The Kentlake High baseball team spent pretty much the entire spring on an emotional high, winning game after game on the way to a state finals berth at Safeco Field.
On that same diamond, however, coach Jason Evans was in the midst of an emotional roller coaster ride, stemming from the loss of his father Dale, who passed away April 14 after a short bout with lung cancer.
The loss of Dale Evans, as difficult as it was for Jason, served as inspiration.
Inspiration for Jason, who remained a rock under immense emotional distress. And an inspiration to a team Jason Evans simply wouldn’t – and couldn’t, for his dad’s sake – let down.
The loss of Dale Evans remained with the Falcons throughout the season. In the dugout before each game, Jason posted an 8 x 10 picture of his father, to whom the Falcons dedicated their season.
“It was a special season in a way. The kids learned a lot about life, not about just playing baseball,” said the third-year Kentlake coach, who admitted that having the team to lean on during his father’s ordeal was therapeutic. “A lot of different aspects happened that will carry over and help them become men. I cried in front of them. They see that and they cried with me.
“It brought us a lot closer together. I wasn’t this hard-nosed coach,” Evans said. “There are feelings inside of me too.”
Many of those feelings, especially when talking about the man who taught him the finer nuances of the game, brought nothing but smiles from the Kentlake coach this season.
It was a season that not only eclipsed the best ever in school history, but blew its doors off by a wide margin. And because of that, Evans was selected as the Reporter’s Coach of the Year.
“When he first told us about his dad, he came out to practice and made us meet in the outfield,” first baseman Lewis Larson said. “The whole team was silent, kids were in tears … he was in tears. We talked as a team how we needed to do this for he and his son Marcus (the team’s catcher).”
The Falcons did it with an array of power offense, power arms and air-tight defense.
Picked to finish among the top half of the South Puget Sound League North Division in a preseason poll, the Falcons wasted little time making a statement, winning 11 of their first 12 games.
The hot start landed Kentlake sixth in the state polls.
“(Jason) drove us all year to be better, work hard and keep our goals in line,” shortstop Bobby Joe Tannehill said. “(The loss of Dale Evans) made us work a lot harder, it gave us something and someone to work for.”
And work, they did.
Kentlake established a new school record in wins with 20, earned a share of the South Puget Sound League North Division title, captured a district title and advanced to the Class 4A state championship game for the first time.
Not bad for a group that was selected in a preseason coaches’ poll to finish among the contenders, but not as the top dog.
“They all kind of had the same common goal as I did,” Jason Evans said. “When we dedicated the season, there wasn’t one kid who questioned it. They wore wristbands with my dad’s initials on it, we had the dugout picture … it was just a very special group of kids.”
A group of kids who rose to the occasion of a tight game, winning 11 of 13 contests decided by three runs or fewer. A group that didn’t flinch in the face of pressure, knocking off previously top-ranked Puyallup for the South Puget Sound League title, 4-3.
And a group that showed immense power, clubbing five home runs in its 23-2 lambasting of Bothell in a state quarterfinal game.
Along the way, six players earned all-league accolades, another school record.
And though the ride is just recently over, Jason Evans can’t help but look to next year, when the Falcons will return all but three starters — catcher Marcus Evans, second baseman Zac Sturza and outfielder Matt Smith are the only departing seniors.
“We’re definitely looking forward to next year,” Jason Evans said.
But in looking back one more time …
“This was a very exceptional season. Winning the SPSL was a first. Winning regionals, that was a first, being final four in state, that was a first,” Jason Evans said. “And I think it was a first that these guys matured and saw life as a whole. Not just a two-month baseball season.
“They’re all like my own son.”
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