FROM THE SPORTSDESK:Detmers still feisty, but is now a surfer

I sensed that there was something special when I first came across Shelby Detmers.

That was three years ago and Shelby was the only girl in a Little League baseball game I was covering. She was feisty then and it appears not much has changed.

Back then her team was down, 11-0, through five innings, but she hardly played defeated, and she also had words to back it up.

“I know I’m a girl and they probably think I’m weird or that I can’t play,” Detmers said. “I like showing them I’m tough. I want to show them I can play better than they can.”

Shelby still plays baseball with the boys, but she’s also taking on different challenges that come in the form of waves.

Shelby is a surfer, and a pretty good one, too.

In October, she won the Huntington Beach Surf Series Women’s Open Division title.

“That was cool because I beat a 23-year-old and a 17-year-old and other people older than me,” she said.

She also placed second in the 12-and-under division at a Western Surfing Assn. event at Pismo Beach two weeks ago.

For the past three years, Shelby has been improving in surfing and reaffirming to herself that she has found her niche.

She still loves baseball, but surfing has become No. 1 in her heart.

“I love surfing because when you’re out on the water, all your worries go away,” she said. “You get to meet new people and you get to travel.”

From the sound of it, you would think Shelby treats surfing as a way of escape. But that is totally not the case.

“She’s well adjusted,” her mother, Diana Ceseñas said.

Shelby lives with her mother and stays with her father, Brett, on the weekends in Costa Mesa. Both parents have been ultra supportive, no matter what sports she’s competing in.

“I’m fine with it; it’s cool,” Shelby said. “My mom supports me a lot. My dad taught me how to surf.”

Her father has also helped with her baseball, encouraging her to play with the boys. She never feels like an odd one out because she loves to play. One of the reasons she likes baseball is simple really. She doesn’t like softball.

But baseball is also fun because it gives her a chance to showcase her skills.

Here comes that feistiness.

“It’s always fun to show off to the boys that a girl can play baseball,” she said. “I don’t mind playing with the boys.”

Shelby, when she wasn’t surfing on the weekends, contributed to the Costa Mesa Pony team that won the Winterball League, which consisted of five teams.

She’s 12 but played as the only girl in the league of 13- and 14-year-olds.

“It was a delight having her,” Costa Mesa Coach Lou DeSandro said. “She more than held her own. She played second base and in the outfield and made some real good plays for us. She also got along with the boys. She’s a sweetheart, but she’s not a softie. But, you know, she’s still a girl.”

At Rogers Middle School in Long Beach, Shelby is becoming more known as a surfer.

She’s been a big part of the school’s new surf team.

The stakes aren’t as high as those weekend competitions Shelby’s in, but she still remains passionate about winning.

“I would say she is competitive, but in a fun way,” her coach, Scott Smith said. “She always has a smile. She’s mainly competitive with herself, wanting to do better every time. She’s definitely an exceptional surfer and makes the others step up their game and do the best they can.”

Not only is Shelby setting standards in the water for the new team, but she’s also been a trend setter because she competes so much aside from the school events.

“She’s definitely the poster child of our program,” Smith said. “She inspires the other kids to take it to the next level.”

That Shelby, I knew there was something special about her. When I brought up our interview from three years ago, she said she remembers saying those words.

“I still live by those words,” she said.