‘Everything is for Stein’
Taravella team eyes deep playoff run while honoring late coach, AD
The Taravella baseball team set out this season to honor former coach and athletic director Jason Stein, who died due to complications from COVID-19 in August 2020.
The school retired Stein’s No. 19 before their season opener, and the entire team wore his number in the opener’s first inning. Since then, they’ve felt the former coach’s presence in other ways.
“It’s kind of surreal, because I didn’t think that we’d have a season like this,” junior Matt Rubin said. “I honestly don’t think anyone would. It’s crazy, just the fact that he’s not here, but he is at the same time. It’s crazy. Everything with him, in the district final game, the score is 9-1. You put it backwards, it’s 19. It’s just all the little things.”
The Trojans are having their best season in years, winning their first district title since Stein coached the team in 2008 and picking up their first playoff win since 2015.
“We basically are playing this year for him,” Taravella coach Joe Giummule said. “It’s on our hats. We retired the number, and it’s for Stein. After his family, baseball was his next love.”
Giummule said he and the coaching staff have tried to impress life lessons on the players while remembering Stein.
“It’s all just a constant reminder of how precious life is and how baseball, in the big picture, is still just a game,” Giummule said. “There are other things in life [other than] playing baseball. We talk about doing the right thing, making sure we tell our parents we love them. We kind of end every practice like that, and we end every game by paying our respect to Jason.”
On the field, the Trojans have excelled. They are 18-4 thus far, dropping games only to other top teams in the area: Stoneman Douglas, Wellington, West Broward and Western. Taravella has not won 18 games or more since 2009, when Stein coached the team. Stein coached Taravella’s baseball team from 2004-11 and was the Sun Sentinel’s Broward County largeschools coach of the year in 2008. He took over as athletic director in 2011.
Taravella has gotten strong offensive performances from Rubin (.410 batting average, a .943 OPS and eight stolen bases) and senior Luis Rodriguez (.426 average, 1.100 OPS and eight steals). The Trojans have also received strong pitching from several players, and the team has a combined ERA of 2.04.
Chiris Scinta has performed at the plate and on the mound, putting up a .367 average with one home run and 1.126 OPS. He also leads the team in innings pitched (38 ⅓), ERA (0.91) and strikeouts (64).
“I felt we were talented,” Giummule said, “so this is no surprise to me. From Day 1, I thought this was a talented group of players.”
Taravella will look to keep their playoff run going when they face Western at home in the Class 7A regional semifinals on Wednesday. Another win over the Wildcats would put the Trojans in the regional finals — one win away from reaching the state semifinals for the first time since 1996.
“I think every game from now on, at least this year, everything is for Stein,” Rubin said. “Just for everything he did for us, to try to repay him in a way. After every game, we go and we all touch his sign on the fence just to honor him because every game we play this year is for him.”