Life throws you curve balls, this I know for sure. This year I have missed two of the things I love most; watching my son play baseball and coaching. With a new job, my schedule makes it hard to get to the things I have always had time for. And with senior day approaching, I keep thinking of the group of freshmen I coached back four years ago that are now seniors of this team. Kids grow up so fast as any parent knows. Like baseball, the count keeps changing. My two daughters are married, I am a grandfather, my oldest son will be married this July and Mario has only one year of college left. My dad also has now been sick for the past three months and is turning 90 this Friday. He has told me how he wants things back like they were, when him and I would be at home playing catch in the yard. As the senior class end their high school careers and move forward with the next step in their life, I hope they rememember the little things. Like playing catch with there Dad, going to a ball game with him or even just watching a game on tv. It’s the little things we do in life with our parents that help us with growing up, but we never think about it at the time. As in life, baseball is a game of doing the little things. You can look terrible one day and do great the next. It may be the last baseball game at Issaquah High , but there is plenty of baseball left in each one of the seniors on this team. For me, I missed a lot of the year at Issaquah high baseball and a lot of my sons Mario college baseball games. I can’t get the games back to watch and like playing catch with your dad, I can’t get that back either. So for all you seniors, before the year is out, do me one favor; ask your dad to play catch in the yard. Do it for me, because down the road you will be glad you did.
I miss my buddy’s Rob, Cappy and Bruce and Jerry keeping score, the practices and all the bus rides to the games. But as the season winds down, think about all the little league games, the summer games you played and your high school experience. This is your time to shine. So as the playoffs near, do the little things that got you there and go play a little catch with your dad because baseball is great game and you are part of that greatness. To all the seniors: thank you and remember you are lucky to have a Rob, Cappy and Bruce..Thank you parents for have great kids,.A side note my grandson Brody had his first T Ball game and I missed itbut there is still alot of baseball left so lets go win a state title love you all Coach Steve
This is your time Senior’s Enjoy and also playing catch with Dad
April 25th, 2012Outfield play Coach Steve share’s it with all the outfielders
March 3rd, 2012THE HEART AND SOUL OF BASEBALL THE FEEL THE Quiet-Confidence
October 8th, 2011TRUST EACH OTHER AND WORK HARD
RIGHT NOW ITS WHAT WE LIVE FOR AT THIS TIME OF OUR LIFES
October 8th, 2011THIS IS THE START
THE BIG GUY WINS 300
April 4th, 2011
I was at a basketball clinic in Seattle back in the late 70’s and there were some great coaches there to teach us how to coach the game, as well as teach young men how to compete. I was looking for lunch or breakfast, not sure which, when I heard a voice yell “Hey coach!” I look over and it was one of the speakers. He asked me to join him for the meal and I said, “Sure.” We talked about coaching and playing. He asked me why I wanted to coach and not just basketball, but baseball and football. I said, “I enjoy seeing young kids develop and get better in the sport they played. To compete and win.” Some of my answer was not what he was looking for. He told me, “Success is more than just winning; its how you develop the young player’s ability to understand what he is doing on the court or the field. It’s the preparation before the game or the season and the attitude to want to be a team player; to help other teammates and how to compete.” Practice was something he felt you needed to show young men; how you practice is how you will play. Now you hear this all the time. I was 19 years old and all I knew was what this coach was telling me was something I wanted to build on. He said “With failure comes learning and you can use this in everyday life.” He had written in his note book a statement “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” At that time I did not know what it even meant. Now I look back and can see what he was talking about. There was a lot more conversation, but as I look back at it this is why I love coaching. The man who invited me to eat was John Wooden. Back then he was just a coach who gave me a chance to talk about coaching. I have said it before; I have coached with some of the best and took the advice of many a great coach motivators Bruce Brown, Keith Baker, Rolly Rollins, Ernie Woods. THEY ALL WOULD SAY BE TRUE TO YOURSELF AND Don’t WAIST A OPERTUNITY TO SCORE OR HIT OR MAKE THE BIG PLAY. In his book, They Call Me Coach, John Wooden says, “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” Today, players do not always here that message. Another great one is “Ability may get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there.” This is so true with the man I coach with, Robert Reese, who won his three hundredth baseball game in high school baseball. Some of his players may think they were so great, that’s why we won. Some think they never learned a thing under are coaching staff, but it’s what we taught them to be true to them self, to be good teammates and to be fundamentally sound when it was game time to understand situations. But it was the character of the player us coaches wanted them to learn. Lots of great players come into our program as well as average and you would be surprised how many that are the average are willing to be coached that come out as the best players and the great ones in the end become the average. But the main ingredient to stardom is the rest of the team. As I watch my son Mario coach and listen to his message to the kids, you can hear the same message he learned for the 4 years he was in the program, to get better every day and build on even the little things. On that day in Seattle way back when I stood up and ask Coach Wooden a question about how to make kids compete harder in practice, he remembered my question and saw me that day and ask me to sit down. He remembered the kid in the clinic who ask a silly question and on that day gave me more than just the answer. He said, “Heart, desire and the willing to work hard and get better every day the way you practice is the way you will play.” That was a message 35 years ago and Coach Rob Reese is still delivering it today. They call him coach and he has won 300; Rob Reese #25. For me this year is a bigger challenge than ever. We have a young team and the challenge is to try and make each kid a better player by putting in the extra hitting and fielding. Coach Mario Sanelli won won a state title in 2007 and was in the final four in 2008 tells the kids they need to become a family; when one falls down, help them up. When one does something great pick them up with a great job or a high five. But become a family. There will be failures, but we will have success.we have alot of baseball left this year and there will be ups and downs all year but I will we will get them better by years end.So in closing your the best coach rob lets win 300 more.
