The Seahawks swept the singles matches Wednesday on their way to 5-2 Northwest Conference win over visiting Ferndale.
The Seahawks held the unbeaten Red Raiders to a scoreless tie in the first half but let in two goals in the second half in a 2-0 Northwest Conference home loss Wednesday.
In 1994, the Anacortes High School girls softball team won the 3A state tournament, beating Enumclaw 9-7. But Coach Tom Swapp said the tournament was almost over for the Seahawks before it began.
“In districts, the week before, we lost a really close game to Mount Vernon,” he said. “And we had to play again in 30 minutes.”
The 7-6 loss to Mount Vernon might have broken a team’s will to win, or at least knocked them off balance, but Swapp said just the opposite happened: They kept their chin up and beat Burlington-Edison 14-5, then Stanwood 10-2 for the second state tournament berth.
“That’s just an example of the toughness that can develop,” he said.
He said sports teach life lessons that transfer off the diamond, and he has seen the girls on his softball teams overcome adversity and go farther than they thought they could.
“It can give them a huge amount of confidence in what they can do,” he said. “They can develop belief in themselves that transfers to real life — not that softball isn’t real life.”
Swapp has been coaching for 34 years because he still enjoys being a part of those life lessons.
“If you strike out, you’ve got to be back to normal in 30 seconds to go back on defense,” he said. “That’s kind of a microcosm of life.”
Swapp is the first and only head softball coach the high school has ever had, starting in 1980 when softball first came to Anacortes.
The Seahawks sit at 3-2-2 in Northwest Conference play after a 0-0 tie with Meridian in Bellingham Tuesday.
The Seahawks managed just one hit in a 3-0 loss to visiting Burlington-Edison Tuesday.
Anacortes' Tanner McLaughlin threw a three-hitter against visiting Lynden Thursday, but the Lions scored two runs early and escaped with a 2-1 Northwest Conference win.
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