When it comes to softball, WFW’s Dacus isn’t horsing around, wins All-Area Player of the Year

It’s a simple equation.

The high school sports website MaxPreps uses computers to rank every softball team in Washington. W.F. West is its No. 1 team, regardless of classification.

Junior right-hander Kamy Dacus pitched 97 percent of the Bearcats’ defensive innings and batted a team-leading .500.

Thus, the most impactful player on arguably the state’s best team is a logical choice to be The Olympian’s 2021 All-Area Softball Player of the Year.

Dacus, who got the decision in every game as W.F. West finished 16-0 and won the 2A Southwest District championship, had an earned run average of 0.69, holding opponents to a .149 batting average. Using a mix of rise balls, curves and screwballs, she struck out 185 in 102 innings and walked just 10.

In addition to her lofty batting average, she blasted six home runs and drove in 28 runs.

Bearcats’ coach Caty Lieseke believes Dacus has a unique ability to handle being an everyday pitcher.

“Kamy’s a kid who finds a way to make things work, even if her body isn’t feeling it,” she said. “Usually, everyone has a game or two where you say, ‘Well, that was pretty rough.’ Kamy might tell you she’s had one of those games, but it doesn’t show up in the numbers.”

Dacus becomes the first W.F. West player to be chosen the Olympian’s top softball player in 20 years, since Sasha Gray was selected in 2001 when the school was commonly known by its alternate name, Chehalis. Lexie Strasser, a Bearcats’ pitcher who also played volleyball and basketball, was the newspaper’s overall female athlete of the year for 2016-17, when the softball honor went to Yelm’s Ally Choate.

Dacus’ path to becoming the workhorse pitcher of a softball power began at age 5, when her dad, Canaan, a former baseball player at Yakima Valley Community College, signed her up.

“I was naturally good at it and started to love it,” she said.

When she was 10, Dacus became a pitcher.

Lieseke heard rumors but didn’t see Dacus play until tryouts her freshman year.

“I remember watching her in practice and saying, ‘She’s the real deal,’” the Bearcats’ coach said. “Then my dad, who’s seen a lot of softball over the years, came to our first game. Afterwards, he came up to me and said, ‘She’s the real deal.’”

The results were a season nearly as dazzling as her junior year.

In 2019, the last time area softball teams played since the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dacus stepped right into the ace’s role on a W.F. West team that reached the championship game of the state tournament before losing, 3-0, to Woodland. She finished 20-4, with a 2.15 ERA and 186 strikeouts.

“She’s young for her grade, so to see her rise to the level of the older girls around her and grow in confidence as a freshman was impressive,” said Lieseke.

Worried about putting too much on Dacus’ right away, the Bearcats used their designated player to hit for her early in the season.

“About halfway through, we decided we needed her in a hitting role, too, to have her even more a part of the game mentally,” Lieseke said.

Dacus hit .409 and clouted three home runs the rest of the way. In her first at-bat in the state tournament, against Port Angeles, she hit a home run.

“That was kind of like, ‘She’s here, she’s made it. She’s someone we can count on to make things happen,’” Lieseke said. “Then, to see her show up this year and say, ‘I’m in charge,’ was just what we needed.”

Dacus was ready for the challenge of pitching every day, having come close to the same role as a freshman.

“Coming into the season, I knew it was going to be like that,” she said. “You have to focus and take it one game, one pitch at a time. You have to stay mentally strong.”

Naturally, with the loss to the Beavers still on their minds, and a dominant season cut a step short of potential redemption this year, Dacus and outfielder Breanna Crosby, the only other Bearcat junior, and their teammates are looking forward to the expected resumption of state competition in 2022.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Dacus said. “We can’t wait. It was really tough there wasn’t a state tournament this year. We would have done some things.”

Can Dacus get even better as W.F. West stalks the biggest trophy? It took Lieseke a long moment to think of anything her ace can fine tune.

“That’s a hard, hard question,” she said. “We have talked about her being cognizant of the whole at-bat when she’s facing hitters. The 0-2 pitch doesn’t have to be a strikeout pitch.”

The two Bearcat pitchers previously honored by The Olympian went on to play in college: Gray at Coker College, an NCAA Division II school in South Carolina, and Strasser at Central Washington, where she has twice been All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference. But Dacus may not toe the slab at the next level.

Another sport has been her favorite. Dacus is a rodeo competitor, focused on barrel racing and pole bending. She plans to move to Texas after high school and has taken note of Weatherford College, a two-year school an hour’s drive west of Dallas, that fields both rodeo and softball teams.

“I’ve had a horse since I was 5, so I’ve always done rodeo,” she said. “I haven’t looked too far into it, but I’ll probably do rodeo in college.”

PAST ALL-AREA SOFTBALL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

2001: Sasha Gray, P, Chehalis

2002-03: None selected

2004: Ryanne Horton, P. Olympia

2005: Alicia Matthews, 1B-P-C, Yelm & Tara Curtis, P, Black Hills

2006: Lindsay Vander Lugt, P. Tumwater

2007: Annaleisha Parsley, P, Timberline & Cindy Baxter, P, River Ridge

2008: None selected

2009: Ramona Lorton, P, Centralia & Kassy Williamson, C, Capital

2010: Chelsea Felton, P, Tumwater

2011: Kierstin Smith, P, Tumwater

2012: Kierstin Smith, P, Tumwater

2013: Nikki Schroeder, C, Olympia

2014: Maddy Stensby, P, Olympia

2015: Maddy Stensby, P, Olympia

2016: Ally Choate, CF, Yelm

2017: Ally Choate, CF, Yelm

2018: Drea Schwaier, P, Yelm

2019: Tayelyn Cutler, P, Yelm