Sports are the backbone of Tulare’s Freitas family.
Sisters Jiannah and Jaksyn Freitas had starring roles for the Tulare Union High School softball team this season, anchoring the Tribe to an outright West Yosemite League championship and 14 wins.
Only a freshman, Jaksyn led Tulare Union in hits (39) during her breakout campaign.
Jiannah, a sophomore, was the team’s leading hitter with a .500 batting average.
Together, the Freitas sisters were responsible for nearly 25% of the team’s hits this spring.
The foundation for that success traces back to their parents, dad, JohnC, and mom, Jocelyn.
JohnC was a star baseball player at Lemoore High School before going on to play at College of the Sequoias and at the NCAA Division I level with Sacramento State. He is currently the athletic director at Lemoore.
Mom, Jocelyn, has coached at Tulare Union and is a former Tribe standout in softball and volleyball who played volleyball collegiately at Fresno Pacific.
“Our parents have played a big part, helping us stay committed,” Jiannah said. “They’re always offering us tips. If we needed anything new, giving us the tools and the training that we need. We never really had individual coaches, like for infield or batting. We had our parents. They were our coaches. They both played ball, so they know.”
‘Sports definitely run in our blood’
Sports are in the Freitas DNA.
The sisters’ great uncle, George Freitas, is a former record-setting tight end at Redwood. Freitas went on to become a star football player at Cal, where in 1978 he was drafted in the eighth round by the Chicago Bears.
And their uncle, Kevin Brown, is in his second tenure as Tulare Union’s baseball coach. He was drafted out of COS in the 36th round by the California Angels in 1987, but went on to play in college at Cal, where the Bears advanced to the 1988 College World Series.
JohnC also served as Lemoore’s head baseball coach last season when the Tigers won the Central Section Division IV championship. He was the Tulare Union head baseball coach from 2015-17.
“Sports definitely run in our blood,” JohnC said.
That’s a big reason why the Freitas parents trained their daughters for sports from a young age.
Jiannah and Jaksyn both also play varsity volleyball at Tulare Union, where both were among the team’s leaders in kills.
In the winter, Jiannah was a starter on Tulare Union’s record-setting girls basketball team that advanced to the Central Section Division IV championship game and the CIF State Division IV regional semifinals.
On the basketball court, Jiannah helped the Tribe win 25 games and enjoy their best season in school history.
Dad and Mom were the sisters’ first coaches.
“I think it’s a great thing,” Jaksyn said. “I know a lot of kids aren’t really blessed with that privilege, and I think that really helps. If you do something wrong, you know who to go to, and they’ll approach you with a good attitude to calm you down and all that.”
‘Complete hitters’
The Freitas sisters put up phenomenal offensive numbers during Tulare Union’s championship season.
Both batted better than .400, with Jiannah leading the team with a .500 batting average. Jaksyn hit .419.
The sisters also combined for 65 runs. Jaksyn led the squad with 34 runs, and Jiannah had 31 runs.
“It was pretty special just watching them compete individually last year, and all their accomplishments were cool, but to see them now together competing and having success, it’s hard to put into words,” Dad JohnC said. “But one thing I notice is, each time one of them gets a clutch hit or hits a home run, the other one is the first one out of the dugout to celebrate their success.”
The sisters have power, too.
Jiannah launched 18 extra-base hits with 11 doubles, a triple, and six home runs.
Jaksyn?
She finished her freshman year with 19 RBIs, 10 doubles, a triple, and four round-trippers.
Through two seasons, Jiannah has 17 career home runs. According to Central Section historian Bob Barnett, the Tulare City High School softball home run record is 33 homers, held by former Mission Oak and Oregon State standout Mariah Mazon.
Mazon is now the Director of Player Development at Fresno State.
In March, Jiannah unleashed a home run in three straight games. That resulted in wins over Pioneer Valley, Shafter, and Bakersfield Christian.
The sisters both hit home runs in the same game this season, each going yard in a 14-9 loss to Dinuba on May 8. That game featured an astounding nine homers, six by the Emperors.
“It’s pretty neat knowing they’re just one swing away from changing the dynamic of the game,” JohnC said. “We worked a lot with them to be complete hitters, to be able to hit for average and hit the ball at all fields, especially knowing that once they start hitting home runs, teams are going to start pitching away, pitch around them. They both have done a great job of just understanding what it means to be a complete hitter.”
