Langsea’s light shines on local ballplayers

Published 11:09 am Tuesday, May 12, 2026

MILL CREEK — Some unpleasant thoughts entered Joe Fleury’s mind as he looked out upon the errorfest his youth baseball team put on display during a 2021 game in Bend, Oregon.

As he drew in a breath to unleash a flurry of words destined to move unfiltered from brain to mouth, he felt a hand on his shoulder during the mess of a baseball game unfolding in front of him.

The hand sat there softly for a few seconds before assistant coach Chris Langsea quietly said a few words that calmed Fleury like a sedative.

“If you lose your s—-, they’ll lose their s—-, too,” Fleury recalls Langsea quietly telling him that day.

Now the head baseball coach at Jackson High School, Fleury still feels that hand on his shoulder, even though Langsea passed away from a heart attack at age 53 on April 16, 2022. Fleury replays the moment over and over again when he feels his emotions begin to boil. Typical of Langsea’s actions around ball fields, the motive for calming Fleury was unselfish.

“He put his hand on my shoulder first, and allowed me to feel supported,” Fleury said. “It didn’t feel rushed. It didn’t feel pushy. It literally felt like I had a friend who had my back.”

Though the hand on the shoulder comes from Fleury’s memories, there are plenty of physical reminders of the long-time volunteer in the Mill Creek baseball and softball community.

When Fleury feels the fire inside rising, he just looks at Noah Langsea, a senior infielder on his Timberwolves baseball team, and Chris’ son helps quell the flames.

Or he walks across the street to the Jackson softball field, where sophomore Aliana Langsea plays the game her father taught her. As of Tuesday, both Langsea children’s teams were in the district playoffs, fighting for another season of state playoffs.

Like Fleury, the Langseas keep a connection to their father through ball games.

Langsea lights

Those who volunteered alongside Langsea feel that his light continues to shine down on area ballplayers.

And that’s no exaggeration.

Because of his efforts, a field at Willis Tucker Park in Snohomish utilizes a set of field lights that illuminate Snohomish County athletes. It was not a simple process.

Little League International and Musco Lighting awarded Mill Creek Little League a lighting kit in 2015 to reward the league’s safety program under Tina Ryan, the league’s president at the time. Although hundreds of the league’s children play baseball and softball in and around Mill Creek, the league does not own any fields. Most games are played on diamonds at Everett Public Schools locations and Snohomish County parks, as well as Mill Creek Sports Park’s Freedom Field.

The lights gathered dust in a Musco Lighting warehouse for years as representatives from the school district, the Snohomish County Parks Department and Mill Creek Little League struggled to find a solution that worked for all sides.

Little League and parks department boards changed over, and new politicians were elected, often forcing the project back to the drawing board.

Until Chris Langsea put hands on some shoulders to ease some tensions.

RT Shaw, a current assistant baseball coach at Glacier Peak High School, was the third MCLL president to serve after Ryan while trying to get the lights turned on somewhere. Chris helped convince the county decision-makers that the lights were not just for the ballplayers on the field at Tucker Park, but also for those walking around other parts of the property to feel safer in a lit environment.

“It became his project because I got pissed off at Snohomish County Parks,” Shaw said, laughing. “What I should say is I got pissed off at me getting mad at them. … Chris’ whole piece was the patience with the parks department as we worked through it to get the grants done and get the approvals done, constant negotiations and the contract language, and just trying to identify other people that could support and getting the county voters and political leaders in line, why this is so important and how it can benefit everyone.”

With the Langsea family and members of the community in attendance, a ceremony was held Oct. 17, 2025 to dedicate the lights to the man who helped ease the project over the finish line. A plaque in front of Field 2 at Tucker Park reads, in part, “In memory of Chris Langsea, whose dedication made this project a reality. He volunteered his time to improve Mill Creek Little League as our VP of Operations, a coach, and a friend to all who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

Away from the spotlight

While the lights stand out, Chris completed most of his volunteer duties behind the scenes, with no fanfare. Aside from mowing the grass, the majority of field maintenance at school fields is done by volunteers. Chris helped organize volunteers, but often arrived alone long before kids and parents to make playing surfaces a little better.

If a field needed to be dragged to allow truer hops to youthful infielders, Langsea was there. If a fence needed mending, he was on it quickly. He helped repair vandalism, scheduled portable restroom services and performed countless other facility-related duties, all while coaching multiple teams involving his children.

