HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — a few months ago, Nadia Martinez and her 16-year-old daughter,
Brianne Matthews, drifted into an accidental chat about activity and death.
Martinez is not abiding about what led to the discussion, but she acquainted a little odd aback Matthews calmly told her how she would like to be remembered afterwards she died.
“She capital her ashes to be brindled all over a softball acreage because that’s area she lived,” Martinez said about Matthews, who had a 14-4 casting almanac as a apprentice aftermost year for Mater Dei (Calif.) Aerial School. “It didn’t amount where. as continued as it was a softball acreage with a mound. That’s area she dominated.”
Always an overachiever, Matthews had gotten it done off and on the softball diamond. she agitated a 4.0 brand point boilerplate at academically testing Mater Dei and was committed to accompany a career as a neonatologist. Despite actuality alone a aerial academy sophomore, Matthews already had accustomed a full-ride academy scholarship action to comedy softball for civic assertive Arizona afterwards she accelerating in 2012. a phenom.
Socially? Forget about it. at 16, Matthews had accompany for days, acknowledgment to a activating personality and her huge softball following. Advised the no.1 adolescent casting anticipation in the nation, Matthews had a way for alluring crowds and had developed into a Pied Piper appearance for the sport.
for alien reasons, though, Matthews did not feel appropriate in this role and on Feb. 25, she asleep herself hours afterwards abiding home from softball practice.
a adverse catastrophe to a adolescent activity with so abundant promise.
An catastrophe that has larboard abounding changing questions.
“I don’t appetite to allocution about the suicide,” Martinez, who begin Matthews asleep at their Anaheim apartment, told FanHouse recently. “And I don’t appetite to allocution about what may accept led her … we can alone brainstorm and I don’t appetite to do that. no acknowledgment is activity to be acceptable enough.”
according to official reports, on the night of Matthews’ death, Anaheim blaze and badge were beatific to the family’s accommodation apropos a babe not breathing. Paramedics administered CPR to the babe and she was taken to a bounded hospital area she was arresting asleep at 8:22 p.m. PT.
The Orange County Coroner’s address disqualified Matthews’ afterlife a suicide, “by band hanging.”
“I don’t accept it was spontaneous,” said Bill Jackson, who accomplished Matthews for three years aback she played for the Firecrackers, a adolescence softball biking aggregation based in Orange County. “She was depressed. Aggregate you apprehend indicates to us that it was article that was anticipation out a little bit. she knew what to do and how to do it. … Teenagers and the internet nowadays. I don’t anticipate we’re anytime activity to apperceive why she did it.”
Last week, a continuing allowance alone army of added than 1,500 abounding an alfresco commemoration for Matthews at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, a multi-softball acreage armpit area abounding of her amateur were played.
High academy players and biking ballplayers were encouraged to abrasion their uniforms and best did. With a date set abaft additional abject and the butt of the softball design abounding with well-wishers, the afternoon acquainted added accolade than deathwatch as ancestors and accompany took time to allocution about Matthews, alleged Bri by ancestors and friends.
“Sometimes, you accommodated bodies and appropriate abroad you apperceive that they were declared to be there [in your life]…,” said Shannon Bustillos, a assistant on Orange County Batbusters, a biking aggregation Matthews abutting a year ago. “Anybody who knew Bri, knew that she was abounding with life, adulation and happiness. she had a beam that anybody could hear. a hug that could able anybody’s aback and a declivity [pitch] that cipher could hit.”
for Martinez, the commemoration was a applicable sendoff.
“We are demography it moment by moment and day by day,” Martinez said. “That’s absolutely all we can do. It’s unimaginable.”
“Bri aloof admired sports and she apparently got that from me … But she was different. she was actual driven. she competed in aggregate she did in life. she aloof went afterwards aggregate 100 percent and I don’t apperceive area she got that from. I don’t apperceive what her action was but she was actual actual motivated.
“That’s aloof who she was. if she was activity to bandy a ball, she was activity to bandy it harder and further than anybody else. if she was activity to hit it, she was activity to hit it harder and farther. I don’t apperceive … that’s aloof how she was made.”
Pressure of the Sport
News about Matthews’ afterlife catholic fast amid southern California’s softball followers, a association area anybody seems to apperceive anniversary other. and that’s because they basically do.
for years — from elementary academy to academy — the aforementioned accumulation of softball players and parents not alone comedy and biking calm but additionally attempt adjoin one addition on a approved base through academy teams, bounded esplanade leagues and biking squads.
“The softball association is a actual baby world,” said Jackson, who accomplished Matthews for three years with the Firecrackers. “The absolute country is on the phone, the internet and everywhere else. we are a actual in-touch community, alike admitting we are actual advance out geographically.”
It’s this blazon of ancestors ambiance that has added to the sadness. abounding families can chronicle to the demands that appear with the sport.
Cindy Kelly, whose babe Jenna started arena adjoin Matthews aback they were both nine, is one of those parents.
“It was aloof a abhorrent shock,” Kelly said about Matthews, who on the day of her suicide reportedly gave her able-bodied bag to a assistant and told her that she acceptable would not charge it the abutting day. “You don’t apperceive if she put too abundant burden on herself or what. But the affair is, she had so abundant activity for her. she had a full-ride for academy and a ablaze future. you aloof had to anticipate that aggregate was acceptable with her.”
some bodies complex in softball accept the sport’s ultra-competitive attributes has acquired into a above botheration for today’s players. Too abounding are alive beneath boxy affairs in hopes of authoritative it to the accomplished akin and that has added added burden to their lives.
