High school softball 2026 season preview: Haagen powers Timberline Blazers
The high school softball season is underway in Washington, and The News Tribune has been making stops across the South Sound, visiting local programs at practices as games begin. Up next, we’re previewing a handful of teams individually as they begin league play.
Here’s how things are shaping up for the Timberline Blazers this spring.
Editor’s note: The “outlook” section for each program is pulled from the TNT’s practice tour. Find the full practice tour story here, complete with insight on several teams in the area, quotes, photos, videos and more.
TIMBERLINE BLAZERS
Head coach: Lynsi Polanco, 9th season
2025 results: 15-7, Class 3A state tournament first round
OUTLOOK
Head coach Lynsi Polanco has seen her fair share of homers, but nothing like Nevaeh Haagen’s blast in a game with Lincoln last spring. Nothing that far.
“She nuked it,” Polanco recalled Friday.
It’s what Haagen does. The reigning PSL Nisqually MVP clobbered 11 home runs and a South Sound-leading 61 RBI last season, adding 61 innings as Timberline’s No. 1 arm. Expect another two-way workhorse role for the Central Arkansas commit.
“I told her: Make sure that you’re going to a school that’s going to let you hit,” Polanco told The News Tribune, “because for you to go and be a pitcher only is a disgrace. She’s just so consistent with her hitting. She’s a power hitter, but she’s also just a line-drive, base-hit hitter. She gets on, she moves people around. She’s smart on the bases.
“Having her as one of our offensive weapons is just fun to watch.”
Can Timberline make another 3A state tournament run with its core intact? First-team INF/P Madelyn Gilmore moved to Hawaii, but the Blazers return the MVP Haagen and a pair of all-PSL picks — not to mention the chips on their shoulders after falling to eventual-champion Liberty in the first round of last year’s state bracket.
“We’re hoping to pick right up where we left off last year,” Polanco said. “There’s definitely a little more of a championship mindset. They’re hungry. They know that we have unfinished business from last year.”
All-league catcher Kayleese Dorfner forms one of the area’s best batteries with Haagen, also her club teammate. The junior backstop hit .390 with eight homers and 22 RBI last spring.
“Kayleese is a natural leader out there, which is what you expect out of a catcher,” Polanco said. “But she’s a perfectionist. She kind of beats herself up sometimes. But those are the kids that you know will prevail because she’s putting in extra work and making the little, minor tweaks that she needs to, in every aspect of the game.”
Watch for outfielder Brookelyn Read, too, a consistent contact hitter and “RBI machine,” Polanco said.
The defending 3A PSL champions open their league slate at Silas on March 16, weather permitting.
KEY PLAYERS
UTIL Nevaeh Haagen
C Kayleese Dorfner
OF Brookelyn Read
SAVE THE DATE
April 22: vs. River Ridge, 4 p.m.
April 24: at Gig Harbor, 6 p.m.
May 6: vs. Peninsula, 4 p.m.