“It was frustrating a time or two when we had something going on and he had to run out to a school to unlock it or fix a fence or whatever, but we both love youth sports,” Sarah said. “We both played sports, and we both volunteered in Mill Creek Little League and appreciated it because our kids got a benefit from it too. And it was just his passion, and you can’t fault someone for their passion. But, yes, he was running all the time.”

A relatively private and quiet person by nature, he shirked off thank yous with a quick nod and smile. If you got to know him a little, he’d slide in a joke with his dry sense of humor as an unexpected changeup.

Shaw laughed, thinking about how uncomfortable Chris would have been at the lighting dedication ceremony, and believes the honoree would have insisted upon calling them something other than the “Langsea lights.”

“He probably wouldn’t have even gone,” Shaw said. “He would have gotten so mad if he had found out that we had dedicated the lights to him. And I think that he does know. But secretly, I know that he’d also be really thankful for it.”

Family impact

Chris and Sarah met in 1988 as teenagers when Sarah, then a California resident, visited friends and family in Washington. They stayed in contact, but life took them in different directions. Each had relationships that didn’t work out. Years later, they found each other again, feeling like a modern-day version of the novel, “The Notebook.” So much so, that the names of their children pay homage to the book’s reunited characters, Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton. Chris and Sarah married in their mid-thirties and eventually settled in Mill Creek.

While Chris’ sudden death left a hole in the sports community, it devastated his family. They lost more than a volunteer and a coach. A husband, father and mentor left an unfillable hole for the family.

“They still struggle,” Sarah said of her children. “I suspect they always will. They’re good at living day to day, and baseball and softball are a big part of that.”

A private person like his dad, Noah, kept many feelings inside while thoughts of his father entered his mind frequently during every baseball game.

A couple of years ago, Noah wasn’t sure about continuing that connection. A knee injury kept him off the field for a time prior to the start of his junior baseball season. He thought maybe it was time to find an after-school job, and let go of the sport that had been part of his life since he could walk.

“I was constantly doing physical therapy for it, and then I just didn’t really have the motivation to play,” he said.

That’s when it was Fleury’s turn for a hand-on-the-shoulder moment.

“I went on a phone call with Joe, and he was just talking to me about how he believes that we’re going to have a deep run into state, and he needs me to see into the future,” Noah said. “Not just at tryouts, but in four months when we make a state run. Once I’m healthy, I could be a useful factor on the team. So that was a big thing, because my mindset was kind of just, ‘Oh, I’m hurt right now. I’m going to be hurt at tryouts.’ I wasn’t really seeing into the future. He helped me do that, and that made me want to play.”

That 2025 season, the Timberwolves advanced all the way to the Class 4A semifinals.

“Best decision of my life,” he said.

Noah wasn’t the only semifinalist in the family. Aliana worked her way onto varsity as a freshman, hitting a home run in a state playoff game to help Jackson reach the semifinals. Like Noah, she thinks of her father often. Before each at-bat, she draws his initials and a cross on the field.

The ball diamonds bond the family forever. She remembers his advice, gentle pushes to improve, and his encouragement. But the best times were the car rides to out-of-town tournaments.

“I think it was like two weeks before he passed, we went down to Tri Cities, and we were playing until like 11 p.m., and then we went back to the hotel,” said Aliana, who hit two home runs in one game on May 6. “We got this big thing of nachos, ate it, and we just talked about the games and everything. It was nice.”

After the home run at state last year, it was Fleury greeting her with a hug and a whisper of, “Your dad would be so proud of you.”

Each life milestone tastes bittersweet.

“I definitely feel at times like it’s unfair,” she said. “Why did it happen to our family?”

Lasting legacy

Both Shaw and Fleury coach postseason high school baseball teams featuring key players once led by Chris. At Glacier Peak and Jackson, respectively, they carry things learned from him.

Fleury feels, like Aliana, some unfairness when reality hits and he realizes that the hand on his shoulder is imaginary. He said Chris would have been an assistant coach for the Jackson baseball team, and it’s a loss to the future generations of ballplayers who will not benefit from the man behind the scenes.

“I just know the kind of person that I want around me,” Fleury said. “The kind of people that hold me accountable, the kind of people who were willing to tell me what I’ve messed up, and aren’t just yes men. Those are the kind of people that I want around me. And Chris was one of those guys.”

“This community is way better off because Chris was a part of it.”