TRY OUTS COMING Uw Rogers gets first hit as a Husky
February 21st, 2011SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Washington baseball team scored six runs in the ninth, but couldn’t overcome a large deficit as the Huskies closed out their opening weekend of the 2011 season with a 16-10 loss to Air Force Sunday at the Texas State Tournament.
The Huskies fell to 1-2 on the season. The UW beat Missouri State in the opener before dropping games to Nebraska and Air Force, which improved to 2-1 with Sunday’s win.
Air Force scored in each of its first seven innings. Falcons starter Michael Ceci (1-0) went seven innings, allowing two runs, for the victory. UW starter Aaron West (0-1) suffered the loss, giving up six runs over two-plus innings.
Washington sophomore Chase Anselment went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in while classmate Jacob Lamb was 2-for-5 with his second homer of the weekend, along with a double. Huskies Brendan Gardner-Young and Troy Scott also drove in a pair of runs. Patrick Lobo led the Falcons’ offense, going 3-for-4 with four RBI.
Air Force got started in the first as Alex Bast doubled to drive in one and then scored on a single from Seth Kline.
In the second, back-to-back, run-scoring triples from Lobo and Garrett Custons sparked a rally. Custons then scored on a single from Blair Roberts, staking the Falcons to a 5-0 lead.
The Falcons made it 8-0 in the third as Lobo drove in two with a bases-loaded single and Roberts sent home another with a base hit.
Washington scored its first run in the fourth when Anselment doubled down the right-field line and then scored on a two-out single from Troy Scott.
Air Force’s Nathan Carter led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run and Custons hit a two-run homer in the fifth to stretch the lead to 11-1.
Lamb opened the sixth with his second homer of the season, to right center, but Air Force answered with two more in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single from Val Schierholtz and a sacrifice fly from Lobo. Parker Mayo’s three-run homer in the seventh made it 16-2.
In the top of the eighth, the UW’s Eric Peterson singled and Lamb doubled. Anselment followed with a two-run double to make it 16-4.
Washington rallied for six runs in the ninth. Brian Wolfe walked and eventually scored on an error. After the bases were loaded, Gardner-Young doubled to drive in two. Scott followed with a two-run single and Willy Reel doubled to drive in another, closing out the Huskies’ scoring for the day.
The Huskies travel for a three-game series at Cal State Bakersfield next Friday through Sunday and then open the home schedule on Thursday, March 3, with the first of three games vs. BYU.
To finally reach it really means a lot,” A major league homecoming
July 14th, 2010
July 13, 2010
By Tim Pfarr
To finally reach it really means a lot,” he said.
Curtis, who underwent surgery for testicular cancer during his freshman year of high school, played three years of college baseball at Arizona State University before being drafted by the New York Yankees in the fourth round of the 2006 draft. He then began working his way up the minor league ladder.
He got the call from the New York Yankees June 20, and he was on a plane to Arizona the next morning. He made his first major league appearance as a pinch hitter against the Arizona Diamondbacks just hours after landing.
“It was kind of a rush, packing stuff, then getting on a plane the next morning and then playing in a game that night,” Curtis said. “I just packed my bags and went.”
Although he failed to get a hit in his first at bat, he returned the following night as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning and smashed a two-run double for his first major league hit, helping the Yankees win 9-3 over the Diamondbacks.
After his hit, the umpire halted play, gave Curtis the ball and told him he only had 2,999 more to go, referring to the 3,000-hit milestone baseball players try to achieve.
Curtis is now staying in Manhattan, and he has played in games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics.
His first game against the Mariners was at Yankee Stadium, but the Yankees came to Seattle for a series from July 8-11.
Curtis started July 9 and 10 in right field, and went 1-4 July 9 with a double and 0-4 July 10. In the 12 games he has appeared in, he has racked up 25 at bats, one run, 4 RBIs and five hits. He is hitting .200, and three of his five hits were doubles.
“Coming back here and playing in Seattle where I grew up is an absolute thrill,” Curtis said before the game July 8. He had flown in with the team from Oakland the night before, and he took teammate Kevin Russo — who was also recently called up from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — out to lunch that day and showed him around the city, since Russo had never been to Seattle.
