Recruiters Hope Bustos Remains Student of Game

Not much has changed in a year for Crystl Bustos, a 1995 Canyon High graduate and one of the country’s best young softball players.

Bustos, 18, was forced into junior college competition after failing to complete the mandatory number of “core” high school classes required by the NCAA for admission into a four-year institution. Yet she continues to dominate on the field while top Division I coaches are waiting for Bustos to get her academics in order and make a decision about where she will play her final two seasons.

“It’s just like the way it was in high school,” she said. “They’re calling all the time.”

College coaches have had an eye on Bustos long before her junior season at Canyon, where she batted .573 with 11 doubles and 10 home runs and was named The Times’ Valley player of the year in 1994.

Coaches have known her for years as the speedy, hard-hitting shortstop with excellent range who played summers for Gordon’s Panthers of Orange County. Bustos played on national age-group championship teams with the Panthers in 1992 and ’94.

When a player is as talented as Bustos, word travels fast among the coaching ranks.

And Bustos chatter continues to spread like wildfire, despite her academic woes.

“She’s the best 18-and-under player in the country and I think everyone else would agree with that,” said Panthers Gold Coach Dale Moore, who has coached Bustos for the past six years.

The Panthers Gold team, top-ranked in the 18-and-under division by Travel Ball magazine, began its quest for another title with a first-round game Wednesday in the national tournament in Stockton.

Academically ineligible for half of her senior season at Canyon, Bustos signed a letter of intent with Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, Fla. And with most of the top college coaches paying close attention, Bustos had an exceptional freshman year for Palm Beach (61-5), leading her team to the junior college national title in Hutchinson, Kan., in mid-May.

She led the team in nearly every offensive category and was named the most valuable player of the national tournament. Bustos batted .614, scored 110 runs, had 102 runs batted in and 23 home runs. Fifty-four of her 135 hits went for extra bases.

Palm Beach Coach JoAnn Ferrieri, who played at Cal State Fullerton from 1983 to ‘86, said Bustos is one of those players who comes around “once in a lifetime.”

“Everyone in the country knows that she is here at Palm Beach,” Ferrieri said. “She’s just one of those players [everyone knows about].”

But when coaches call to talk about Bustos, softball isn’t their concern, Ferrieri said.

“Everyone is waiting to see how she does academically,” she said.

So far, Bustos is holding her own in the classroom. But on one occasion, she was benched because she was playing video games instead of studying.

“I was like, ‘Coach, it was midnight. Do you expect me to study [24 hours a day, seven days a week]?’ ” Bustos said.

Academics, Bustos insists, is her No. 1 concern. She just completed two summer school classes at College of the Canyons and her grade-point average remains slightly above 2.0, the minimum required to maintain athletic eligibility.

Division I coaches from Arizona, UCLA, Florida, Nevada Las Vegas, Chicago-Illinois and Cal State Northridge continue to call Bustos, trying to persuade her to choose their school.

“You get fed up with it all sometimes,” she said. “You keep hearing the same thing over and over.”

With another year left at Palm Beach--and another year of college classes--Bustos said she will not decide until February.

Until then, she’ll be hitting the books with the same fervor she hits riseballs.

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One of Bustos’ teammates will not be returning to Palm Beach to help defend the national title. Jamie Moore, a former Alemany High catcher, chose to come back to the Valley to work on her Associate in Arts degree at Mission College and save three years of eligibility for Division I.

Moore will enroll in the fall, according to her father, Dale. She hopes to sign a letter of intent with Cal State Northridge next year.

Moore, a Times All-Valley selection in 1994 and ‘95, batted .440 with 56 RBIs and was an All-American for Palm Beach.

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Team USA’s 3-1 victory against China in Tuesday’s first-ever Olympic gold medal game was a milestone for American softball fans.

But for Priscilla Rouse, a former Cal State Northridge outfielder from 1985 to ‘87, it was all that and more. Rouse was a member of a 15-player team that beat the U.S., 1-0, in a pre-Olympic exhibition game in Lakewood on May 3. It was the only loss in 61 games suffered by Team USA in its pre-Olympic national tour.

“I feel famous every time I hear that 60-1 [record],” said Rouse, a Kennedy High graduate.

“It was a sweet victory. The pitcher that beat them had a baby on the sidelines that was 6 weeks old. I thought that was awesome.”

Rouse said the group of “unknowns,” who won the second of a four-game series against the Olympic team, was unorganized for the most part, didn’t know each other and didn’t even take a pregame warmup. Once during a game Rouse, who played center field, had to say, “Hey, girl,” to get the second baseman’s attention.

The victory against some of America’s top players surprised all, even Rouse, who was an early cut among Olympic team hopefuls.

“We were sitting back eating our sunflower seeds in the dugout for the next two games, saying, “Wow, we beat ‘em,’ ” Rouse said.

But Rouse has remained loyal to Team USA throughout its Olympic quest. She left Sunday for Columbus, Ga., so she could attend games Monday and Tuesday, and “party with her friends [on the Olympic team] after they win the gold.”

“I didn’t make [the Olympic Team], but I can live it through my friends,” she said.