From 1978 through 1991, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association only sanctioned a slowpitch softball state tournament. In 1992, the WIAA sanctioned both fastpitch and slowpitch tournaments.
Columbia River, which had been playing fastpitch softball as a non-sanctioned sport since 1984, captured the first fastpitch state title.
The Columbia River team included Mindy Williams (now Mindy Williams Cleeland) and Heather Paulsen (now Heather Paulsen Mairs). Williams would go on to play softball for four years at the University of Washington. She would later serve as softball coach at Columbia River. Paulsen would play softball at the University of Puget Sound, earning induction into the UPS hall of fame in 2011.
The WIAA would continue to hold both fastpitch and slowpitch tournaments in the spring until 2002, when the slowpitch tournament was discontinued. Slowpitch returned as a WIAA-sanctioned fall sport in 2019.
TACOMA — Columbia River had to wait nine long years for an opportunity to win the state fastpitch softball championship. But when it finally came, the Chieftains made the most of the chance.
The Chieftains captured the state championship Saturday with a 3-0 win over Tumwater at SERA Fields in the first state-sanctioned fastpitch tournament.
Columbia River has been a dominant force in fastpitch since the school first offered it as a team sport in 1984. Now they are the only team in the state that can boast of a state championship in the sport.
“I feel justified for two reasons,” said Columbia River coach Ed Maxwell. “First of all, we have worked extremely hard for nine years for this. And secondly, this is an exciting group of athletes that really enjoy playing softball together.”
Several of the Chieftains participated on the state championship volleyball team last fall and also on the basketball team that placed seventh at the state tournament in March. Heather Paulsen, who is one of the three-sport participants on this team, indicated the group had this kind of a success sequence mapped out.
“This was just another one of our goals,” Paulsen said. “We had a feeling we would do it. We worked really hard for it.”
Paulsen pitched all four of the Chieftains’ win in the tournament, including the 4-hit shutout in the title game against Tumwater. She is definitely who Maxwell wanted (in the pitcher’s circle) in the final game.
“Heather is a winner,” Maxwell said. “She has been through four years of frustration because she always pitches in the tough games.”
“She is a tremendous competitor,” Maxwell said. “She played with a lot of heart, giving out there and getting the job done. She likes to rise to the occasion.”
Paulsen, who along with Evergreen’s Darby Kanis won the tournament’s sportsmanship awards, finished the season with a 17-1 pitching record. Last season, Columbia River participated in the state fastpitch invitational tournament and didn’t fare too well. This year was obviously a different story.
“Last year, we cared, but his year it meant a lot more because it was for real,” Paulsen said.
“Tumwater was one of the teams that beat Columbia River in last year’s tournament, and Maxwell feels that was part of the motivation this year.
“The incentive was getting our butts beat last year,” Maxwell said. “We didn’t respect our opponents. We came up here this year and respected our opponents and came to play ball.”
The win over Tumwater was the Chieftains’ third in four tries this season. Columbia River also beat the Thunderbirds for the district title two weeks ago in Vancouver. Despite that, Maxwell didn’t want to see the Thunderbirds again.
“I prefer to play teams that we haven’t played before,” Maxwell said. “We lost to them the first time and then beat them twice. The chances were against us.”
On the field Columbia River entered the state tourney with two points to focus on.
“First, we needed to execute better in our bunting game, and we missed on just one opportunity out of10 this weekend,” Maxwell said. “Second, we needed to cut down on our fly balls. At district, our fly-ball percentage was 40. This weekend, it was 15. Those were the two areas we needed to execute in, and we did.”
In the championship game, Tara Vogt got two hits and scored two runs for Columbia River. Tiffany Amendala had a pair of hits for Tumwater.
Paulsen was the winning pitcher, allowing just four hits and no walks. Tumwater had just two hits until the seventh inning.
The Chieftains (26-3) took a 1-0 lead in the second on Jennifer McGee’s RBI double, scoring Vogt. In the seventh, McGee plated Vogt with a sacrifice fly, and Becke Frantz’s groundout provided the final run.
Written by Ken Vance, The Columbian, May 31, 1992
