His mother, after all, had grinded out her own extra innings to see him through the most trying baseball season of his life.
Gaucho coach Andrew Checketts was amazed every time Jennifer Bremner gutted through her own grim challenge to make the 200-plus-mile journey to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium to watch her son pitch.
But by early May, her stage-4 breast cancer had made that impossible.
“She was awesome,” Checketts told Noozhawk. “There isn’t any doubt in Tyler’s mind how much his mom cared about him and loved him, and was fighting to hang in there until the draft.”
Jennifer Bremner proudly displays the portrait that her young son, Tyler, drew of her in this photograph taken about 15 years ago. Credit: Bremner family photo
Tyler tearfully hugged his father, Jason, and sisters Hailey and Sierra, while celebrating with a roomful of relatives and friends when Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred made the televised announcement:
The Los Angeles Angels took UCSB’s star righthander with the No. 2 overall pick, confounding every expert who had constructed a mock draft.
Just a week earlier, the Bremners’ circle of family and friends had gathered for a different kind of celebration: the one of his mother’s life.
Jennifer Bremner had made it all the way through her son’s final Gaucho season before dying on June 11. She was just 54.
“I know she’s watching over me, and I know she’s so proud of me,” Bremner said during a video call with the news media. “She was honestly one of my biggest supporters.
“She came out to all the games, and all the way up to the point where her body wouldn’t let her anymore.
“I know she’s out there watching.”
Sophomore Sensation
Bremner had been closely watched by MLB scouts and executives ever since his Gaucho season of 2024.
His win-loss record of 11-1, earned-run average of 2.54 and strikeout-to-walk ratio of 104-to-21 in 88⅔ innings ranked among college baseball’s best that season.
Bremner continued to flash elite stuff that summer — a fastball that touched 98 mph and a changeup that scouts rated as the best of the entire 2025 draft class — during a nearly flawless stint with Team USA’s collegiate team.
UCSB pitcher Tyler Bremner did not allow a run during his stint with Team USA’s national collegiate baseball team last summer. Credit: Team USA Baseball photo
But other “stuff” happened when autumn bled into winter.
“He’d been a little sore, throwing-wise, so we shut him down,” Checketts said. “And then he got sick.
“He got sick in November and December and lost 12 pounds. I don’t know what it ended up being. Bronchitis?
“He’d get a little better and then it would come back. So we sent him home.”
Bremner’s world took a tragic turn for the worse when he got there.
A physical examination just before Christmas revealed that his mother’s cancer had spread from her lungs and was now present throughout her body.
The diagnosis was a death sentence.
It thrust her son back to that terrible year of 2020 — during the early days of COVID-19 — when her condition was first identified as stage 2 breast cancer.
“He had to move out because his mom was going through chemo, and he was going to school (at Scripps Ranch High School),” Checketts said.
“She beat it, and then it came back after his freshman year here at UCSB.”
The weight of the world descended upon Bremner’s thinning, 6-foot-4 frame again last winter just as he was trying to reclaim his strength.
Checketts took it slow when his ace returned to campus in January.
“We knew that with the ramp-up, it was really important to be cautious and careful,” he said. “He didn’t have a full fall, and then he fell far behind physically in December.
“If he said he had a hangnail, I was freaking out.
“If he said he was sore or tired, he was done for the day.”
Starts and Stops
Checketts didn’t let Bremner pitch long enough in his first two starts in mid-February — three innings in each — to get official credit for the win in lopsided games against Campbell and Seattle.
And then the losses came when UCSB entered Big West Conference play. He suffered three in a row from mid-March to early April as the Gauchos’ Friday starter.
Bremner’s worst outing came on March 28 when Long Beach State thumped him for eight hits and six runs — five earned — in the first 3⅔ innings of a 9-6 defeat at Blair Field.
“He was behind on his breaking ball,” Checketts said. “He hadn’t gotten a lot of touches with it until mid-January.
“His command wasn’t very sharp. He was throwing a lot of fastballs down the middle.”
UCSB pitcher Tyler Bremner, with parents Jennifer and Jason, clutches the Big West Conference baseball championship trophy after the Gauchos clinched the 2024 title. Credit: UCSB Athletics photo
The Gauchos’ league record plummeted to 5-8 by the time Bremner lost a 1-0 pitcher’s duel to UC Davis on April 4.
“There was a lot of pressure on him, and a lot of it was in terms of the draft,” Checketts said. “He wasn’t super-sharp when he came out of the gates.
“It’s hard, between starts, to be counting the money you’re losing, or think about how that can affect you.
