Warhawks soar to state championship

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 10, 2026

A competitive youth baseball team in Oak Harbor recently wrapped up a victorious season.

Triple-A, 12U team the Whidbey Warhawks, part of the Whidbey Island Baseball Club, topped off its 25-10 regular season with a dominant performance at a state championship held the last weekend of June in Puyallup, where it swept all four of its games. That success came without the dedicated practice facilities many of the Warhawks’ opponents enjoy.

Head coach Tyson Van Dam believes Oak Harbor has the talent to sustain the Warhawks’ success and hopes it will eventually lead to improved baseball facilities.

“That would be the dream, is to have a facility where kids could hit and work out year round and then even compete at a higher level,” he said.

Throughout the season, the Warhawks travel to play “pickup” games against other teams in the region, Van Dam explained.

Opponents dealt the Warhawks two tough losses to begin the season, recalled Michael James, whose son, Eli, plays on the team. “Mental mistakes” and the inability to play consistently through nine innings hurt the Warhawks initially, Van Dam said. Success at a tournament in April in Yakima marked the turning point of the season.

Games were fast-paced and highly competitive. But the Warhawks performed well, giving them momentum going forward.

“From there on out, my goodness, I don’t know if we lost two games in a row,” the head coach said. “If we lost a game, we’d win three or four after that.”

Not much changed strategically for the Warhawks ahead of that tournament, explained Van Dam. He credits his players with embracing resiliency.

“Baseball is not a time sport, so if they could just hang in there and compete and not fold, they gave themselves a chance,” Van Dam said. “I think the realization on their own that they could do that was huge. Coaches can only coach so much, but the players have to go out there and compete.”

Hitting and pitching became the roster’s strengths as the season progressed, Eli James said. Players were also motivated to improve as much as they could on their own.

“From a coach’s standpoint, we had all the tools. I wouldn’t say we really had a weak point,” Van Dam explained. “Really, we just had all the pieces, which made it really fun.”

Dex Kaneshiro, named an MVP of the tournament alongside teammate Nyjah Wooley, believes the early-season struggle ultimately benefited the team.

“We didn’t do that good in the beginning, but we got better, and the team spirit went up by a lot,” he said.

Currently, the Warhawks play on a pair of baseball fields off Ault Field Road that are owned by the North Whidbey Pool, Park and Recreation District. The team does not have access to indoor practice facilities like batting cages, useful for fine-tuning players’ swings and other skills without having to shag balls or deal with bad weather.

Funding such a facility would take a donor or donors, Van Dam explained, as indoor facilities are expensive and the Whidbey Island Baseball Club which the Warhawks is a part of is a nonprofit. Increased enrollment and awareness of the club may be beneficial in this regard. Michael James noted that the Warhawks program expanded to four teams — for four different age groups — ahead of the season.

“We’re optimistic in the future, as we get more and more interest in it and more support hopefully from the community and things like that, maybe we can expand facilities,” Michael James said.

Tryouts for next season will be held in August. Find more information on the Warhawks’ Facebook page, Whidbey Island Baseball Club, or by emailing whidbeyislandbaseballclub@gmail.com.