La Joya’s Navarro sisters, Clara, Clarisa and Alisa
May 13th, 2008, 10:19 pm · Post a Comment · posted by jasonslyric
Here are some other tidbits of information that came out of my interviews with the Navarro sisters for the feature story that appeared in The Monitor on Wednesday. It was too much to fit into the space I had for the print edition, so here it is for our on-line readers to enjoy:
In talking with Alisa, her sense of humor became apparent pretty quick. She’s definitely ‘the funny one.’ I asked her what it’s like being the youngest and she simply said “more chores.” When I continued pressing her on what her individual talent is, she said “My dad says supposedly I’m a power hitter but I don’t know.”
She jokingly added that Clarisa has the muscles, Clara has the six pack and she has the looks.
She also was more open about the sisters’ relationship, and how much she looks up to her older sisters. Whereas Clara was the more polished leader of the group, thus more careful to say the right thing, and Clarisa was a little shyer in her answers, Alisa’s responses were pretty sweet.
When I asked her about playing without Clara next season, when she heads off to college, Alisa had this to say: “All I know is that I’m going to cry. Whatever she’s done to me I will cry because I’m going to miss her.”
She also has the typical youngest sibling syndrome — feeling like it’ll be near impossible to live up to the standards set by her ultra-talented sisters. That may be true, but she handles her plight with apparent style and grace, her good sense of humor intact.
“Everybody comes up to me, ‘Oh, you’re Clari’s sister right?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah,’ so everybody knows me as Clari and Clara’s sister,” she said. “Nobody knows my name.”
Clarisa as the athlete also is plainly obvious. It’s not that the other two aren’t athletic, they obviously are. Clara’s going to play Division I college softball and Alisa plays centerfield, a position which requires a player to cover a lot of ground quickly. It’s just that Clarisa is off-the-charts athletic.
From leaping catches to laser throws to first, that’s apparent on any defensive play she’s a part of. She’s also extremely fast on the basepath, which she’s on quite frequently — she had 15 extra-base hits and 16 multi-hit games during the regular season. She opened district play 12-for-12 at the plate through the first three contests.
“I know what she can do and I’ve been around her and everything, catching her balls and watching everybody freak out about how fast she throws,” Clara said. “And just knowing that she may do something better than I did, maybe go ahead and make softball or baseball a career, (is a special feeling).”
Clarisa also may be the most competitive, though that’s hard to say because Clara has to be right there with her. Maybe it’s just that she lets her emotions show more, when she gets down or gets mad or is having a bad game, but there might be more to it than that. She played junior high football and freshman baseball, neither of which Clara did. Clarisa wanted to prove herself against the boys. Can anybody say Michelle Wie?
One word symbolizes Clara for me, and that’s toughness. You don’t catch every game for four years without being extremely tough. Playing catcher tends to put more wear and tear on a player’s body than any other position in softball. And beyond that, I’ve seen her slam her head into a backstop, jam her shoulder sliding into a base and injure herself in countless other ways other the past four years — and she always keeps on ticking.
She takes her role as the oldest sister seriously. When I was talking to her about the different personalities, she said Clarisa is emotional and Alisa is the joker, and that she tries to walk the line between both, making sure that neither sister goes too far in either direction.
“I try to be a teammate first and then when I need to correct them I will try, and it sometimes clashes because we’re sisters, but I do to them what I do to the other girls,” Clara said.
For this season’s Lady Coyotes, there’s no doubt Clara’s the most important sister — even with Clarisa’s breakout rookie campaign. She’s the leader, she’s been through the playoff battles, and she has the mental toughness to show for it. That’s something coach Carlos Rodriguez realizes is invaluable, and why he’s lobbying hard for a catcher to win All-Valley Most Valuable Player this season.
“There’s no substitute for experience. This kid has caught every game for us. Some people will say, ‘Well, a lot of kids have.’ Yeah, but this kid’s caught every game and we’ve won with her behind the plate. And when there’s a big hit needed or a pickoff, she’ll get the job done.”
Speaking of pickoff, as far as I can tell, Clara’s the only catcher in the Rio Grande Valley you’d have to be foolish to run on. I wholeheartedly believe most baserunners can take second anytime they want on every other catcher in the Valley. Either the catcher won’t even attempt a throw or nobody’s protecting the bag, which you see a lot in softball, or they’ll throw and be way too late, or worse — throw the ball into the outfield and only complicate the situation further. Not against Clara — steal against her at your own foolhardy risk.
