It’s Matador country at the Loomis home.

Junior Whitney Loomis was once a pitcher for the Mira Loma High School Matadors.

But now she patrols the middle infield at second base for the Sacramento State Hornets softball team.

A 2005 graduate, Loomis is entering her third year with the Hornets and is prepared to help lead the team in achieving its goal of winning the Pacific Coast Softball Conference championship.

Two and a half years removed from high school, Loomis has been under the leadership of Hornets head coach Kathy Strahan.

Previously, Loomis had been coached by her father, Mike, for 10 years.

Her father, a 1977 graduate of Mira Loma, got into coaching softball when Whitney was 9 years old.

“I’ve always wanted to coach and I just stepped in to help, then I gradually got into it,” Mike said about how his coaching career started.

At the age of nine, Whitney watched her cousin play for the California Breeze softball team, and thought it would be a fun sport to play.

And to this day she still loves it.

“I like the fact that it’s a team sport, and that I get to be competitive,” Loomis said. “The team atmosphere is like a family.”

While at Mira Loma, Whitney played four years on the varsity squad, leading her team to a Sac-Joaquin Section runner-up finish in her senior season.

Her father is currently entering his sixth year as the Mira Loma head softball coach.

“It’s almost a faith thing?it has been nice being able to build a program at my alma mater,” Loomis said.

While Whitney played on teams coached by her father, she knew he wasn’t going to favor her in any way.

“I had to work twice as hard as everyone else, and he had high expectations for me,” Loomis said.

Having a father be the head coach of his daughter’s high school softball team can be seen as awkward, but Mike sees it differently.

“It was just like having any other coach on the field,” Loomis said.

Whitney benefited greatly from having her father as her coach for so long because she took advantage of all the learning opportunities she was exposed to.

“Having him as a coach helped a lot, because he took me to and from practice and he was always there when I needed him,” Loomis said. “Having your dad as coach just makes you more into the game.”

Whitney’s current coach sees certain attributes she has resulting from having her father as a coach and simply being around the game as much as she has.

“What’s most notable is her understanding of coaching and team management issues?no doubt because she’s been around it at home,” Strahan said.

Strahan recalls Whitney’s freshman year when it seemed every opportunity she got to play she would suffer an injury that sidelined her.

“It just didn’t seem fair, but she persevered and look at her now,” Strahan said.

Last season Loomis appeared in 40 games, including 35 starts at second base, earning an honorable mention all-PCSC selection.

In a series against Santa Clara last season, Loomis went 7-for-12 at the plate with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

Loomis is able to adapt to the way she is playing in a game, and that determines whether she favors batting or fielding.

“If I’m not hitting well then I like fielding more, but I love them both equally,” Loomis said.

Hornets assistant softball coach Cara Hoyt believes that second base is a difficult position with lots of different tasks.

“Whitney handles this position very well, she is smart, solid defensively, hard working and a great communicator,” Hoyt said.

There is a large amount of mental toughness needed to play softball because of the various things going on as part of the game.

“I find myself thinking all the time during a game,” Loomis said.

At the age of 16, Loomis began to feel burnt out by the amount of softball in her life; it stopped being fun because of the stress being placed on the importance of being signed, Loomis said.

“Now that I look back, I wouldn’t give it up for anything?softball is my passion,” Loomis said.

Whitney’s father was also an athlete while at Mira Loma; he played baseball, football and basketball.

Mike has been a role model for Whitney as she has grown up.

“He was a great athlete in his time,” Loomis said as to why her father is one of her role models.

A business administration major, Loomis hopes to one day work for a big business and eventually open up her own day spa.

The Loomis family will add another Mira Loma alumnus, when Whitney’s younger brother graduates at the end of the year.

Jose Martinez can be reached at [email protected]