On the gridiron, a promising playoff run was cut short by a broken ankle. His baseball season: over after just eight games. Righetti senior Jake Steels’ career in a Warrior uniform is over, but graduation is a new beginning.
“Going into my senior year, I had big dreams,” said Jake. “I had a couple big schools looking at me.”
The Righetti High Male Athlete of the Year ran a wheel route and made an outrageous one-handed grab during his team's 6th game of the football season this past fall, which was ultimately his last as a Warrior.
“Having both sports getting taken away my senior season, that’s really rough,” said Jake. “I was looking forward to these seasons my whole life. They just got taken away. It’s not a good feeling.”
Jake plans to play baseball at Fresno State, so more of America’s Pastime is on his horizon, but that doesn’t take away the feeling of leaving things unfinished.
“He’s going to get to play at the next level, but it hurts that he couldn’t finish,” said Righetti baseball head coach, Kyle Tognazzini.
His natural athletic ability and work ethic is up there with the best of them.
“As a father, you couldn’t really ask for a whole lot more than a kid that’s really conscious of the fact that he has a lot of ability, but not afraid to work to get better,” James Steels, Jake’s dad, said.
Jake wants to follow in his dad’s professional baseball-playing footsteps, but he has a back-up plan if it doesn’t come to fruition.
“School always came first. I knew that was the key to success in life, even if football or baseball didn’t work out, so I’m glad I have that to fall back on,” said Jake.
Jake Steels: one of many proud 2020 Central Coast high school graduates.
