SNOHOMISH — As a top athlete at Snohomish High School, Luke Kuna knew he wanted to highlight his senior year by doing something special.
In this case, special turned out to be shocking.
Kuna, a three-year letterman and three-time state-tournament competitor on the Snohomish golf team, decided to spend the spring of his final year of high school playing baseball instead. The announcement took a lot of people by surprise, both in good ways and bad ways.
His coaches and new teammates on the baseball team were understandably thrilled. Kuna had played baseball for several years as a younger boy, so it seemed likely he could help make a good team better.
But his golf coaches and teammates, all of them hoping to contend for a Class 4A state championship this season, found Kuna’s decision disappointing to say the least.
The other golfers “were probably the most upset of anyone,” Kuna said. “Maybe they thought I wouldn’t help the baseball team as much as I would help the golf team, and in a way that was kind of letting them down.
“Yeah, they were pretty upset, but I explained it to them and they (eventually) understood. … In the end they were supportive. We’re all friends and there are no hard feelings.”
Though it was “really hard to walk away from (golf),” Kuna went on, the idea of playing baseball actually came to him a year ago. One of his best friends, Jake Mulholland, is a standout member of the Snohomish baseball team, and in recent years they had played catch and taken batting practice together.
Those moments reminded Kuna just how much he loved playing baseball, and it got him to consider giving the game a final chance.
“This is kind of the last opportunity I have to play on a baseball team,” he explained. “Besides intramurals in college and (adult league) softball, there just aren’t many opportunities to play competitive baseball after high school. But with golf, it’s the opposite. You can play golf until you’re 80 if you want to.
“I have my whole life to play golf and I don’t really have that much time left to play baseball, so I wanted to take advantage of it while I can,” said Kuna, who is also giving up a scholarship to play golf at Western Washington University.
When Kuna first proposed switching sports, Snohomish baseball coach Kim Hammons said he “tried to talk him out of it.”
“When he told me he wanted to play baseball, I said, ‘Are you sure you really want to do this?,” Hammons said. “You have a golf scholarship. You’re like the team captain. You can’t be quitting.’”
Of course, Hammons also was intrigued about adding a player with Kuna’s obvious talent.
“Luke is a terrific all-around player,” Hammons said. “If he’d been (in the baseball program) as a freshman, I think he’d be getting interest from community colleges, some Division II and Division III (schools), and maybe even higher. He’s a good athlete, a good student, a mentally tough kid, and he’s got all the attributes to play Division I baseball.”
Midway through the season Kuna is batting .233 with a .361 on-base percentage, one home run, two doubles and seven RBI. As a pitcher (he also plays third base and catcher) he is 2-0 with one save and a 2.57 ERA.
“As an addition to our ballclub, he’s just been tremendous,” Hammons said. “He’s a quality kid. He’s a great teammate, he’s got a great attitude, and he goes out there and does everything for us: pitching, catching, third base, batting No. 4 in the lineup. That’s pretty special.”
And as he continues to relearn the game, Kuna is also getting better. His batting average is climbing, and against Jackson last week he tossed a gem, giving up five hits and one run in six innings of a 5-1 Snohomish victory.
“If I’d played baseball my first three years of high school, I think I’d be a lot better today,” he said. “But the way the coaches have helped me out, I’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the season.”
Kuna expects to play baseball this summer on a club team while also resuming golf. In the fall, he will attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, where he might ask to walk on the baseball team. He also might walk on the golf team. Or he might decide not to play either sport.
The plan, he said, is “just to see how all this goes, and then decide from there.”
But regardless of how the future unfolds, Kuna said he will look back without regrets.
While golf is often a solitary sport, “I knew I was going to be out here this spring with a team that was going to have a lot of energy. You’re with all these guys (on the baseball team) who support you and cheer you on, and I wanted that for my last year of high school.
“So no regrets,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun.”
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