Getting lost in the shuffle

I had interviewed him a couple times a decade ago, but was under no illusion that he had, personally, sent me a LinkedIn invitation. But it did get me to thinking: Wait. I’ve seen his name recently. Where?

I started putting the pieces together. I dug even deeper into my email and there it was: a press release from Menlo-Atherton stating Paroubeck had been named the school’s new baseball manager.

That was at the end of October. When the email originally arrived, I put it in my mental bank that it was a great item for a future column. But then the fall playoffs were kicking into high gear, dozens of more emails came in and the M-A released got pushed down the line.

I thought I would get to it in the next week, not two months later.

Nevertheless, here it is. Better late than never: Paroubeck is the new manager for the Bears, replacing David Trujillo. Paroubeck bounced around the Minor Leagues from 2013 to 2017, before returning to the Peninsula and starting Hit Club Baseball Academy, based out of Belmont.

Last season, Paroubeck guided the Serra freshman team to a 19-0-2 record, the press release said.

The manager he is replacing, Trujillo, had an interesting coaching career at Menlo-Atherton. He spent parts of four seasons with the Bears, compiling an overall record of 36-29, going 0-3 in the playoffs. He had a Peninsula Athletic League record of 22-8.

He was suddenly thrust into the varsity manager spot at the end of the 2019 season when the M-A administration and then-manager David Klein mutually decided to part ways ahead of the final week of the regular season.

Trujillo, who had coached the JV squad since 2016, was promoted to the varsity job with the Bears battling for a Central Coast Section playoff spot. The Bears rallied under the new manager, posting a pair of must-win games and qualifying for the postseason, losing in the first round of the playoffs.

So, in his first varsity season, he managed a total of three games — one less than the number of games he managed during the 2020 season. The Bears were 2-2 before the pandemic canceled the rest of the season.

In his first two “seasons,” Trujillo had a record of 4-3. The 2021 season was somewhat normal, emerging from the lockdown and posting his best record, with the Bears going 20-7 and winning the PAL Ocean Division title with a 13-1 mark. Last season, the Bears went 12-16 overall, finishing fifth with a 7-7 mark in PAL Bay Division play.

***

I’m not nearly the college football fan I used to be. I simply can’t stay with a game — in any sport, really — when I don’t know any of the players or have any vested interest, emotional or otherwise.

But as they say, ‘tis the season. College football’s biggest games are played on — or around, depending on the year — New Year’s Day, moving up a day this year because no American sport wants to go against an NFL Sunday schedule.

But those two College Football Playoff games New Year’s Eve Saturday turned me back into a fan of college football, for the next week anyway, because the CFP championship game is everything I hoped it would be: a blue-blood, defending national champ Georgia facing the Cinderella TCU Horned Frogs, who posted a massive upset of Michigan in the first semifinal game Saturday afternoon.

The Associated Press had a story that ran in the Daily Journal’s weekend edition with the headline: “TCU out to prove it belongs.” The Horned Frogs may come from a Power 5 conference, the Big 12, but other than winning the 1938 national championship, TCU is hardly in the same football orbit as the other three semifinalists: Michigan, Ohio State and Georgia. A good, solid program? Sure. A national championship contender? It is this season.

TCU went from starting the season unranked to now playing for the title. David versus Goliath for the NCAA national title. What could be better?

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.