“He’s got a great game,” Falcons teammate Andrew Pita says. “He’s just one of those guys that’s naturally athletic and he puts in all the hard work on top of that that just puts him over the edge.”
From the beginning of his days at Crescenta Valley, Kauppila’s talent made him a varsity mainstay.
“He was there as a freshman because he could play shortstop,” Falcons Coach Phil Torres says. “That’s a tough spot to play.”
For the most part, Kauppila was a backup to then-All-Area shortstop Bryan Longpre, but that all changed in his sophomore season.
Kauppila became an All-Area and All-Pacific League selection, leading the league-champion Falcons with a .355 average.
As a junior, he notched the first of two All-LA84 (previously All-CIF) honors, doing more than his share as Crescenta Valley ran roughshod through the Pacific League and advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division II quarterfinals. Once more he led his team with a .494 average and tallied team-highs of 28 runs batted in, 23 runs and 10 doubles.
His RBI numbers, no doubt a foreshadowing of his senior season, were all the more impressive when considering Kauppila batted leadoff.
“In seven-inning games, you gotta put that guy in the one-hole,” Torres says.
Heading into his senior year, Kauppila would once again settle into his familiar spots in the middle of the Crescenta Valley defense and atop the Falcons lineup. But Kauppila was left to take the reins of a new-look Crescenta Valley squad that had lost mainstays like Dustin Emmons, Chad Nacapoy, Kam Krise and Chris Johnson.
