Wearing Many Hats

Sara Prokop Loves Baseball, Coaching and Motherhood

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

If someone were to ask Sara Prokop what she is most passionate about  she would likely name three things: being a mom, being a coach and baseball. After all, those are what take up most of her time these days— and she is perfectly happy with that.

Although she didn’t even know it the mom of three boys did something historic in the spring. As head coach of the Pinto Division Tigers in the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association, she piloted her team to the World Series championship—a feat no woman had pulled off in 42 years!

“The best part for me was being able to share that experience with my twins [Ben and Joe],” Prokop said after the Tigers’ thrilling 9-8 triumph over the American League rival Royals in the clinching game May 31. “All the rest was like icing on the cake.”

Prokop has also been an assistant coach for her boys’ PPBA All-Star teams this summer—Ben and Joe on the 8U squad and her oldest son Jack on the 10U, which hosted the Pony Section 1 playoffs June 29-July 3 at the Field of Dreams. The 8Us lost in the finals of the District 4 playoffs in Newbury Park, won the Section 2 playoffs in Simi Valley, lost in the finals of the Region playoffs (also in Simi Valley) and qualified for last weekend’s Super Region Tournament at Morrison Park in Moreno Valley. Palisades took second place in its pool and advanced into the eight-team elimination bracket—a remarkable month-long run.
“I have five brothers—two older and three younger—and we all grew up playing together, so it’s in the blood,” Prokop said. “My oldest brother  [Juan Cueva] is the head coach at West Torrance High and he’s my mentor.    

Whenever I’ve got a question about the game he’s the first person I seek for advice. He’s always a phone call away. The sport came natural to me. I was always playing against the boys.”

Prokop grew up in Culver City and started playing travel softball with the South Bay Sensation when she was 11. From the ages of 13-15 she switched to Batbusters in Orange County and competed with or against

several players who would eventually star on the USA Olympic team, including Jenny Finch, Jessica Mendoza and Stacey Nuveman.

“Looking back the coolest thing about club was seeing all the girls I played with in the Olympics,” Prokop said. “I was never interested in that. I knew softball wasn’t going to be my life. My end goal was getting through college and starting a career and eventually a family.”

Prokop started as the varsity catcher as a freshman at Culver City High and played all four years for the Centaurs, graduating in 1997. She was recruited by Cal State Northridge, where she enjoyed four seasons with the Matadors at the NCAA Division I level under coach Janet Sherman.

 She enjoyed being an assistant for Jack’s Pinto Red Sox and Mustang Tigers teams and decided the time was right to coach her younger boys.

“Jack was fortunate to have great coaching while Ben and Joe were at a vulnerable age mentally and physically where they still need to learn and I wanted them to have the proper foundation.”

Ben and Joe are 8 years old and going into third grade at St. Matthew’s Parish School. Jack is 10 and going into fifth grade.

Prokop is the first female head coach to guide her team to a PPBA title since Carol Wallin coached her son’s Intermediate Division Expos to the championship in 1980. Reflecting on the Pinto Tigers’ 2022 season, Prokop sensed the team gelling by the time the postseason rolled around.         

“I knew we were going to practice extremely hard and the boys turned out to be very coachable,” Prokop said. “What separated them in the end was their mental toughness. In our first game we had nine strikeouts. In the last one we had zero. It shows how much more disciplined we were at the plate. Before the championship game I pulled the kids into a circle and told them to put up their invisible bubble and don’t put the fans or the other team into our bubble. It’s for us. Every inning stay in that bubble and it worked. The gift was seeing them all celebate.”

Ben played second base for the Tigers while Joe was right beside him at shortstop and threw to first base for the final out. Prokop kept the morale high after the Tigers dropped four of their first six games and her mother’s intuition sparked the team to 14 wins in its last 15 games­­.

A former film editor is now a full-time mom and Prokop moved to the Palisades with her husband in 2008.

“I was working in Hollywood and he was working with the studios,” she recalled. “We were living in the Bel Air area and we looked for five years. We found a property in Santa Monica Canyon, built the house and we’ve been there ever since.”

The Prokops are members are Riviera Country Club and all three boys golf. They also play AYSO and Sara assists with that but is not quite as involved: “I try to take that time of year off,” she joked.

Coaching the All-Stars this summer was a “blast” and Prokop was proud of how the players adjusted from machine to live pitching.

Her boys grew up playing with Ryder Wald, the son of head coach Darren Wald, who has seen Prokop coach and asked if she wanted to help coach the 8Us when she was not with the 10Us. Of course, she could not resist.

Rounding out the 8U All-Star team were Zack Haynie, Jake Jaret, Luke Roozen, Dash Mastantuono, River Baskauskas, Ryan Binder, Brandon Gimelstob, Nicole Sacks, Will Feil, Luke Johnson, Owen Tyler and Daniel Gruft. The other two assistant coaches were Adam  Jaret and Cory Johnson.

Jaret was an assistant coach for the Pinto Royals, so he saw first hand how Prokop’s team responded to her: “All of our games with them were super close and Sara did a great job with the Tigers. They were strong up the middle with her sons Ben and Joe. They were like Hoover vacuum cleaners—they just sucked up everything hit their way!”

Prokop finds coaching baseball much like motherhood—difficult at times but ultimately rewarding:

“For me, the success is watching them develop into strong, confident individuals. You may have three opportunities at bat in a game and if you fail, come back to the dugout with your head high because you’ll get a chance to make up for it in an inning or two. That’s the beauty of baseball—it teaches so many life lessons. As a coach it’s a delicate balance—especially with your own kids. You have a level of expectation and if they’re not meeting it, even if it’s not what you want, you have to know when to step back. There’s a balance between being a parent and a coach. Once you step between the white lines you’re not a parent anymore.”