When everybody was looking for the Santa Ynez Valley Unified High School baseball program to continue dominating the Los Padres League (LPL) this spring, Cabrillo High School shortstop Dylan Maiden and his teammates had other plans.
The Conquistadores dethroned the Pirates in the LPL this season, winning their first outright league title in more than a decade.
Ask Maiden how that feels, and he’ll shrug and tell you it’s what they expected all along.
“We really didn’t feel like an underdog,” Maiden told the Sun. “We felt like we should’ve had it last year—we barely missed it by a game. This year, coming in, we felt like we were the team to beat. So, we just feel more like, ‘mission accomplished.’”
Cabrillo turned out to be the team to beat in large part because of Maiden’s explosive presence at the top of the Conqs’ batting order. He hit .422 on the year. He posted seven triples, scored 27 runs, and stole 16 bases. He also played rock solid defense and even excelled as a pitcher, finishing with a 1.28 earned run average as a reliever.
But Maiden’s journey to this point wasn’t necessarily a cakewalk. His intense passion for the game and desire to succeed for his team made parts of his sophomore year frustrating when he couldn’t play up to the level he wanted to.
“The nerves were always there because I wanted to fill in some big shoes and be a good shortstop,” Maiden reflected. “Working up to being the leadoff hitter and being a leader on the team, it was hard because I went through some struggles toward the end of my sophomore year.”
Those struggles proved to be an integral part of his growth, though, helping Maiden learn how to embrace adversity and pressure.
“I think I needed that to really turn things around,” he said. “I love the game so much. It’s always just been fun for me out there regardless of what the situation is or anything like that.”
Cabrillo took its 21-8 record into the CIF Southern Section Division V playoffs, starting with its May 20 game against Baldwin Park High School. Though Maiden has plans to continue playing baseball at Allan Hancock College, you might want to wait a few weeks to ask him about that.
“That’s something that’s on my mind, but at the moment I’m really just focused on going through CIF, because we really feel like we have a team that can challenge to win it all,” Maiden said. “It’s my senior year, my last ride.”
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2016.