“He didn’t verbalize that, but he’s human.”
By midseason, Bremner’s ERA had risen to 4.24 — and all projections of him as a top-five draft pick had vanished.
“Getting away from the field in those moments wasn’t any less stressful because of what was going on with his mom,” Checketts said.
“For a while there, he didn’t have anywhere to turn in terms of relief from the pressure.”
“I feel like I am swimming in the ocean, desperately trying to get to shore, but the current is too strong and is relentlessly pulling me back out to sea,” she wrote. “I don’t know what my future holds or how much time I have left.
“I don’t know if there will come a day when I no longer want to endure the pain and suffering without the desired result.
“For now, I persevere through the treatment and sickness hoping for brighter days and more time with my loved ones.”
Her son found his own refuge at about the same time. It was atop the baseball mound.
Tyler Bremner and his mother, Jennifer, take in a San DIego Padres game at Petco Park more than a decade ago. Credit: Bremner Family photo
“He started throwing the ball better halfway through the season,” Checketts pointed out. “It felt like the field was the place where he could disengage a bit from the off-the-field stress.
“It was where he could go and focus on something else.”
The strikeouts increased as he gained strength and worked through his mechanics.
He whiffed at least 10 batters in six of his last seven starts. He had reached that number in none of his first seven appearances.
Bremner finished the season with a career-best 111 strikeouts. His average of 12.91 per nine innings ranked fifth nationally.
His three-year total of 295 strikeouts broke UCSB’s career record set 42 years ago by Dan Yokubaitis.
“A big thing for me was just getting the arm on time and keeping the fastball riding through the zone,” Bremner said. “I think the only time I ran into some trouble this year was when the arm was a tick late.
“Once I got the arm in sync and started to see the four seam (fastball) go by bats, you just compete out there … It starts flowing and you start rolling, and you feed off the energy of those positive starts.”
The rocket fuel in his right arm, Bremner admitted, was ignited by “the negative energy” of his mother’s illness.
“As she got worse, that’s when I got stronger on the field,” he said.
He felt like he was “pitching angry … or pitching for her … pitching for something bigger than myself.”
Bremner flared up into a nearly untouchable tempest when his mom’s worsening condition forced her to miss his final three outings.
He struck out 33 batters and allowed just three runs in those three games.
Striking Back
His ERA had improved from 4.24 to 3.49 by season’s end. He struck out 35.6% of the batters he faced in his 14 starts and walked only 6.1%.
And yet, his position in most mock drafts barely changed. ESPN and MLB.com both listed him as the No. 18 pick in their final projections.
“They did an article on him that did a deeper dive into his season,” Checketts said. “They pointed out that, ‘Yeah, his ERA was a little inflated, but his WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) was actually the best of his career.’
“His chase rate was the best of his career. His walk rate was the best of his career.
“They broke down his stuff to show that his average velocity was up.
“I thought they did a good job of giving some context to his year.”
UCSB pitcher Tyler Bremner finished his three-year Gaucho career with a win-loss record of 21-9, an earned-run average of 3.58, and a school-record 295 strikeouts. Credit: Jeff Liang / UCSB Athletics photo
The Angels did a deep dive of their own
“They scouted him a lot,” Checketts said. “They spent some time with him before the draft … He went down to Angel Stadium the week before.
“They got a chance to meet him.”
Nobody was more impressed with Bremner’s makeup than Angels’ scouting director Tim McIlvaine.
“When you sit and you talk to him, you realize the weight that he had lost over the summer, dealing with everything, and then being able to finally put it back on and get going,” McIlvaine said.
“Once you sit down and talk through the whole situation with him, it kind of puts all those worries to bed for us.”
He said he’d put the second half of Bremner’s season “up against anybody in the country.”
Bremner also fit the mold of many of the Angels’ previous first-round picks: college players who can make a quick ascension to the majors.
An elite changeup, McIlvaine said, should give Bremner that opportunity.
“Whenever he’s in trouble, he can go to that changeup,” he said. “He can get outs with that.
“We like his fastball outs with the 98 (mph).
“He’s 6-foot-4 and he’s going to put on more weight still. There’s a lot that you can really dream on.”
Moneyball
Bremner’s lower projections in the mock drafts also enabled the Angels to sign him last week at a bargain price. His bonus of $7,689,525 was more than $2.5 million less than the slot value of a No. 2 pick.
The savings have helped the club sign several other top draftees — high school stars who had the negotiating leverage of a college scholarship offer — to contracts well above their own slot values.
