championship Padre teams on the fence -- five Catholic Athletic League titles, 17 West Catholic Athletic League titles and six Central Coast Section championships.
"Ever since I was a kid I've been going to Serra events," said Padre senior center fielder Jordan Paroubeck. "My dad is a big alumnus and so I always knew I'd be a Padre. Now it's my senior year and I'm where I always wanted to be and it's a really good feeling. I just want to end on a good note."
Paroubeck is ranked as the 50th best player in the nation by Baseball America. Though he's cooled a bit in recent games, he's still hitting .370 with four home runs, five doubles, a triple and 10 runs batted in.
Already signed with Fresno State, chances are also excellent Paroubeck will get picked high in the major league June draft and perhaps someday join a list of 10 former Serrans who have worn big league uniforms.
Step into the cozy Serra clubhouse underneath the bleachers and those jerseys are hanging from the ceiling -- Barry Bonds' San Francisco Giants jersey, Jefferies' Cardinal shirt, Jim Fregosi (Angels), Dan Serafini (Reds), Frisella (Mets) and on down the line.
"It's such an honor to play here," Paroubeck said. "Such good players played here before me. I kind of feel that as a team we need to live up to that."
So far, so good. The Padres (13-3 overall, 4-1 league) are No. 6 in the CalHiSports.com state rankings and are enmeshed in a three-way tie with St. Francis and Valley Christian for the WCAL lead.
The reviews of Paroubeck's early play are no less encouraging.
Wrote Baseball America:
"Paroubeck ... first stands out for his frame at 6-feet-2 and 185 pounds with broad shoulders and a tapered waist." “He’s what they look like,” an American League area scout said. ... "Paroubeck, a switch-hitter, has a loose, simple swing from both sides of the plate." ... “Jordan Paroubeck is the flavor of the month,” a National League scout said. “He’s playing great ... and he’s just a tremendous kid."
The comments on the latter line up, from Paroubeck's teammates, to his current coach, to his junior varsity coach Dan Walsh, who just moments before practice completed a stint of field maintenance.
"He's a phenomenal kid," Walsh said of Paroubeck. "If you never saw him play, you wouldn't even know how good he is. He has a scholarship to Fresno State and there are other guys you see with scholarships and they have their chest all pumped out, but with Jordan you'd never know that he's the starting center fielder and leadoff guy."
Seated in a corner of the Padre dugout, examining a freshly spiked ankle suffered in a base-running mishap was infielder Ian McGuire. McGuire's wound didn't look good, but he still took time to share some thoughts on Paroubeck.
"He's a good teammate who isn't out for himself," McGuire said. "He's into making everyone around him better each day and challenging the outfielders to better their games. He's very big on the team concept and it not just being about him and his own batting average."
Good genes have helped. The Padre star's father, Tom Paroubeck, was a standout baseball and basketball player at Serra and his mother, Terra Black, was a high school track star.
Expert tutelage hasn't hurt either. Tom Paroubeck was a high school teammate of former Serra greats Bonds and Bob McKercher. McKercher urged the elder Paroubeck to make his son a switch-hitter, while Bonds has encouraged the Serra star at every turn and provided some occasional batting instruction.
In fact when Jordan Paroubeck played in last summer's prestigious Area Code Games in Long Beach, Bonds attended one of the games and also welcomed the Paroubecks into his Beverly Hills mansion.
"I've known Barry since we were 9 years old," Tom Paroubeck said. "We played basketball together at Serra for four years and baseball for a few years. When my mom passed on, Barry was in San Diego and he was the first one at my door, flying up to spend some time with my grandmother and me. He's been so cool and wonderful with my son."
Jordan Paroubeck said Bonds boiled down hitting to its essence.
"He really just simplifies it, rather than getting all mechanical," he said. "He (says) the barrel is like the glove and just catch the ball with it. I think simplifying anything makes it easier."
Jefferies, who holds many Padre hitting records, also stopped by Serra one day and addressed the team and Paroubeck.
"He was big on not missing your pitch and the mentality side of it -- compete, compete, compete," Paroubeck said. "When you get in the box, between you and the pitcher, it's like a street fight."
Jefferies' message wasn't lost on Serra coach Gianinno, who beseeched his team numerous times during a practice to "communicate," chewed out a player for not hustling and held a lengthy mid-practice meeting regarding the team's approach after it was upset 5-2 a day earlier by College Park.
As the 2013 season chugs into the second half of play, Serra has shined early -- a reverse of last season when it stumbled out of the gate and then came on like gangbusters. This season, Paroubeck is intent on his team finishing strong and is not thinking about much else.
"I just want to hang two banners this year and go from there," he said.
*****
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com.
