The Unlikely Dynasty

How the Skyview High School softball program went from bottom dwellers to champions

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography

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NAMPA - Every championship has a story.

But there might not quite be one like the Skyview High School softball team’s run out of Nampa, Idaho.

It went from multiple consecutive losing seasons, academic issues and just having enough players to field a team to the unlikeliest of back-to-back Class 5A state championships.

“It’s insane. I don’t really know how else to explain it,” said recently graduated shortstop,” Delaney Keith. “I’m extremely honored to be able to say that I was a part of something like this. It will definitely be something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

START AND STOP

The ascension to the top was supposed to be years in the making rather than something out of left field. The foundation had seemingly been set a little more than a decade earlier. The Hawks had a four-year stretch from 2011 to 2014 where they made four consecutive playoff appearances and brought home a trophy in all but one season, including the program’s first state championship in 2012. There were at least three college-bound athletes on that team alone.

But five straight losing seasons quickly put a stop to it. So much so that Skyview didn’t win a single league game in 2018. It didn’t get much better with the move up from the 4A Southern Idaho Conference to the 5A SIC the following year either. Not even a freshman class that wound up producing three college players alone was enough. The Hawks went 8-17-1 and lost by an average of more than nine runs per game in 2019.

“We basically ran practices,” pitcher Taylor Brewer said.  “I would hit our outfielders balls. We would decide what we wanted to do and our coaches were just kind of there. It was really frustrating because my whole class had been playing softball for 10 years. It was just not the level that we were used to.”

Brewer ended up fracturing her right throwing arm that season. She was the only one who pitched in practices and games.

“I actually pitched until I couldn’t,” Brewer said. “I remember I was fighting through the pain and then I got a bunt and I threw it overhand and I fell down on the field crying because it hurt so bad.” 

And with the resignation of a second coach in as many seasons, it didn’t appear like things were going to get any better. But then fate brought them a coach who knew a little something about winning.

RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB

Tim Souza was looking to get back into high school coaching after spending some time away from it at nearby Northwest Nazarene University. He had previously guided Mountain View to its first-ever state championship in 2014 - his first season - before leaving to become an assistant with the Nighthawks for two seasons (2018-19). And in his first season there, NNU had the best season in program history. It set records for wins (31) and conference wins (19). Northwest Nazarene also won its first regular season championship, conference tournament title and made the NCAA Division II national tournament for the first time.

But there were no plans for where his next stop would be. He was hired on as security for the Nampa School District and intended to help out whoever might be interested in his services.

Souza wasn’t a free agent for long. He actually verbally agreed to be an assistant at Columbia High School. But just a week later in September 2019, Skyview had a head coaching vacancy to fill. When it found out that Souza had left NNU and was working within the district, it quickly asked if he wanted to be a head coach again? The answer was a resounding yes.

“It was a good fit. It was just a mile and a half from my house,” Souza said with a laugh.

Souza had some idea of what he was getting himself into.

He actually saw them play in 2018 - he was scouting the other team.

Souza knew of the academic issues too. Three girls had been ineligible to play before his arrival. So the first thing he implemented wasn’t his signs, but study halls. 

They were mandatory and Souza or his staff were always there. Grades were checked once a week and teachers and counselors were consulted with on a daily basis to make sure kids were in the right classes. Souza admits the first semester was a little rough. But by the start of the 2020 season, everyone who wanted to play was eligible.

“That’s just a big part of my philosophy,” Souza said. “So just to see that they changed that around and made it a priority themselves and understood the value of it and took personal accountability for it, was the most rewarding part.”

Souza made wholesale changes on the field too with open gyms, workouts and cages all through winter break before putting the team through the wringer at practices.

“The first couple of practices, we got a little scared,” Brewer said with a laugh. “You go from kind of doing your own practices to him working our butts off. It was like, ‘Oh, maybe we bit off more than we could chew. But it was really nice having the competitiveness of the game back with him.”

It all paid off, though.

Skyview began the season 4-0, including a 12-10 win over Timberline, which was picked third that year in the preseason coaches’ poll. But the rest of the year was canceled due to the start of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“It really sucked because I definitely felt like we could have possibly done that year what we did the last two years,” said incoming senior pitcher Asha Zamora. “But it was still a big thing for us to win four games. And I think that just set the tone for us and how we wanted it to continue on the next season.”