But the machinations of big-league baseball economics haven’t diminished the spiritual lift that Bremner felt when the Angels called his cell phone moments before Manfred announced their pick.
He pulled the phone away from his ear, turned toward his father and choked out the words.
“I’m going to get picked here.”
When the cheering subsided, Bremner admitted to feeling emotionally “overwhelmed” by it all.
“I don’t think this was really something that we thought was a possibility up until really recently, so it was definitely a shock,” he said, “and that’s the emotions coming out.”
Tyler Bremner’s mother, Jennifer, battled breast cancer for five years before she died on June 11. Her celebration of life was held barely a week before her son was selected by the Los Angeles Angels as the No. 2 pick of the Major League Baseball Draft. Credit: Bremner family photo
“Saying goodbye to you has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life,” he wrote. “Why did this evil disease have to come into the life of such a pure-hearted soul?
“Somehow through all this pain, darkness and suffering there is light. This light will forever shine through the memories I got to experience with her and what she has taught me through the years.”
He continued the message by pointing out how she had “lived her life for me and my sisters.”
“Truly a selfless mother who wanted nothing but the best for her kids,” Bremner wrote. “A proud mom who made me feel loved with every small accomplishment along the way.”
Bremner signed off with the words, “Rest easy my angel.”
And now he is an Angel himself, perhaps in more ways than one.
“I want to spread awareness about cancer,” he told one of his interviewers. “I want to be a good person just as much as I want to be a good baseball player.
We’ve got Thursday night football to kick off Week 1 around the Garden State as JSZ brings you three games from the gridiron. Princeton and Allentown meet in a Mercer County thriller, Demarest looks to start strong against Bergen Tech plus Washington Township tries to reach 2-0 against Pennsauken in the WJFL. Check back as the highlights are posted throughout the night!
Down 6-0, senior Ellinton Hinds who already had an interception on the first drive of the game, made one of the best catches in all of New Jersey high school football so far this season to keep Princeton (2-0) undefeated in 2025. Hinds had two leaping catches from QB Quinton deFaria, who threw for 109 yards and a TD. The Tigers beat Allentown (0-2) for the first time since 2005 and look to keep their win streak alive with a Week 2 matchup against Ewing.
JSZ’s Tyler Mroz has the highlights + reaction from Allentown:
Jersey Sports Zone’s coverage of Princeton and Allentown is brought to you by Princeton Orthopaedic Associates.
The Minutemen took care of business in their home opener by racing out to a 35-0 halftime lead and cruising the rest of the way. Colin Beeler scored a pair of touchdowns to lead a bruising rushing attack in the victory. Paris Pratt hauled in a touchdown and added a fumble return touchdown for Washington Township (2-0). Pennsauken (1-1) will look to bounce back next Thursday against Highland.
JSZ’s James Mooney has the highlights from Sewell:
Jersey Sports Zone’s coverage of Washington Township is made possible by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
With lead running back Reed Kauderer unavailable for the majority of the game, the Norsemen needed their other playmakers to step up. They ultimately answered the bell. Quarterback Joseph Yun accounted for three total touchdowns as Demarest (1-0) begins their 2025 season with a bang. Daejuan Joseph caught a pair of touchdown passes in the win. Bergen Tech (0-1) will now turn their focus to a game against Ferris next week.
JSZ’s Sean Dugan has the highlights from Little Ferry:
Five games dotted the high school football schedule Thursday night.
In Class AA, Butte stormed past Billings Skyview 33-13 on the road while Missoula Sentinel knocked off No. 3 Great Falls CMR 6-0. A big showdown in 8-Man lived up to its billing as No. 3 Fort Benton beat No. 2 Belt 24-22.
Check out the highlights and details below:
CLASS AA
Missoula Sentinel 6, No. 3 Great Falls CMR 0
After a scoreless first half, Sentinel struck with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Rudy Hess to Kyler Haslam. That ended up being the game’s only score, as the Spartans’ defense kept Great Falls CMR off the scoreboard entirely.
WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS:
Missoula Sentinel knocks off No. 3 Great Falls CMR in defensive slugfest
Sentinel held CMR to six first downs, and 0-for-9 showing on third down and 132 total offensive yards. The Spartans’ Jake Boggust recovered a fumble on a promising CMR drive in the fourth quarter that helped preserve the shutout.
Butte 33, Billings Skyview 13
Hudson Luedtke caught three touchdown passes from Brooks Vincent to lead Butte to a road victory. Peyton Johnson had a scoring run and Jaeger Hansen returned an interception for a TD as the Bulldogs built a sizable first-half lead.
WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS:
Butte picks up convincing win at Billings Skyview
The Falcons got their points on two touchdown passes from Jaxon Zagata to Jackson Carter.
At halftime, Skyview celebrated the 30th anniversary of its 1995 state title team. That year, the Falcons went 11-1 under coach Rob Lebsock and won the Class AA championship with a 27-20 victory over Bozeman.
MTN Sports
The 1995 state champion Billings Skyview Falcons are honored at Daylis Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Billings.
8-MAN
No. 3 Fort Benton 24, No. 2 Belt 22
Truman Giese’s fourth-quarter touchdown and two-point conversion gave Fort Benton the lead and two defensive takeaways in the final minutes helped maintain it as Fort Benton knocked off Belt in a ranked matchup.
WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS:
No. 3 Fort Benton knocks off No. 2 Belt in 8-Man showdown
Blake Waldner set an early tone for the Huskies with a 29-yard touchdown run, but Giese scored from 3 yards out to help tie it 8-8 in the second quarter.
Slater Lords had a long catch and run for a touchdown, putting Belt up 16-8, but a Giese-to-David Olson TD pass tied the game again. In the third, Waldner turned a Huskies interception into another touchdown run as Belt grabbed a 22-16 advantage. But it didn’t hold up.
Australian Sam Groth has the honour of having the fastest recorded tennis serve of all time.
The 6ft 4 Australian set the record during an ATP Open Challenger match in Busan, South Korea, in 2012 against Belarusian tennis player Uladzimir Ignatik.
Groths serve clocks in at a staggering 263.4kph (163.7mph).
Frenchman Albano Olivetti holds the record for the second-fastest serve ever recorded. The French tennis pro also remains the second person to break the 160mph serve speed barrier.
Olivetti’s serve came in 2012 at the challenger level during the Internazionali Trofeo Lame Perrel–Faip.
Albano Olivetti holds the second-fastest record serve on the tour.
It would be hard not to include the American giant John Isner in this list. The 6ft 10 American is known best for his monster serves, which are delivered consistently throughout.
His monstrous serve is thanks in part to his stature. Isner clocks in as the third-tallest tennis player on the ATP behind the Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic and American young gun Reilly Opelka (both 6ft 11 inches). Ivo Karlovic currently holds the record for the fourth fastest recorded tennis serve.
Isner currently holds the third fastest serve in tennis. The Americans serve, clocking in at 253 kph (157.2 mph) during a 2016 Davis Cup tie against Bernard Tomic.
John Isner also holds the record for playing the longest match in Grand Slam history against Nicolas Mahut. During Wimbledon 2010, Isner beat Mahut in 5 sets: 6–4, 3–6, 6–7, 7–6, 70–68. The match lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes.
Isner’s serve is the fastest recorded serve in tennis, recognised by the ATP.
Spaniard Georgina Garcia Perez holds the record for the fastest recorded tennis serve by a woman.
Perez clocked a serve of 200kph (136.7 mph) during the Hungarian Ladies Open in 2018.
Georgina Garcia Perez holds the record for the fastest serve by a female.
Why is it nearly impossible to hit a 160 mph tennis serve?
A considered calculation of stature, technique, coaching, mechanics and good old practice is said to make the perfect concoction for a fast serve.
A direct correlation has been proven between the height of a player and power during a serve. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the top servers of the game are all giants by nature.
The trajectory of a serve remains ever important. Players who are 6ft 7 or above have the ability to hit the ball with a downward trajectory, whereas those who are under that height are unable to do so.
Modern technology has also greatly aided in the incremental increase of server power over time. The changeover from wooden rackets to today’s modern racket is a huge factor in determining serve power. Advancements in string technology and racket materials also play a huge part in determining a fast serve.
Other mitigating factors include court conditions. Faster serves are much more likely to happen on a hard court and during hotter temperatures, where there is less resistance to air density, translating to faster speeds.
When you compare the fastest tennis serve with other sports, you can see how fast it is.
Fastest Football shot – 114 mph by David Hirst in 1996 Fastest Baseball pitch – 105.1 mph by Aroldis Chapman in 2010 Fastest Cricket Bowling speed – 100.2 mph by Shoaib Akhtar in 2003
What is the average tennis serve speed?
The average tennis serve speed differs between both men and women, as well as between pros and amateurs. Data shows us that for professional male tennis players, the average tennis serve speed is approximately 114 mph (on their first serve) and 93 mph (on their second serve).
