Newport Harbor baseball staying strong in the face of a player’s unexpected loss
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Newport Harbor High senior Parker Chavez was umpiring a youth baseball game when he got the life-changing news.
This was a normal way for Parker to spend his weekends. It appeared to be a typical Saturday in late February.
Then, it wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
His uncle texted Parker and told him that he needed help fixing his truck. When he got face-to-face with his nephew, he delivered the reality in much more devastating words.
Parker’s father, Paul Chavez, had died while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He was just 43 years old.
“It’s still an actual nightmare that none of us are going to wake up from,” said Taryn Chavez, Paul’s wife and mother to Parker and his younger sister, Teagan.
Nearly a month later, Parker is in the middle of his senior season with the Sailors baseball team. The squad is looking impressive. Newport Harbor beat rival Corona del Mar 1-0 on Wednesday for the second time in as many days, improving to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Sunset League.
The Sailors go for the Battle of the Bay series sweep on Friday at their home field. Parker, who typically plays first base, will be behind the dish at catcher as last year’s No. 1 pitcher, fellow senior Lucas Perez, takes the mound.
On the diamond is where the team is supposed to be on most days. But on Sunday, Parker’s teammates found themselves at a different kind of park, Marina Park in Newport Beach, for Paul Chavez’s celebration of life.
Every single player was there to support Parker. They brought flowers for Taryn and shared upbeat stories. Paul had coached some of them when they were younger, coming up through the Newport Harbor Baseball Assn.
“It’s definitely one of the coolest brotherhoods I’ve ever witnessed,” Taryn Chavez said. “Without them, I don’t think [Parker] maybe would be as strong. They are really special kids, and parents. That goes hand in hand. They’re such good kids, because their parents are such good people.”
A few weeks before the ceremony, Sailors coach Josh Lee called Parker’s teammates in on a Sunday. It was Feb. 23, the day after Paul Chavez died, and the team was just one game into the season. The players and coaches discussed how to be there for their teammate and friend.
It reminded Lee, a bit eerily, of when Orange Coast College baseball catcher Jordan Watanabe died at age 20 in 2009. Lee, who was playing baseball at OCC at the time, was called to a special Sunday team meeting by late longtime Pirates coach John Altobelli.
The Pirates went on to win their fourth state championship.
“Even though we won that year, the most important thing was life and brotherhood and family and loving each other,” Lee said. “I remember as a teenager, probably only 6 months older than Parker at the time, how impactful that was for me.”
Lee said last month’s meeting with his own Sailors players weighed heavily on him.
Altobelli, along with his wife and daughter, lost his own life in the 2020 helicopter crash that also killed basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and four other people.
“I wanted to make ‘Alto’ proud with how we can frame to teenagers how important love and support is right now,” Lee said. “I was very lucky to have someone like him in my life, and I hope that all of us as coaches and players can be that level of support for Parker as he goes through something even more traumatic than losing a teammate, losing his father and his best friend.”
Paul Chavez and his own father have been regulars at the Sailors baseball field. Taryn said she still isn’t sure exactly what happened to her husband.
Taryn, Paul and a large group of friends were in Cabo San Lucas to celebrate Taryn’s 40th birthday. Paul was getting over a cold and had a lingering cough, but his condition deteriorated on the vacation.
Taryn said she woke up the day after her birthday to Paul saying, “I can’t breathe.” He ended up passing away at the Nobu Hotel. Though the autopsy said he died of a heart attack, she isn’t sure.
Support has come in other forms, too. A GoFundMe for the Chavez family started by a friend has raised more than $130,000.
Taryn, a Newport Harbor alumna herself who owns a local dance studio, said that Parker has handled the situation exceptionally well, almost seamlessly stepping into that role of man of the house.
“[My dad] really taught me a lot of things throughout my life,” Parker Chavez said. “It’s a role that I had prepared to take on 20 or 30 years from now, and I’m taking it on now. I’m glad he taught me those lessons very early, because now I have to apply them, and I can apply them very well to stay strong for both my mother and my sister.”
The team has dedicated its season to Paul Chavez and has been coming up clutch. Five of the Sailors’ six victories have been by a single run.
Newport Harbor beat CdM on Tuesday and Wednesday behind standout pitching performances from junior Gavin Guy and sophomore Keaton Anderson, respectively.
Anderson pitched six innings in Wednesday’s win, keeping the game scoreless until the Sailors scratched out a run in the top of the seventh against standout CdM junior left-handed starting pitcher Stevie Jones.
Perez, a senior co-captain, roped a one-out double to left field. He eventually came in to score on a single by Elijah Haseth. Junior co-captain Ryan Williams slammed the door on the Sea Kings (6-3 overall, 0-2 in league) in the bottom of the frame, retiring them in order for the save.
Lee said the camaraderie on this year’s team reminds him of the 2022 Sailors, who advanced to the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs and then won the CIF Southern California Regional Division III title game.
Again, Lee believes that the winning for that year’s Newport Harbor team came because of the close bond, not the other way around.
“Our complete goal for this season has shifted,” Lee said Thursday. “Yes, we want to win, we want to go to CIF, we want to do that. But we want to make sure that we’re taking care and supporting Parker. That’s No. 1.
“I’m grateful and I thank God that Parker, going through this, is able to have an additional family to surround him with. Hopefully his mom and sister, they have a second family in the stands, too. That’s the hope.”
Parker Chavez, who has played baseball in the community since he was 4, has long counted his teammates among his best friends.
Over the last few weeks it’s been different, though. He said the Sailors have never been closer.
They no longer see one of their biggest fans at the ballpark, but they still feel Paul Chavez’s spirit.
“It’s very good to have my teammates here,” Parker Chavez said. “I think we’ve got a great thing going.”
Taryn, suddenly cast into a role of a single mom of two teenagers, would agree. She feels the love.
“They’ve always had a great friendship, but it’s definitely on another level,” she said. “It just feels like they’re doing it for Paul. It’s pretty cool to watch, and be a part of.”
