CarlsbadCarlsbad — On the first day of tryouts for this season’s La Costa Canyon High boys soccer team, coach Craig Dean was surprised to meet a senior candidate who had been away from the sport for six years.
Blake Miller was best recognized as the starting second baseman on the school’s perennially powerful baseball team. Yet there he was.
“It’s my senior year,” Miller said. “That’s the main thing. I want to do as much as I can. I’ve only got a semester left, so I decided to give it a shot. I could pick it up really quick, so why not try out and see how the ball rolls from there?”
Miller would score the Mavericks’ first goal this season. Ever since, the midfielder has been among the team leaders.
To top it off, Miller isn’t the only baseball player to step to the plate for the soccer team this season after time away from the sport.
Cole Cardinale, an outfielder in baseball, rejoined the Mavericks in his old spot as a defensive mainstay at center back after devoting last year to academy soccer.
When the demands of academy play overlapped too much with baseball, Cardinale elected to step away from the academy team and spent three months apart from soccer. Then Dean offered the senior a chance to resume prep play.
“I jumped on it,” Cardinale said. “Coach said that we could work out a schedule with baseball, and it sounded good to me.”
The two baseball players are also each following in the footsteps of older brothers in Mavericks soccer. Ryan Miller now plays on the club level in college at Miami (Ohio), and Ty Cardinale competes for Division III Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash.
With the help of brotherly practice in their youth, Blake Miller and Cole Cardinale each developed a foundation in soccer. So, despite their layoffs in recent times, rust didn’t turn out to be much of a factor in their return to the game.
“Running was a little tough at first,” Miller said. “But I’ve gotten back into shape more. Other than that, it was just like riding a bike and having a good time.”
While his absence was brief in comparison, Cardinale found a significant turnover in the roster since his sophomore year. Still, any introductions went well, as he was named team captain through the support of his teammates.
“It was a big transition,” Cardinale said. “But we all still had a good connection, and I’m having a lot of fun.”
Cardinale is also on target in the recovery process from a torn labrum in his right shoulder, which cost him about half of last baseball season. Meanwhile, Miller is looking to build on a junior season in which he batted .274 with 12 RBIs.
The Mavericks were led in baseball last season by Mickey Moniak, an outfielder selected first overall in last June’s Major League Baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. They reached the Open Division playoffs but suffered early elimination.
In soccer, La Costa Canyon returns this season as the defending Division I champion with aspirations of qualifying for the Open Division. The Mavericks were off a 7-4-2 start early this month.
To go with three returning starters, there’s been a boost from two certain seniors, of course.
“First, my goal was to make the team,” Miller said. “Then, after I made it, it was to start. Then I wanted to be one of the top goal scorers. Now it’s to progress and be one of the leaders, someone that everyone can trust on and off the field.”
Indeed, that’s stepping to the plate.
Thien is a freelance writer.
