SELAH — Port Angeles, and by extension the entire North Olympic Peninsula, should be proud of the entire Port Angeles softball team and particularly its five graduating seniors.
The Roughriders’ season didn’t end the way they envisioned, holding a top-four trophy up in the sun Saturday at Selah’s Carlon Park. That temporary disappointment should fade and the squad can look back at its accomplishments: a 22-5 record, a sixth-straight state tournament appearance, fifth consecutive Olympic League 2A title — the program’s fourth outright title in a row — a repeat West Central District championship, and most importantly, the Class 2A academic state championship for softball with a 3.838 grade point average.
And the senior class, Sierra Robinson Natalie Steinman, Erin Edwards, Brennan Gray and Callie Hall raised the bar athletically and academically their entire careers.
Coming off a championship-game loss in 2017 and graduating a stellar senior class that had five players move on to play college ball, there were doubts about Port Angeles’ ability to stay on top.
“I think what I enjoyed the most is proving people wrong,” Natalie Steinman said. “We proved that the team wasn’t just rebuilding but continuing to grow. All the attitudes on the team were perfect, there was never any drama and we were all just like a big family.”
That’s truly the case for Steinman, coached by her dad Randy for all four high school seasons, and who grew up attending big sister Sarah’s practices and games.
But along the way, Port Angeles’ outlook and expectations grew. This senior class finished with an 87-12 varsity record, four trips to state, a second-place finish in 2017, four outright Olympic League 2A titles with a 47-0 league mark, two consecutive West Central District championships and an an academic state title.
Achievers, all of them.
And the bar was raised during their run.
“I remember when my sister was playing and their goal was just making it to state,” Natalie Steinman said. “Then it became lets win one game and then it became, oh lets win the championship. And that’s our goal now. And I’m really happy that the goal has become lets win a championship rather than just win one game.”
Coach Randy Steinman put the team’s success this season on the shoulders of his seniors.
“I have to put most of that on these five seniors,” he said. “It’s a group that’s been together forever and they knew what their goal was this year. They knew that they had to be patient with the younger kids, because it was rough starting out. But the encouragement they gave to the younger ones and the experiences these younger kids received to see what it’s like to play Roughrider softball and make it to districts and compete at state, they’ve gotten that in these younger kids’ minds going forward.”
And Randy Steinman said the program is in a better place thanks to this hard-working group.
“They’ve grown so much from their freshman year to now, they had no fear this year,” he said. “And I think that tradition [of excellence] will continue. It will be tough because the team that finished second in state [in 2017] is all gone now, they are all gone.
“But the whole expectations of the program have changed over the past six years and this group has been a huge part of that. They never lost a league game, two district titles, got to a state championship. And this group is all going off to do great things. This here [the final post-game session with his seniors], these goodbyes have to happen. So this part, saying goodbye to players that you’ve spent four months with for four years is tough.
“But that’s one hell of a career to be proud of.”
