As Brahmas baseball player Jordan Abushahla continues to play at a high level, universities are starting to take notice.
At the age of five, Abushahla began playing teeball at Knapp Ranch Baseball. Two years later, he went on to play at West Hills Little League.
At a young age, his parents placed him into sports primarily to keep him in shape. With baseball, football, basketball and soccer experience, he was not focused on one particular sport.
However, that changed as soon as he got to high school.
Abushahla attended Taft High School where he chose to devote to baseball completely. He believes that is when he started to improve and a contributing factor to his progress was his brother Ramsey.
Ramsey Abushahla served as his role model and pushed him to work harder every day on and off the field.
“He’s a lot bigger than me and I always tried beating him in everything. It’s the competitive side of me. Most of the time I’d lose but when I’d win, I think it helped me grow as a person, not just baseball but it helped me figure out how to drive myself to work as hard as I possibly can and get better,” Abushahla said.
After high school, Abushahla went to the University of San Diego for the fall semester of his freshman year. There he tried to walk-on and play for the Toreros.
There he was given the choice of either redshirting or transferring. After much thought, he decided to transfer to Pierce where he earned a spot on the Brahma’s baseball team.
He served as a utility player until this year.
Coming into this year, he wasn’t too comfortable at shortstop because he had grown accustomed to moving positions constantly. He felt he was the greatest fielder but he realized it was something you work on.
With the help of infield coach Michael Hymes and with the repetition of drills, he began to see improvement.
In addition to repeating fielding drills, he improves his batting skills the same way. During batting practice, he swings over and over again, tweaking minor details along the way until it eventually becomes natural.
“You’re not even thinking about it, it’s just happening,” Abushahla said.
Not only that but he has learned the mental side of baseball.
“It’s so much more than just physical abilities. It’s a lot of mental stuff and you have to be thinking after every pitch and action the whole game,” Abushahla said. “It’s like 30 minutes of action and an hour or two of sitting in preparation. You just need to be ready to do what your team needs you to do.”
He believes it is important not to get too emotionally driven and all personal issues should be set aside to focus during those hours you are on the field which has impacted his performance.
Both coaches and teammates alike have noticed his progress.
“He’s been the most consistent player on the team,” coach Bill Picketts said.
“He’s definitely the most hard working and determined person I’ve ever met,” teammate Myles Cruz said. “He’s always been the hardest working on the team and it definitely has showed in his skills and abilities on the field.”
Abushahla’s goal is to play at the highest level he possibly can and he has received offers to play at four-year universities which he does not yet feel comfortable speaking publicly about.