Everyone was set to come back next season as well. And unbeknownst to them, another was on the way. One that would go down as arguably the best player in program history.

STAR(S) IN THE MAKING

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography

Keith came over from Salem, Oregon because high school sports there were still not allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions. She enrolled in Skyview midway through the second semester in 2021. Keith’s father had actually coached with Souza for the Northwest Nazarene University baseball team when she was just a kid.

It was perfect timing as it turned out. Because the Hawks needed Keith in more ways than one.

Keith was one of only 20 girls who showed up to tryouts. Skyview had almost double that amount the year before. By day two, the number dwindled down to 15.

There was no junior varsity team and just 12 girls suited up for the season opener against Columbia on March 11, 2021.  It takes nine players just to play a game of softball.

Skyview then lost another player midway though the season when one was ruled ineligible to play due to her transfer from another Idaho high school not qualifying as a bonafide move under the Idaho High School Activities Association’s guidelines. The Hawks also had to forfeit three of their previous wins. That, coupled with a three-game losing streak, prompted Souza to enlist the help of a trusted friend and softball icon.

Sue Enquist was UCLA’s first All-American and won a combined 11 national titles there as a player and coach. She went 887-175-1 during her coaching career and her .835 winning percentage is the highest ever recorded by any softball coach with 800 career wins. Enquist has been inducted into multiple hall of fames, including the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Souza met and got to know her through a coaching clinic in California. He told Enquist about everything going on with his team and asked if there was something she had talked about before to give to him. She ended up sending him a personal four-minute message.

It was played several times the rest of the year, including when the Hawks’ season was on the brink in a district elimination game against Borah.

“It was pretty amazing,” Souza said. “We were able to use that as well to reflect on it. It helped redirect our thinking. We were almost like a new team each and every time we played it.”

FROM UNDERDOG TO CHAMPION

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography

Skyview shutout Borah 12-0 to advance to the state play-in game, which just so happened to fall on the same day as prom. So the girls brought their softball gear - and dresses. They took care of business with an 18-8 shellacking of Lake City and celebrated on the way home by getting ready for the big school dance. Curling irons, makeup, eyelashes and nails littered the bus. Outlets were plugged in on every other aisle and Brewer was designated as the team’s stylist. All while Souza was hunkered down in the front.

“I offered to braid because I had braided my own daughters’ hair,” said Souza with a smile. “But they didn’t trust me. They said I was too far removed.”

They arrived all ready to go with still an hour and a half to spare. 

“I think that was the first time that all of us actually started to bond,” Brewer said. “From then on out it was like, ‘You know what, if we can do this on prom day, we can do whatever.’ That was the main determining factor of what helped us overcome everything and actually gave us hope.”

Hope that carried over to state in a way no one saw coming.

The Hawks ran roughshod over everybody there. They didn’t drop a single game and only won one game by fewer than six runs. Not even a sudden change of scenery derailed them. The tournament was moved from Mountain View to their own backyard due to weather. Skyview High School was the exact same spot where Souza had won his last state title with Mountain View almost seven years to the day. A fact that athletic director Eric Bonds reminded him of.

“I said, ‘I’m not going there,’” Souza said with a grin. “That was a different time. I don’t let myself get too distracted.”

Neither did the rest of his team.

Skyview blanked reigning state champion Mountain View 12-0 in the semis to set up another date with Rocky Mountain, which it had beaten 10-7 in the opener. And against a program that had approximately 85 kids at tryouts and three separate teams alone, the Hawks beat them even worse this time. They nearly doubled up the Grizzlies 14-8 for the improbable state championship capped by RayAnn Brown’s catch in right center field. Souza was calling pitches behind the fence with the same girl who had been ruled ineligible just a month earlier. He had kept her around as a team manager and she was the first one he hugged when the final out occurred. 

It was just the second 5A state title in school history and came just six months after the volleyball team became the first.

“It was so big for us because I felt like Skyview softball was one of those sports that just didn’t get very much recognition,” Zamora said. “I hope this will encourage more girls to be a part of this.”

That’s exactly what happened too.

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography

PROVING IT ALL OVER AGAIN

Souza didn’t have any problem getting girls out for the 2022 season. He actually had enough for a full junior varsity team too.

The problem this time around was that even with the loss of just one senior, the Hawks were still not quite getting their respect.

