One Stitch at a Time, IVBN Broadens Baseball Horizons in the Valley
Ruben Niebla is a passionate man. Like many people who have dedicated large chunks of their lives to a singular pursuit, he projects a sort of quiet intensity at all times and at all the degrees found between smile and frown. Anybody meeting him for the first time—and if there are a couple of folks left in the Valley baseball scene who have not, it could only be by accident—can have no doubt about one thing. He is a doer. And what he does is show the people of the Valley that there should be no limit to the scope of their dreams.
The Imperial Valley Baseball Network, which Niebla heads, is the principle organ for his efforts. Founded in 2008, the IVBN is dedicated to growing the baseball community locally. It does so in many of the traditional ways, like providing access to training camps and facilitating travel leagues (IVBN travel clubs typically attend two big tournaments a year), but also in less tangible ones. And it’s these that Niebla is particularly enthusiastic about.
According to him, the real impact of the IVBN is in giving local ballplayers the opportunity to see (and the connections to leverage) that baseball doesn’t need to be that thing they did in high school and then put in the back of the garage to forget about. Baseball can take you places. Anywhere you want, really. As long as you’ve got the desire and you put in the work.
The pride and joy of the IVBN is not to be found in trophies or banners, but in people. Particularly those that have been helped pursue their dreams in baseball (and in life) at a level beyond that of the hometown hero. Niebla is especially pleased to note the growth he’s seen in local players getting opportunities since ’08, confiding that this year has seen “10 or 11” of them get offers to play at a higher level.
The IVBN facilitates this in any way they can, but one of the more prominent is their annual awarding of scholarships to certain top-flight seniors out of the local high schools. The number of recipients is irregular. Originally, back when the IVBN was just getting started there were only one to two awards per year. But as the IVBN has become more integrated into the community the number has grown. The past two years have seen six recipients apiece.
This year there are four—Robert Brodell of Brawley Union High, Sebastian Cervantes of Vincent Memorial, Alex Duarte of Imperial High, and Rafael Lopez of Holtville High—all of whom are set to play in college.
Brodell, a shortstop and pitcher in high school, is going on to Utah Valley University (whose website prominently features a ballfield on their “attending UVU” page) where he plans on studying criminal justice (he confesses to being a fan of procedural shows such as “Criminal Minds”).
Cervantes, another shortstop and pitcher, will be attending William Jessup University in Rocklin to study biology with an eye on perhaps becoming an orthodontist.
Duarte, who played first base in addition to his pitching, heads to San Diego Mesa College this fall. He wants to stick in the sporting world however things shake out and plans on studying kinesiology.
Lopez (2B/3B/P), has plans to attend Victor Valley College, and wants to work on becoming a speech therapist.
All of the recipients have had big highlights in their high school days—Brodell’s team won a CIFSDS championship his junior year, Duarte’s squad reached the final in his senior year, Cervantes pitched a complete game and hit a grand slam to help Vincent Memorial win their first playoff game (when asked about his fondest baseball memory Lopez was more forward-thinking, anticipating future successes)—but they are united in more than that. They have highlights to come. All of them have demonstrated excellent verve in getting this far, but they’re not done yet.
This is exactly what the IVBN set out to do. To help kids all over the Valley realize that they’re not done yet, that there’s more and better to come. Lopez, Duarte, Brodell, and Cervantes are exemplars of the cause. And next year there’s sure to be more.