Joahan Lopez is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Heritage Academy Laveen for AZPreps365.com

Steve LaDrigue isn't just a three-time state championship-winning head coach for the Heritage Academy Laveen softball team. His players said, he’s meant more than that thanks to his softball club that he started to give back to the community. 

LaDrigue founded Team Hustle, not as a softball program, but as an outreach program to support at-risk kids in many California communities where he grew up.

“Where I grew up, we lost a lot of people that we loved to prison or drugs,” LaDrigue said. “Sports really kept me busy, so all these coaches that gave time to us. I look back and like, you know, I wanna do that.”

Years later, LaDrigue moved his family to Phoenix, where he became the head coach of the Heritage Academy Laveen softball team to coach his oldest daughter, he said.

LaDrigue said that during the 2017 season, a conversation motivated him to do more for his new community.

He had a girl on his team who was a natural athlete with elite speed. All that player was missing was the fundamentals of the game of softball, he said. 

LaDrigue asked the girl why she didn't play club softball, and she told him her family simply couldn't afford the typically high tuition sport. 

That conversation inspired LaDrigue to create a new version of Team Hustle – a softball club dedicated to helping girls play on an affordable travel softball team.

“I feel like God brought me here for that reason,” LaDrigue said. “That inspired me to start my own organization.”

LaDrigue said his mission started with one club but now has grown to have teams in four states and over 200 Team Hustle athletes.

“It was originally just to help girls from our side of town who didn’t have the finances for batting coaches and other resources,” LaDrigue said. “Then people saw what we were doing, and it grew. Now we have teams with players from all over the Valley.”

As freshmen, Sieana Soltero and Christina Martinez delivered coach LaDrigue his third state title last year. 

But their journey with him began long before that, as they both joined Team Hustle when they were still in elementary school.

Martinez said LaDrigue has helped her develop on and off the softball diamond.

“Coach D is not just focused on making his players better, but also better people,” Martinez said. “He's also helped me grow into his team and grow into a better person and he's helped me develop, by turning me into a lefty hitter and getting my arm stronger in the outfield.”

Soltero, who has been coached by LaDrigue for more than eight years, said that despite thier long history together, LaDrigue still pushes them to the max.

“He's still pretty hard on us, but we know it's out of love,” Soltero said.  “He's not afraid to point us out what's wrong or right and that just helps us to get better.”

Assistant coach Richard Madrid has been coaching alongside LaDrigue since 2017 for both Heritage Academy Laveen's softball team and Team Hustle.

“I think he has a mixture of everything. Believe it or not, he does have a soft side.” Madrid said about LaDrigue’s coaching style.

“His philosophy is kind of like a coach them hard, love them harder type deal. They know they have a job to do, that's why the minute they step on the field, they give him everything they have.”