It's not easy to be the head coach of a team that seems to be overflowing with talent. Just trying to keep 16 girls on a high school softball team happy seems to be the biggest challenge, let alone trying to keep a team motivated to strive for bigger things coming off two straight championships.

Somehow, Melissa Bugarin-Espinoza and her husband Moses were able to do all of those uneasy things for Port Of Los Angeles High softball.

After a 3-5 start that came about with two hard fought losses to King of Riverside and Foothill of Henderson, Nevada in the Torrance National Tournament, the Polar Bears would completely do an about face and win 25 of their final 28 games of the 2013 season, including capturing a third straight Crosstown League title with a 12-0 mark, and a third consecutive CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division 3 championship.

Taking on a grueling tournament schedule at Redondo Union High, the TNT, Las Vegas Spring Jamboree and El Segundo High, POLA ended up with a 28-8 overall record, taking on all comers, which even impressed Cal-Hi Sports enough to deem the Polar Bears the top ranked team in all of California for Division 5, which basically makes them mythical Division 5 State Champions.

It's for that reason that the Espinoza tag team is the 2013 News Pilot Prep Softball Coaches Of The Year for the second straight season.

In their historic 2013 season, POLA went up against some killer teams such as Centennial of Las Vegas, the Nevada State Champion, and Palo Verde of Las Vegas, the Nevada State runner-up. Ironically enough, those were the only two teams who defeated the Polar Bears in the Las Vegas Spring Jamboree, where the Polar Bears ended as the runner-up of the Silver Division with a 4-2 record.

Other notables POLA faced this season besides King and Foothill included the likes of Bay League champion Redondo Union, CIF-Southern Section Division 2 semifinalist Millikan of Long Beach, Verrado of Buckeye, Arizona, Empire of Tuscon, Arizona, and perennial City Section big school power Banning of Wilmington.

POLA was able to knock off Verrado, 3-1 in the TNT Tournament on March 22, blank Empire, 6-0 in the Las Vegas Spring Jamboree on March 28, and end Banning's 11-game winning streak with a stunning 4-3 win in the El Segundo Tournament on April 28. The victories over Empire and Banning were the two most sought after victories by the Espinoza husband-and-wife tandem.

Empire had two coaches in Laura Espinoza-Watson, who is Moses' sister, and Irma Espinoza, Moe's twin sister who was an assistant to Melissa in 2010, POLA's inaugural softball season when they weren't eligible for the City Section playoffs.

Melissa's coaching career got started through Laura, her sister-in-law and former Banning standout, in travel ball.

The victory over Banning had even more significant meaning since Moses was once the JV football coach for his alma mater, assistant coach Mark Miranda is another Banning alumni, and Jesse Espinoza, Moses' brother and Melissa's brother-in-law who coached Melissa when she starred at Mary Star in 1998, was a former coach at Banning who coached the Pilots to the 2006 City Section championship game with a share of the Marine League crown.

Melissa in her four years at POLA's coach has piled up a sparkling record of 83-25-1.

Overall, the Espinoza's, flanked by Jesse, Mark and Miguel Valencia, have all been paramount in keeping the team sharp in practices with grueling conditioning and extensive preparation while playing these powers, embracing the David role in all of them, all the while making sure the girls stay focused and maintain a level head as the overwhelming Goliath in the Crosstown League winning by a combined margin of 255-5.

It wasn't like POLA wanted to run the score up on their league foes either, as many of the teams in the league like Bright Star of Los Angeles and Animo Venice Charter were starting their first year of competition.

Meanwhile, it seemed like a mere formality that POLA would claim a third straight City Section Division 3 title to everyone else not involved in the program, but the Espinoza's made sure they reminded the team of the danger that lay ahead as the odds-on favorite to not underestimate any of the competition.

As the top seed of the tournament, the Polar Bears certainly played like it, destroying New Designs of Los Angeles, Legacy (South Region No.9) of South Gate and Valley Academy Arts & Sciences of Granada Hills in the first three rounds all by the CIF-LACS' 15-run, five-inning mercy rule, smacking an incredible 12 home runs in those three games winning by a total margin of 50-1.

The championship game itself on May 25 at Cal State Dominguez Hills against Northridge Academy, a team carrying a 20-0 record coming in, was a culmination of all the hard work they put in from last summer all the way to this moment in time.

Behind a blistering hitting attack, stifling defense and outstanding pitching from sophomore stud Nicolle Miranda, the Polar Bears would blitz the Pumas with a 12-0 lead through five innings before eventually winning their third straight Small Schools Division crown with a 16-3 triumph. Melissa would allow everyone who was healthy, get the chance to play, and several players contributed to the dominant result.

With the Polar Bears losing only catcher Brianna Grayson to graduation, and a talented freshman class coming into the program, who knows what kind of season they're capable of having for 2014 with the possibility of winning a fourth straight City title?

The inspiration is certainly there... expect the motivation to still be as strong as ever from the Espinoza's too.