A pipeline of baseball success on West Plains

While it proved to be a quick trip to the Washington State AAA American Legion baseball tournament in Centralia for the Spokane Cannons, one cannot forget this was the team's third consecutive berth for the team largely composed of West Plains players.

Featuring a roster of six players from Medical Lake and five from Cheney, the Cannons represent the top tier of summer baseball in the area and their rise from mediocrity just several years ago has been a testament to the overall picture of baseball in the western reaches of Spokane County.

But the Cannons are hardly alone in what has been a most successful spring and summer for the players who fill rosters of the Cheney Summer Hawks - both AA and A levels - as well as the Medical Lake Dirt Dawgs 15U club, who just completed their third season.

Cheney's Blackhawks finished third in the Greater Spokane League and went three rounds into the AAA state playoffs. Medical Lake effectively landed in a four-way tie for third place in the Northeast A League, also qualified for state, but was bounced in its opener.

And that led to three area teams, the Cannons of course, plus the Summer Hawks AA and the Dirt Dawgs A each reaching state in American Legion. The Summer Hawks came away with the lone local state victory.

Much of this success is owed to both the foundation laid by the 20-year-old West Plains Little League, and efforts that have more kids playing and learning baseball.

Those WPLL all-star teams have represented the area, and the program well at a variety of levels, a tribute to the many volunteers who work to help them develop as a player.

Rob Beamer, a long-time WPLL official, coach and now leading both the Blackhawks and Summer Hawks, is one of the direct recipients of the teaching that goes on. "We just do a little fine tuning and then we have some pretty darn good ballplayers," he said.

Beamer quickly recalled a key moment in that timeline with former Blackhawks coach Adam Smith saying long ago that a pipeline needed to be established where kids coming into the high school program need to be more advanced.

"And then I'm not spending all of our time teaching them how to play catch," said Beamer who is now coach of both Cheney High and the Summer Hawks Hawks AA. "I think you know, 20 years after that, we're starting to see some huge payoffs."

Cheney's varsity was 15-8 and the Summer Hawks went 21-8, plus the high school squad added honors as the top scholastic team in the state in the AAA ranks.

While the younger players seem well served with a variety of WPLL programs, there still had existed a gap where things were lost, that being at the middle school age.

For Sharp, who took over the Medical Lake high school program in 2018 after seven seasons under the guidance of Kerry Kelly, it was "We've gotta' have something for middle school and the younger kids."

Middle school baseball featured a limited number of games played in, perhaps, not the best conditions and against either really good, or not so good teams.

While a long time coming to fruition, that gap was filled when Lance Michaud founded the single-A Dirt Dawgs in 2021 as an independent before joining American Legion in 2022.

Michaud's players have dozens of games and many more practices with which to improve skills in many areas - and not just baseball.

"Teaching them this at young age will help twofold," Michaud wrote in an email. "It will help them with sports, but, most importantly will enhance their critical thinking in life."

Since their inception, the Dirt Dawgs have never had fewer than 21 wins. They were 25-15 this season "And we still have 10 games in fall," Michaud reminded.

For Sharp, what has happened with the Dirt Dawgs has been nothing but beneficial as he had four freshmen start for his Cardinal team this spring - all DD grads. The included Michaud's son, AJ Michaud, who earned first-team All Northeast A honors.

And at the top, the Cannons success with their three-peat as league champs this year, and just as many trips to state, they are reaping the rewards, particularly with roster consistency.

Three player on this year's team, Jamel Chabot and Isaac Nessbitt - both from Cheney - as well as Reardan's Caden Day, have played on all of those teams. The 2022 team had many familiar faces and in 2023, "We only had a couple of new faces," Sharp said.

"This group has been together for a while," Sharp added.

Keeping that pipeline primed is the idea behind multiple-level tryouts set for Medical Lake on Sunday, Aug. 6. Coaches for the Cannons, an as yet to be named AA Legion team and the Dirt Dawgs will be on hand to evaluate players form 1:30 to 4:30 at Holliday Field.

"I've heard there's gonna' be quite a few kids so that would be exciting," Sharp said.