“You apprehend that these kids accord up abounding abounding hours to advance their softball skills,” adept southern California softball adjudicator Paul Morines said. “They cede amusing time with friends. They absorb all weekend on the brawl field. some canicule they appetite to go home, but they can’t because they accept to play.
“I am consistently so afflicted in how these kids are accommodating to accord up so abundant of their time to address themselves to one action in adjustment to be a top cleft softball athlete. But that’s the alone way that you’re activity to get yourself a scholarship.”
according to Morines, that’s one acumen why Matthews was advised a hero to so many.
“These kids are adamantine amount and Bri was apparently the apotheosis of that blazon of ballplayer,” Morines said. “Everyone looked up to her as the archetypal for the charge that you bare to accomplish in adjustment to go to the accomplished rank as possible.
“I alone umpired one bold with her aftermost year and you could acquaint that she was one acute kid. she absolutely had a attendance on the field. she aloof stared you down. and you knew that she put in adamantine assignment to become so good.”
Always an All-Star
From adolescent age-old players to crusty, old coaches, it was consistently “The Bri Show” whenever Matthews was around. Dominating adeptness can allure that blazon of attention.
“Obviously we anticipation actual affectionately of Bri and her talents,” said Arizona Drillmaster Mike Candrea, who forth with his apprenticeship agents abounding Matthews’ tribute. “That’s why we capital her to be a Wildcat.
She capital to accomplish things in life. Aggregate she tried, she excelled at and physically, she could accept been a brilliant in any sport
– Bill Jackson, Former Drillmaster “She was such a actual appropriate athlete. a actual appropriate student. she formed actual adamantine to be the best at what she did.”
Umpire Mike Carver, who formed abundant amateur involving Matthews, said he will consistently bethink how she played.
“I’ve been about the bold for over 20 years and you can atom a kid with that abundant raw aptitude a mile away,” Carver said. “She was throwing at atomic 70 afar per hour, and that’s something. I apperceive some bodies may not accede but I anticipation [Bri] was as acceptable or bigger as [U.S. Olympic gold badge pitcher] Jenny Finch.”
Matthews — who grew up in a bashful ambiance with her sister, mother and stepfather, Diondre Price — played a array of sports. Afterwards absolute in aggregate from basketball to volleyball, she took to softball afterwards Martinez active her up for a bounded adolescence alliance aback she was 8.
“She didn’t apperceive what it was to go half-speed, literally, with annihilation that she did,” Martinez said about her daughter, who had a 0.94 ERA with 138 strikeouts in 107 innings aftermost division for Mater Dei.
“I bethink aback she was 8 or 9 years old and was aloof starting casting lessons. Her casting drillmaster at the time capital her to apathetic bottomward and feel what she was accomplishing with her pitching. so they confused her up afterpiece to the catcher and told her to booty her time so she could feel her pitch.
“But my babe couldn’t do it. she aloof could not apathetic down. she threw the brawl as if she was casting at abounding distance. That’s aloof how she was. Aggregate she did, she did it at abounding speed.”
It’s this never-back bottomward attitude that helped abstracted Matthews from her peers. she was accepted to access to convenance an hour aboriginal in adjustment to balmy up for warm-ups, and was consistently the aftermost actuality you capital to affiance a ride home afterwards practice.
That’s because Matthews additionally put in added time to assignment on her bold and generally advised her workouts aloof bisected over already convenance ended.
“She capital to accomplish things in life,” Jackson said. “Everything she tried, she excelled at and physically, she could accept been a brilliant in any sport.”
Matthews, who had a complete career ambition account by the time she began to comedy for Jackson aback she was 11, additionally accepted her toughest critic.
“Bri consistently had affectionate of a little billow in her life,” Jackson said. “She was a blessed kid who formed adamantine but she consistently had a little cloud. Personally, I don’t apperceive why. But it was there.”
at the accolade for Matthews, Jackson addressed rumors that accept amidst her death.
“People are adage altered things,” Jackson said. “They appear up to me and say, ‘Do you anticipate it was the pressure? do you anticipate it was the boyfriend? Whatever it was, it absolutely doesn’t amount now. so that’s what I didn’t appetite to do and that’s allocution about those issues. I was aggravating to accomplish the point that if you alike altercate what it ability be, you are lending acceptance that one of those affidavit ability be acceptable enough.”
It’s been the out-of-sight whispers that accept agitated Martinez the best back her daughter’s death.
“The toughest affair has been advancing to grips with the actuality that your adolescent is no best actuality and that you did your best but somehow that wasn’t enough,” Martinez said. “You can’t advice but anticipate about why you couldn’t do more.
“I apperceive that it’s apparently article that I should not accept done but to ample my time, I’ve apprehend all of the comments that bodies accept larboard on belief about her afterlife and on altered internet sites.
“Anybody that has done annihilation at the akin that [Bri] was at knows that you don’t get that acceptable after a claimed commitment. I apperceive that bodies like to brainstorm about burden actuality put on her but I would like to accent the actuality that there’s annihilation anyone can do to advance bodies to excel at the akin area she was.
“It takes a claimed charge and that’s the truth. you can’t accomplish bodies go run. you can’t accomplish them put in that added assignment to be great. … It’s article that she did. Article that she capital to be the best at.”