For women, the average tennis serve speed clocks in at 98 mph (on their first serve) and 82 mph (on their second serve).
This data was recorded between 2002-2013, so bear in mind the average speeds have likely increased by a few miles per hour in the modern era, as racquet technology and athletes continue to evolve and adapt within the sport.
Check out Wired’s video, which covers the topic more in-depth.
It’s the second edition of Blue Federal Credit Union‘s Fort Collins-area Athlete of the Week for the 2025-26 high school sports season.
And this week’s honor is hitting the local tennis courts with a top singles player.
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Poudre boys tennis player Owen Addington took top honors in the Fort Collins area for the week of Aug. 25-30 after a couple of dominant sweeps.
Playing on the No. 1 singles line, the Impalas senior dropped just six games in four sets across two match wins over Windsor and Northglenn’s top players.
He beat Windsor’s Joseph Bisceglia (6-2, 6-3) and followed that up with a 6-0, 6-1 over Northglenn’s Emrah Mehidic.
Poudre’s Owen Addington bends down to hit a shot during a city rivalry boys tennis dual on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins, Colo.
Addington, also a basketball player and tennis team captain, has helped Poudre get off to a 3-1 start this season that also included a team tournament title at the Thompson Valley Invitational.
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The senior and third-year varsity player is the first tennis player to earn Blue FCU Athlete of the Week honors in the award’s third school year. He joins Rocky Mountain’s Bode Nesbitt as the first winners in the 2025-26 prep sports season.
Poudre fans pushed Addington atop the polls, giving him the victory with 51.5% of the fan vote.
That propelled him past these other four outstanding Athlete of the Week nominees:
Brooke Pravlik, PSD flag football (runner-up at 36.7%)
Taylor Morgan, Wellington softball
Judd Nikkel, Fossil Ridge boys golf
Nora Ebel, Rocky Mountain girls cross country
The Blue Federal Credit Union Athlete of the Week series features five nominees on Mondays, with voting at Coloradoan.com until 11:59 p.m. every Wednesday.
Fans can nominate their favorite athletes (deadline: 11:59 p.m. every Sunday), and the Coloradoan Sports staff will ultimately select the nominees each week.
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If you have nominations for a future Athlete of the Week, please send them via email to ChrisAbshire@coloradoan.com for consideration.
View the full results:
Chris Abshire covers high school and community sports for the Coloradoan.
BB&N senior Sam Kelley (right) announced he will play football at Brown. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
With sincere apologies to all the games played Thursday, here at Globe Schools it feels a lot like Christmas Eve, with a full slate of high school football arriving under the tree Friday evening.
Over the last two weeks we talked to nearly 200 football coaches and wrote more than 30,000 words previewing every team in Eastern Mass. There’s still time for a cram session!
Team-by-team previews for every Eastern Mass. program
Trevor Hass wrote about Whittier football coach Kevin Bradley, who is continuing to coach the team while battling tongue cancer. Read coach Bradley’s inspirational story.
The first three football games of the season were played Thursday night, with Pentucket topping Northeast (26-22), Waltham holding off Belmont (24-12), and Brookline beating Lexington (27-10).
1. Milestones
▪ Two golf teams made history, as Canton set a new low home score at Blue Hill Country Club, scoring a 138 as a team to best Mansfield by 15 strokes thanks to 1-under-par 33s from senior Joey Ryan and freshman Chase Thomas.
▪ Rockport set a record for most points on its home course, Rockport Country Club, posting a 168-151 win over Hamilton-Wenham behind a 38-point showing from Sam Kesterson, who shot a 1-under-par 34 with three birdies.
▪ St. John Paul II field hockey coach Leah Pierce got her first win with the program, beating Bishop Stang, 3-0. Ariana Liakos got her first win helming the Pembroke girls’ volleyball, beating Falmouth, 3-1. And Acton-Boxborough girls’ soccer coach Manny Lopes notched his first victory, 4-0, over Algonquin.
▪ On the pitch, No. 18 Medfield boys’ soccer shocked No. 10 Oliver Ames, the defending Division 2 state champions, with a 2-0 win powered by goals from Max Tillmann and Sebastian Cole.
Keene State freshman Kayla DiPasquale, a Marshfield High graduate, was named Little East Conference women’s soccer Rookie of the Week after scoring her first two collegiate goals in a 4-2 win over Rivier.
4. Commitment central
BB&N senior captain Sam Kelley, a 6-foot-2-inch, 228-pound two-way athlete from Natick, announced he will play football at Brown.