“No one thought that we deserved to win last year. And everyone would tell us, ‘Oh you got lucky last year,’” Brewer said. “But none of us cared what everyone else said. Everything we did was for us. It was to prove it to ourselves. We didn’t have anything to prove to anyone else, but us.”

The Hawks still started the year 23-0.

“It didn’t really feel like we were undefeated. Everyone kept telling us that. But the feeling wasn’t really there,” Keith said. “We just kind of felt like we were playing good ball and were just winning. But the pressure really didn’t get to us.”

Which is why when the eventual losses came, they didn’t panic. 

Skyview fell 11-8 to Eagle in the district semifinals without the services of Brewer who missed the entire tournament because of a deviated bulging disc in her back. Doctors actually advised her to sit out for the rest of the season. It came less than a year after she had to have surgery on a nerve in her right throwing arm.

The second blemish occurred in the state semis. The Hawks spotted district champion Owyhee a 6-0 lead before they ever came up to bat. They ended up losing 10-9 after a deep fly ball was caught. The only way to repeat now, was for them to win four games in a row in one day. A fact that the Storm seemingly knew. According to Skyview, they acted as if they had just won the state title by storming the field. 

“When we lost, we were like it doesn’t matter who we’re playing next, we’re beating them just to get back here to beat them again,” Keith said. “It definitely sparked us.”

Skyview used that motivation to do just that. It even came back from a 4-2 deficit against Timberline in the bottom of the seventh inning against arguably the best pitcher in the state in Amber Thornton who will play for Boise State. The Hawks had the bottom of the order coming up. Neither one got out and Lily Justesen walked it off. They then got payback over Eagle 13-11 to come all the way back around to the title game and face a familiar foe. But Skyview had to beat Owyhee two straight times.

No problem.

Thanks to Brewer’s inspiring performance in the circle and Keith’s bat, it swept the Storm 4-3 and 9-4 for back-to-back state titles. The Hawks only trailed once the entire series. And that was just by a run early on in the first game.

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography

Brewer threw 20 total innings, including 17 consecutive from the Timberline game to halfway though the second championship game against Owyhee. 

“I could barely walk and was basically living off a bottle of ibuprofen,” Brewer said. “But there was no way I was going to sit during my senior state season. Never has been.”

Keith hit a two-home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to put them up 4-1 in the first game and then sealed it in the second by making it a five-run lead with another two-run jack in the bottom of the sixth.

“It definitely meant a lot, especially because I owe this team a lot for accepting me last year and for battling through injuries and everything,” Keith said. “Winning that last game was definitely memorable and a great way to end my senior year.”

Keith was one of nine players who earned all-league honors and four to be named all-state. She was also the Gatorade Idaho Softball Player of the Year for the second straight season. No Skyview softball player had even won the award once. Keith finished the year hitting .596 with 51 RBIs and 13 home runs. She was the first Skyview athlete to win it in back-to-back years since Weber State junior volleyball player Dani Nay in 2017-18. Keith will play Division I softball at Coastal Carolina.

Three others from this team will also play college softball next year.

Summer Makinster and Ella Svaty will both be attending North Idaho College, while Brewer will be realizing her dreams at Southwestern Oregon Community College.

“It’s just really relieving for me because I am 5-foot-6 and 107 pounds and a scrawny little girl who every time I stepped out on the mound I heard the dugout make a comment of, ‘Oh look at this string bean,’” Brewer said. “I do not fit the typical mold of a pitcher or a softball player in general, so it’s really cool for me.”

Skyview didn’t fit the mold either. But it still went 56-10 during the unexpected three-season stretch.

The Hawks will now transition down to the 4A classification next season. They were already the smallest 5A school in the state and fell well under the 1,279 students required to play in 4A with 1,150, according to the Idaho Statesman. Skyview had about 300 kids less than the next closest school in the 5A SIC in Capital. Timberline (2,533) and Rocky Mountain (2,428) had more than double its enrollment.

No team in Idaho history has won consecutive state titles in two separate classifications. 

So this championship story may not be done with just yet.

“It doesn’t matter what county you’re from. What school you’re from. What town, any of those things. Your identity is what you decide to put into it, your work and how you decide to develop yourself as an individual and as a team for your school or whoever,” Souza said. “And if you work hard enough and you do things the right way, long enough, consistently enough, you can be as good as anybody else.”

Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography