Rogers softball putting 4A SPSL on notice. The work started in a garage two years ago
Raygun Klippert was antsy. The coronavirus pandemic had brought everything to a standstill. It was 2021, her freshman year at Rogers High School in Puyallup and she was stuck at home taking classes online. Worse yet, she had no physical outlet. Klippert lived and breathed softball and at the peak of the pandemic, even playing team sports was off the table.
So Klippert took matters into her own hands. She told her dad she wanted to build a batting cage in the family’s garage and they got to work, laying down artificial turf, a black netting enclosure, a pitcher’s net and a pitching machine. There it stood in all its glory — 43 feet long, 15 feet tall, 15 feet wide.
While parts of the outside world stayed shut down, Klippert got to work in her garage, putting the newly-constructed cage to use. Then she started inviting her friends and high school teammates over, too. While some high school athletes were sitting around waiting for things to reopen, Klippert and the Rogers Rams were getting better.
“I just told my dad I wanted to have a batting cage so that over covid, people could still be working because everything was shut down,” said Klippert, now a junior shortstop and pitcher at Rogers. “Then my dad started doing hitting lessons in there and now it’s just grown.”
Junior teammate Keagun Norfleet, the team’s No. 1 pitcher, has spent plenty of time in the Klippert-family garage.
“We get our work done in there, it’s really fun but you’re with your group of friends, as well,” she said.
Rogers has snuck up on some teams this spring, posting a 9-1 record midway through the spring softball season. For the first time in six years, it beat district rival Puyallup this spring, a 5-3 win on April 4. Rogers’ most recent win against Puyallup came in 2017, before Puyallup snapped off 10 wins in a row in the series.
Given Klippert’s work ethic and leadership — even off-campus, as just a freshman — it’s not surprising to first-year coach Mike Hawkins who previously coached at Lakes for 16 years.
“She’s one of the kids that’s the first one here, last to go,” Hawkins said. “She’s one of our leaders but she’s pretty quiet about it. It just shows, she wants it bad.”
Both Klippert and Norfleet play outfield for their club team, but have thrived playing pitcher and shortstop this season for the Rams, complemented by junior outfielder Sydney Sasaki. Beating Puyallup served as validation for Rogers. Hawkins had no idea it had been six years since the Rams had defeated the Vikings.
“They hadn’t told me till after the game,” he said, chuckling.
The players told Hawkins they didn’t want to jinx it. After pulling it off, they were all smiles.
“I think it was a huge step in our progres sand it gave us a lot more confidence and motivation to keep working hard and getting better,” Sasaki said.
Norfleet felt the win signaled a shift in the 4A SPSL’s pecking order. At the very least, it put the league on notice.
“It was really big,” she said. “It set the tone for a lot of teams throughout the district. Over the years, we’ve been the underdog. This year, we’re going into every game looking at is as, we’re not. So it was really cool to take a win with them.”
The nucleus of talented juniors is hoping the good times roll on all the way to the state tournament. Rogers hasn’t been to state since 2019. There were no state tournaments in 2020 or 2021, due to the pandemic, and Rogers didn’t qualify for the state tournament last season.
“I know a lot of us are wanting it, especially since next year is going to be our senior year and we want to make a big move and a big statement before we leave,” Norfleet said. “Especially with the same girls, it’d be really cool, they’re like family.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated Rogers hadn’t made the state softball tournament since 2017. The Rams last made the state tournament in 2019.
This story was originally published April 23, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
