By Chris Trujillo
Herald Writer
EVERETT – The Everett Community College athletic program will receive its fourth shot of vitality in just three years when baseball makes its debut today after a 20-year hiatus.
Athletic director Larry Walker and college president Charlie Earl are responsible for spearheading the return of women’s soccer and softball in 1999, men’s and women’s cross-country this past fall and now America’s favorite pastime.
“I am not sure why it went away, but I’ve been planning this for a long time,” said Walker, who has pushed plans to the school’s board of trustees for the return of baseball since the early 1980s. “Our president Charlie Earl has made some great decisions about sports. He’s a pro-athletics president and that’s made all the difference.”
The Trojans, under manager Levi Lacey and assistant Kelly Gage-Cole, will co-host with Edmonds Community College the Opening Day Invitational Tournament today, Saturday and Sunday at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Most of the nine-team field is composed of teams from the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. The remaining teams are from British Columbia. Sixteen of the 22 games, including all of Sunday’s championship games, will be played at Everett Memorial. The Trojans play today at noon against British Columbia’s Kwantlen CC.
“Baseball here at EvCC just makes sense,” said the 26-year-old Lacey, who pitched at Everett High School and at Albertson College in Caldwell, Idaho. “This area has so much talent, but without a team, these kids have had to go away from home to play at other community colleges.”
Former Marysville-Pilchuck player Jeff Carlson is one of six players who returns home. Carlson, an NWAACC all-star outfielder last season, spent his freshman year at Olympic CC, one of EvCC’s divisional rivals. Shortstop Evan Williams, also from Marysville-Pilchuck, returns from Bellevue CC, while former Arlington High players Josh Adams and Nathan Beachy will play closer to home after playing at Columbia Basin CC.
Of the team’s 28 players, 15 are from Snohomish County high schools. Eleven of 18 freshmen also come from local high schools.
“Now that they have a team to play for there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be here,” Lacey said. “We have the talent to be competitive right out of the gate. If teams don’t come in with their A-game they’re going to get beat. I know it’s going to be a tough season, and I also know that we will at least be competitive.”
He might be right. Aside from boasting some of Snohomish County’s finest baseball players, Lacey has an ace up his sleeve: a relationship with Washington State baseball coach Tim Mooney.
Similar to major league baseball’s elaborate farm system, the two friends have an arrangement where Mooney sends his younger Division I recruits, who wouldn’t otherwise get enough playing time at WSU, to EvCC. In return, Lacey provides the WSU prospects with an abundance of playing time. Once the prospects are ready, they return to Pullman.
“It’s a great tradeoff,” Lacey said. “He’ll (Mooney) send his young players to me and I’ll get them ready. We get Division-I recruits, who’ll get more than their share of at-bats. He gets them back as better players.”
Two WSU recruits currently are suiting up for Lacey: Johnny Anderson, a freshman outfielder from Inglemoor High School in Kenmore and first baseman Ross Holman, who attended Yakima’s Prairie View High School.
Not a bad way to start off a season for a team that’s been non-existent for the past two decades – or for its first-year coach, who has spent the past few years coaching the semi-pro Everett Merchants.
Also in their favor is the fact that the Trojans play their home games on perhaps the best field in the NWAACC. The finely manicured Everett Memorial Stadium, which is owned by the Everett School District and is the home of the Class A Everett AquaSox, is the best ballpark in the entire conference, according to Lacey.
It surely didn’t hurt when it came time for recruiting. When the Trojans gathered back in September, 50 players showed up to compete for 28 roster spots.
EvCC, which will continue its non-league season March 9 on the road against Yakima Valley CC, will begin league play March 30 at Bellevue CC.
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