Varsity baseball is working its way to the top of the OSAA 6A rankings with 9 wins and 4 losses. They are currently ranked 13th with 12 regular season games left. They play rival Tualatin at home on May 11.

With 45 years of coaching experience, Tom Campbell leads the team as head coach. Campbell played through high school as an infielder and at the University of Portland.

“I love the team sport atmosphere and seeing students handle adversity, to be successful and work hard. My favorite part is to see the players develop and go on and play beyond the high school level,” said Campbell.

The game plan for this year is to make the high school playoffs and win the championship. Last year’s team headed to the playoffs, but faced a strong Sheldon team and fell short at the end of the game.

However, this year Campbell believes the team is very balanced as far as ability and that he would trust any of the 18 players to play any other position.

Junior Brett Thomas is one of the starting pitchers and outfielders on the team. He has been playing for 12 year and hopes to play in college. According to Thomas this year is a younger team that is a dominated by juniors with only 4 seniors.

Thomas trusts Coach Campbell. “He knows what he is talking about, and does a good job in focusing about the little things which really helps in close games,” said Thomas.

Senior David Howell is very confident in the team’s ability to make it to the playoffs this year. “I’m most excited about kicking butt this year,” said Howell. Howell is the pitcher for the team and has been playing for almost 13 years. His plan after high school is to pitch for George Fox University.

Howell does believe very strongly in his team this season; however, he thinks that their biggest competitor will be West Linn. While junior Parker Kuntz believes that Tualatin is going to be the toughest to beat. Kuntz has played for 11 years and plays second base. “I love the challenge the sport creates, and I love seeing all the practice our team puts in paying off,” said Kuntz.

The varsity baseball team’s first goal is to make it to the playoffs. Then, they can think about state.