By Jim Guthrie
Daily Bruin Contributor
With her quiet demeanor, you might not think that junior
outfielder Lupe Brambila is a major vocal and inspirational leader
on the defending national champion UCLA softball team. But anyone
who knows the team would tell you that Brambila is not only the
silent motivation for the Bruins, but also one of the ties that
keeps them together.
There are many faces to Brambila’s game. She is sometimes
characterized as a clutch hitter who is always on an emotional
keel. Her coach admires her work ethic. Her teammates see her as a
role model and inspirational leader.
The true description, however, is given best by none other than
Brambila herself.
“I am just going to try and play my game and I hope that
inspires and helps everybody else,” she said.
“It’s not really my job to tell people what to do but
if they need help, I will help them out.”
What does she bring to the team? Her statistics speak for
themselves: The UCLA softball team has played 44 games this year.
Brambila has played in all of them, and started them all.
She gives the team a consistent bat with a .303 batting average.
She is a menace on the base paths, totaling 15 stolen bases in 17
attempts that have led to 19 runs scored on the year. In left
field, the opposition can forget about her making a mistake because
she has yet to make an error this season. In fact, she has only
committed one during her entire career.
Outside of pure statistics, however, Brambila brings much more
to the team. She is not the type of player who will scream at her
teammates to get the job done, nor the type to make an emotional
pregame speech. Instead she serves as a model of getting the job
done day after day, no questions asked.
“Lupe is a great asset to our team,” junior pitcher
Courtney Dale said. “She is really quiet but she gets it
done. She’s quiet thunder because she can get out of control
sometimes.”
Brambila’s career at UCLA did not start off like most of
her teammates’, who were handed scholarships at the door. She
had to earn a spot on the team as a walk-on, and even that
didn’t come easily. She didn’t have her medical release
and was not able to try out at regular tryouts. Later in the year,
head coach Sue Enquist let her try out and Brambila made the team a
week before the first game started.
“(Sue) really didn’t know about me,” Brambila
said. “I figured if she liked the way I played she would give
me a spot on the team. I wasn’t really trying to prove
anything to anyone. I am just glad she let me play.”
She has certainly had to use her motivation to become a role
model on a team that has seen a lot of things happen to it since
she joined it. When Brambila walked on in 1998, the softball team
was on probation and most of the top players were redshirting until
the season. She took the opportunity to prove what she could
contribute to the squad, playing in 37 games. Her bat was slow to
adjust but it picked up in late April toward the end of the season,
and she finished fifth on the team in hitting, which included a
grand slam.
“My first year was completely different with all of the
redshirts,” Brambila said. “That team had a lot of
heart and we went out with everything that we had.”
Drawing on this spirit and experience, Brambila was able to
guide many of the new players. Her knowledge proved invaluable as
the 1999 squad marched all the way to the national championship and
Brambila earned Pac-10 honorable mention honors.
She played the championship game with the same attitude she
brings to the field every day ““ that it was just another
game.
“My goal was to have fun,” Brambila said. “And
when you are winning, you are having fun, so in the whole process
that is what you want to do.”
On the field there is no one who has a greater intensity than
Brambila, who says she tries to let go of outside pressures and
distractions and just focus on the task at-hand. But off the field
there is still no one who works harder than her.
She balances softball, school and work with a dedication that
inspires her team and her coach.
“She brings the intangibles of toughness, which you need
to be a Bruin,” Enquist said. “She wears the uniform so
beautifully. Lupe carries herself with such respect and is such a
tough competitor.
“She will do whatever it takes to win, whether there is
adversity against her or not,” Enquist added. “I wish
we had more of her.”