Curtis’ friends and family were on hand for the entire series. However, his father Jed, mother Janet and older brother Conor may be his three biggest fans, as they traveled to Arizona on short notice to watch the entire series. They then followed the team to Los Angeles.
Colin Curtis blows bubbles with gum while watching the game from the visitors’ dugout at Safeco Field.
“It was exciting for us,” Jed Curtis said. “It’s been a long time in coming, from Little League to high school to Arizona State and the minors.”
He said seeing his son on the field reminded him of Little League games from long ago.
“It brought back a lot of memories from those games at Tibbetts Field,” Jed Curtis said.
Issaquah High baseball coach Rob Reese also flew to Los Angeles to see Colin Curtis play. Reese, who coaches the Lakeside Recovery Senior American Legion team in the summer, was in San Diego for a tournament when Curtis and the Yankees came to L.A. Curtis is the first Issaquah player for Reese to reach the majors.
“It’s incredible when one of your old players plays in the big leagues,” Reese said, adding he watched on TV as Curtis got his first hit, and got to meet and congratulate him after the game in L.A.
Issaquah High assistant coach Steve Sanelli, who coached Curtis in high school and on a Little League all-star team, said he has been watching and listening to Curtis’ games on TV and the radio as if Curtis were his own son.
“It’s a thrill for me just watching him play,” he said. “It’s a huge thrill just knowing him. Hopefully, his success will continue and he’ll keep playing.”
He said Curtis never changed his style from Little League onward — he chases down balls, swings his bat and smiles the same way he did when he was young.
At a recent tournament, Sanelli spoke with baseball scouts who said they thought Curtis would have been called up to the majors two years ago had he not been with an organization as dominating as the Yankees.
“It’s hard to break in when they have multimillion-dollar guys in the outfield,” Sanelli said.
Curtis said playing for the Yankees has been quite a ride, and he has enjoyed traveling with the team.
“It’s exciting to see all the different cities and playing in different environments.”
He said one of the toughest pitchers he has faced so far was Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, who he faced off against in New York on June 30. However, he said all pitchers in the league present a significant challenge.
“Everyone you face is going to have good stuff out there,” Curtis said. “That’s why they’re in the big leagues.”
He comes back to Issaquah during the holidays, and he stayed in town for the all-star break, July 12-15.
He said his favorite baseball players of all time are Ken Griffey Jr., Kirby Puckett and Roger Maris.
Could Curtis ever play for the Seattle Mariners? Who knows. However, he said he’s happy where he is.
“I’m in such a great situation right now,” he said. “I love playing for the Yankees, and it’s such a great organization.”
To all of the young players, he says to always keep playing and chasing their dreams.
“I’d say never give up on your goals,” Curtis said. “Even when you’re in a rough patch, just keep playing hard. If you love it, eventually things will work out. Just keep going after it.”
The kid
July 14th, 2010
COLIN COMES BACK HOME TO TROW OUT THE FIRST PITCH AT THE POUGH.Fifteen years ago, had Colin Curtis known he would someday become a major league outfielder, he would have said, “perfect, my plan is going to work.” At least that is what Curtis, now 25, said with a laugh when asked what his reaction would have been.
NUMBER 24 HE IS THE GREATEST
June 2nd, 2010
For most dad’s they watch there son’s play little league, peewee football, and basketball. Then some Dads get to watch their son move on to high school sports and play all the way through. Some dads will watch there boys move to the next level and in a very rare case one dad gets a chance to play with his son (and if your not sure who I am talking about, it is Ken Sr. and Ken Jr.). It’s a cycle. Then there is my nephew who just finished his college career playing the game he loves and it’s sad that the little boy has grown up to be a man and will not play this game again.
Our JV coach, George Fletcher not to long ago was a little leaguer and then a high school baseball star who went on to play college ball and now at 27 years old, George is getting married and will be starting his own family, my o my, where has the time gone?
Little boys grow up to be men and it’s the time you have with your children and watching them play a sport they love that Is so time consuming. Then before you know, its over. As parents, we complain because of our hectic days, running our kids everywhere, we never think back to when they are little how fast it goes, one day there 5, the next there 27.
Ken Griffey Jr., we all love him and wish we could turn back the clock, just one more time to let the kid be great again! I know that is my wish. If we went back in time, we could watch our kids grow up, but it goes by so fast and now I miss the time when my children were little. I will miss the sound of JR’s bat but I have been lucky to watch and meet two of the greatest center fielders to ever play the game. When I was just a boy, I watched Willie Mayes play and I got to meet him as well. It killed me to watch Willie end his career and now, just like Willie, Ken Griffey is ending his. It seems like yesterday, Jr. was drafted and we were blessed to have watched this man play the game of baseball for so many years. All I know is Ken; we will miss you but wish you all the best and now you can enjoy your kids and watch them grow up. Thanks for all you have done for the game of baseball. We love you.
.Coach steveDad and Sons
June 2nd, 2010