Retirement can wait

Antelope's softball coach motivated to stay on for another season.

Mike Jorajuria is one of the longest tenured coaches on the Antelope Rams multi-sports staff.

For the last 18 years, he's been the head coach of the varsity softball program; developing student athletes and preparing them for the rigors of life beyond high school.

Going into this past Spring, Jorajuria was planning on completing his tenure with the Rams and retire at the end of the school year.

The Coronavirus Pandemic changed all of that.

Before the Rams could get more than a handful of games under their belt, all sports across the Desert Southwest were shut down by mid-March.

As the last 3 months have gone by, the pandemic's effect have grown more severe; with high volumes of cases being reported on a daily basis just in Yuma County alone.

The changing circumstances were key in changing Jorajuria's mind on his immediate future.

"I was going to quit teaching, so I was going to retire; so I just thought that I retire coaching also. I kind of wanted to do some traveling. But with this COVID-19, that kind of takes traveling out of the picture. So, it just kind of seemed like everything lined up where I should coach again one more year and see how it goes."

Another huge factor in his decision was the unfinished business aspect of the past season that came to a premature end.

The lapse in the player development because of the lost season is motivating him to come back and work to get the Rams program back on track.

"Our girls really kind of need that progressional development from year to year. And so, the freshmen last year that didn't get any development, they're going to be like freshmen this year. So, I'll really have two classes of freshmen next year, as far as softball goes. It'll be a challenge, to get everybody back up to speed, playing decent ball. But, it'll also be exciting. They are a group of great girls and it'll be fun getting it there."