First-generation Cal Nuggets take final bow at PGFs

“It’s been a really kind of different mental thing for me because I’ve been coaching these girls … since the seventh- and eighth-grade,” Woods said. “But you’re just so proud of them.”

Prior to Woods taking the reins, the club was known as the West Bay Nuggets, which was comprised of one team. In four years, the former UC California-Berkeley star not only changed the name of the club to the Cal Nuggets, but has grown it to five teams, four of which qualified for PGF Nationals this season.

“Honestly, it was probably the best softball experience I’ve ever had,” said Cam Kondo, who has played for Woods since the beginning, “just because of the family-oriented atmosphere and how we have each others’ backs. I would not be where I am if not for Woods [and the rest of the coaching staff]. What they’ve done has just been a special thing for Bay Area softball.”

Kondo’s 18U squad didn’t play nearly the way it wanted to in the PGFs. The team posted a 0-5 record, while getting shut out twice in double-elimination bracket play to get eliminated.

Kondo saw her share of success last summer, though, when the Nuggets took fifth place in the nation.

“I think we just clicked really well last year,” Kondo said. “We were just rolling. We would compete and have a chance in every game we played. Team chemistry wise, we were just a really talented team.”

And, going forward, she will continue her softball career next season as a freshman at Woods’ alma mater, Cal. Not only that. Kondo, the middle of three sisters — all off whom are Carlmont alumnae — will get the chance to reunite with her older sister Mariko, who is transferring to Cal from Foothill College.

The youngest Kondo sister, Amanda — now entering her sophomore year at Carlmont — is also verbally committed to Cal.

“I love to have my kids going to Cal because I loved it there,” Woods said.

A former assistant coach at Carlmont, Woods took over as head coach at Foothill last year and now runs the Cal Nuggets from the community college facility. She has little time to hit the reset button for next year’s Nuggets season, as tryouts begin Sunday at Foothill with approximately 200 players slated to attend.

Woods said she is still open to growing the club. Having four teams — the 18U, 16U, 12U and 10U squads — qualify for PGF Nationals is a new record for the Nuggets. That will be tough to top. But Woods said there is no set number of players she intends to keep from the upcoming tryouts. She merely looks to identify players with potential to advance to the collegiate level, and is willing to add teams if the incoming talent allows. Such was the case with the 16U level this year, as the Nuggets fielded two teams for the age group.

“We’re just looking for athletes who can contribute,” Woods said. “We’ve always got spots open and we’re always looking for players.”

For Kondo, it was a bittersweet conclusion to her Nuggets career. Her 18U team opened the PGF Nationals at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex in something of a power bracket, with its tourney opener in pool play going up against eventual national champion Beverly Bandits Conroy.

Run by Bill Conroy — owner of the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch league — the Beverly Bandits won the opener 3-1. The Nuggets went on to fall 8-3 to last year’s national champion, Firecrackers-Rico, on Sunday, July 23. Later Sunday, they fell to the Texas Blaze 3-1.

In double-elimination bracket play, the Nuggets fell to last year’s national runner-up Cal Cruisers 4-0, then were eliminated by Iowa Premier 9-0.

“That definitely was not the way we wanted to go out,” Kondo said. “But we were playing four top teams in the country; that was the way we wanted to go out.”

Other players who were on the inaugural Nuggets team include: Sona Halajian (incoming Drake-San Anselmo junior, committed to Cal); Jen Horita (Aragon grad, Boston University); Gabby Mataele (Hillsdale grad); Mailey McLemore (incoming Carlmont senior, committed to UC Santa Barbara); Bridget Nasir (incoming Hillsdale grad, committed to Quinnipiac University); Marina Sylvestri (Notre Dame-Belmont grad; Boston University); Luse Tutoe (Capuchino grad, Cal State Monterey).