How Losing Her Mojo Led Mt. SAC's Briana Wheeler To An Inspiring Comeback

How Losing Her Mojo Led Mt. SAC's Briana Wheeler To An Inspiring Comeback

How Briana Wheeler almost left softball for good but she found Mt. SAC and won back-to-back State titles.

May 23, 2019 by Stephen Kerr
How Losing Her Mojo Led Mt. SAC's Briana Wheeler To An Inspiring Comeback

At the moment, life couldn’t be better for Mt. San Antonio (California) College right-hander Briana Wheeler. In two seasons with the Mounties, the Fontana, California native has led the team to back-to-back CCCAA state championships for the first time in program history. She earned the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher award both seasons and finished her Mt. SAC career 54-6. Next fall, she’s looking forward to playing for Division II Hawaii Hilo.

But there was a time, not so long ago, when softball wasn’t much fun for Wheeler. In fact, she briefly considered giving up the sport altogether.

The problems began around the final month of her senior year at Etiwanda High School. Wheeler was preparing to play for Division I Hawaii Manoa, where she had committed during her freshman year. Following her official signing, head coach Bob Coolen called her a power pitcher who would be “a strong addition to our pitching staff.”

Then, inexplicably, Wheeler went into a pitching funk. She wasn’t too concerned at first; after all, every pitcher goes through a difficult stretch. But Wheeler’s persisted into her freshman year with Hawaii. It was as if she had completely lost her mojo, and couldn’t get it back.

“I tried everything,” Wheeler recalled. “I was kind of bummed out, because you have your expectations of how the next four years are going to be, and it didn’t work out. So I almost didn’t want to play softball anymore because I was so heartbroken.”

New Direction

Wheeler redshirted but remained at the school long enough to finish classes that year and fulfill her scholarship. Shortly before returning home to California for the summer, Wheeler and her father, James, began looking for an ideal place that would offer her a fresh start. One of the schools James reached out to was Mt. SAC.

Mounties head coach Ruby Rojas had followed Wheeler’s success as a high school pitcher and her subsequent departure from Hawaii. But she didn’t give serious thought to Wheeler joining the team until she received a voicemail from the pitcher’s father.

“I immediately called back,” Rojas said. “It was a godsend. We had a great conversation. She came here a little rusty, which is normal because she sat out a year. But she had all the potential in the world. All we had to do was fine-tune a couple of things.”

Once Wheeler realized she had a chance to start over, she embraced the opportunity with the Mounties.

“This was the best thing that could have happened to me, and it was definitely something I needed,” she said. “I ended up coming out here for summer workouts, and realized how much I missed (playing).”

The Beginning

Wheeler first took up softball at the age of six. At Etiwanda, she was a three-time First Team All-Baseline League selection and All-Inland Empire honoree in her senior year.

Her father envisioned her as a catcher, but she preferred pitching and the power it gave her, particularly over the tempo of a game.

“I like having control of the game, having it go at the pace I want,” Wheeler explained. “Whether I want to call a timeout and slow the game down or (speed) it up a bit, I like that.”

Things slowly began to turn around for Wheeler in the circle during her first season with the Mounties. Along with pitching coach Jim Boiller, she worked extensively with Taylor Langdon, who pitched at Fresno State before spending a year as a volunteer assistant with the Mounties. As her confidence began to return, so did her success. 

In 2018, she went 26-5 with a 2.00 ERA in 206.1 innings, with three of those victories coming in the state tournament. She yielded 151 hits and 62 walks while striking out 236.

A defining moment came during last season’s state championship game against Palomar. Wheeler took a 2-1 lead into the fifth inning before surrendering a three-run homer. Some pitchers might have allowed the memory of previous struggles to overtake them, but not Wheeler. She got out of the inning without further damage and the Mounties rallied with three runs in the sixth. Reliever Jessica Olvera shut down Palomar the rest of the way to preserve the win and the title.

“She’s one of the primary reasons we won the state championship,” Rojas said of Wheeler. “Things can happen, but it’s all about how we mature and how we bounce back.”

Wheeler notched her 50th victory as a Mountie in the Super Regional opener earlier this month, allowing just four hits and striking out 10 in a 2-1 victory over Santiago Canyon. It marked the 10th time she had struck out 10 or more batters in a game. The Mounties advanced to the state championships with a 3-2 win the next day.

In the state tournament, Wheeler went 4-0, including a 7-4 victory against Palomar to capture the championship for the second straight year. She finished the season 28-1 with two saves, a 0.99 ERA and 229 strikeouts in 183.1 innings. She captured South Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year honors for the second straight season.

Homer

Like many pitchers, Wheeler admits to having certain superstitions. One of them involves a fake cow named Homer.

A number of years ago, an organization donated a cow made of Papier-Mache to the Mt. SAC softball program. Nicknamed Homer, it became the team’s good luck charm and is present at every game.

During a win over Cerritos in the opener of the first-round playoffs earlier this month, Homer was kept near the dugout. Shortly before the second game the next morning, Wheeler noticed the cow had been moved to the hill beyond the outfield, where live cows typically graze. The Mounties lost, setting up the deciding game with a Super Regional berth at stake.

“I didn’t want to say anything (before the second game),” Wheeler recalled. “But we lost, and I said, “Okay, you guys, we need to take Homer and put it where it was before”.”

Homer returned to the dugout, and the Mounties advanced with a 4-0 win. Wheeler pitched seven strong innings of three-hit ball with three strikeouts.

Next fall, Wheeler will be joining a Hawaii Hilo program that has 30 winning seasons in 32 years. She’ll always be thankful to Mt. SAC for rejuvenating her career. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, she hopes to share her experiences and be a model of success for children and other young athletes to follow.

“I was nine when I was first (diagnosed),” Wheeler said. “I remember thinking: Gosh, am I going to be able to play softball or continue to do what I do? Look at me now; I’m perfectly fine.”

Every athlete takes a different path to success. With her life and softball career back on track, Wheeler is certainly qualified to inspire others to overcome their own challenges.