Obituaries
Peninsula High Mourns Baseball Coach Fatally Injured In Accident
Coach Brett Mendoza died Saturday after sustaining traumatic head injuries from a March 4 traffic accident. He was 31.
PALOS VERDES, CA – Brett Mendoza, head coach of the freshman Peninsula High School baseball team, died Saturday after sustaining traumatic head injuries from a March 4 traffic accident, according to Daily Breeze. He was 31. Mendoza was surrounded by his "beloved family friends, fellow coaches, players, and baseball community" when in the hospital, according to a GoFundMe set up to pay for medical bills.
Before his death, family friend Lyndsay Smith asked everyone to "keep up the prayers and healing energy," on the fundraising page. Mendoza was an alumni of Peninsula High and lived in Redondo Beach, according to Daily Breeze. He played baseball for Loyola Marymount University before joining the coaching staff at Peninsula High. In 2016, he started as the assistant coach for the freshman team, then the assistant coach for the varsity team, before becoming the head coach of the freshman team this year, the newspaper reported.
“He was tough on our kids,” Brian Bowles, the head varsity coach at Peninsula, told Daily Breeze. “He challenged them to work hard and do better, but he was also like a big brother to them.”
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The team will say a few words in Mendoza's honor before partaking in a moment of silence at Wednesday's game. The team will also hold a jersey retirement ceremony for his number seven, according to Daily Breeze.
Mendoza also coached middle-schoolers, and was a big part of Christine Cojulun-Barot's children's lives. Together, her sons' travel ball team travelled to Arizona, New York, and Nevada with Mendoza, she said.
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"He was loved by our kids who are now mourning him," Barot said. "They spent so many awesome moments with Brett on and off the field."
Mendoza’s wife Savannah was also in the car when the accident occurred on the border of Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach, but escaped without serious injury, the newspaper reported.
Mendoza is survived by his wife, his parents, Martha and Rudy Mendoza, and his sister, Lauren. The GoFundMe is available here. A service will be held at 1 p.m. March 22 at St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, according to Daily Breeze.
Photo courtesy of GoFundMe; GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.
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