Sister, sister
Tulare Union got off to a slow start this season, with several team members playing basketball until early March.
That resulted in a 2-10 record.
But when Jiannah and the rest of the basketball players returned, including senior Kayloni Cox, the Tribe turned it around.
Tulare Union concluded the regular season winning 12 of its final 15 regular-season games, highlighted by an 8-2 run in WYL action.
During that stretch, the Tribe put together a seven-game league win streak.
The Freitas sisters helped direct that success.
During league competition, Jiannah hit .567 with 14 RBIs, six doubles, a triple, and a pair of home runs. Jaksyn slugged .375 while producing seven RBIs, six doubles, a triple, and three homers as Tulare Union’s lead-off hitter.
Jaksyn is also the team’s centerfielder.
“Her I.Q. of the game and stuff is just amazing,” Tulare Union head coach Carl Bivens said of Jaksyn. “That’s the thing that has really made a difference for us is — she’s picked up the team a lot, diving and making big catches. Every game, she’s robbing something. That really picks up the team.”
Jiannah pitched, too, and finished the WYL gauntlet with a 3-0 record. She had six strikeouts in 11 innings. When she’s not in the circle, Jiannah is the Tribe’s starting shortstop.
“She’s a next-level player,” Bivens said of Jiannah. “She’s just a natural player. She doesn’t have to say much, but she has total confidence. It’s there. To have both sisters being a freshman and a sophomore, being such natural leaders is huge. It really is. I can’t even explain how much fun it is to coach them and how much it means to me that they get along, because not all sisters get along. At the same time, the team is there for them. Just like those two are there for the team. I’ve got to say, those two have really made this season very, very enjoyable.”
How did the Freitas sisters both get so good at softball?
“Honestly, growing up, we were just around the game,” Jaksyn said. “It’s different watching than playing. Our parents really helped us with our I.Q. and all that. They pushed us a lot. They always made sure we knew what to do in situations, hitting, defense, everything, knowing your surroundings and all that.”
What’s it like to play with your sister?
“It’s been lovely,” Jiannah said. “As soon as she got on the team, I knew she was going to compete. It’s nice having fellow competitors, especially when it’s a sister. It’s really nice.”
Jiannah, who also broke out last year as a freshman with 11 home runs, anticipated her sister to follow in her footsteps.
“As soon as my season ended last year, I knew she could do the exact same thing, if not better,” Jiannah said. “That’s why I was so excited for her coming in. I knew what the future held for her, and it was really high. I was so excited for this season, and it’s been great.”
Because of Tulare Union’s deep playoff run in girls basketball, Jaksyn didn’t get to practice and play full-time with her sister until about mid-March.
But when the two were able to take the field at the same time, the Tribe took off.
That started with a three-game win at the Bakersfield Tournament and morphed into 12 victories in the Tribe’s final 16 games.
“She’s always there to support me,” Jaksyn said of her older sister Jiannah. “We push each other, like, if we’re getting down on ourselves, we’re like, ‘Hey, none of that. The game is still going.’ It’s just we constantly push each other to be better, and I think that’s one of the reasons we’re so good.”
The Freitas have another sister to lean on, too, in Jayda, a senior at Tulare Union.
Jayda didn’t fall in love with sports like her other two younger siblings, but she’s a standout student who has served as the Tribe’s Associated Student Body president. She was also a cast member of Tulare Union’s performing arts group that performed “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
In 2025, Jayda was named Youth of the Year by the Tulare Chamber of Commerce and the Tulare Noon Rotary.
Jayda will also follow a family tradition in college, becoming the third generation in her family to attend Cal.
“I know my uncle George would be so proud of her,” JohnC said.
JohnC, who has also served as the athletic director at Dinuba, helped lead Lemoore baseball to a historic season last year, as the Tigers won the program’s first section title. Lemoore High was founded in 1901.
“I think my success as a coach was learning about transformational coaching and the impact that you can have on kids and their lives,” JohnC said. “Just using sports as a means to be able to achieve that. Just giving kids a safe space to be able to take risks and not be afraid to fail. I think that has kind of bled into the girls as well. I want them to play with all they have and not worry about the fear and consequences of failure. I think they’re more likely to take that risk and play with confidence.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Freitas sisters’ championship softball success is a family affair
Reporting by Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
