Best of 2016: Eccles, GH Longshore earn 2016 honors

Hoquiam’s Curtis Eccles tapped as coach of the year; GH Longshore baseball named team of the year

By The Daily World • January 4, 2017 1:30 am
(Brendan Carl | The Daily World, file) Grays Harbor Longshore’s, left to right, Aidan Arrington, Kolby Standstipher, Chase McCarthy, Brandon Rogers, Jake Herzog, Justin Spencer, Jace Varner, Oscar Escalante, Camden Anderson, Austin Silva, Kyle Standstipher and bat kid Emmie Spencer line up on the top step of the dugout before practice at Olympic Stadium. The Senior Babe Ruth baseball team was the first Harbor-based team to win a Senior Babe Ruth regional pennant and was honored as The Daily World’s Team of the Year for 2016.
(Brendan Carl | The Daily World, file) Grays Harbor Longshore’s, left to right, Aidan Arrington, Kolby Standstipher, Chase McCarthy, Brandon Rogers, Jake Herzog, Justin Spencer, Jace Varner, Oscar Escalante, Camden Anderson, Austin Silva, Kyle Standstipher and bat kid Emmie Spencer line up on the top step of the dugout before practice at Olympic Stadium. The Senior Babe Ruth baseball team was the first Harbor-based team to win a Senior Babe Ruth regional pennant and was honored as The Daily World’s Team of the Year for 2016.

Entering his 11th season at the helm of the Hoquiam High School boys basketball program, Curtis Eccles is looking forward to the Evergreen 1A League season and seeing what the Grizzlies are going to do in 2017.

His 2016 season was pretty good, starting with an HHS career record 133rd win in January.

Later in the season, Eccles guided Hoquiam to its first state tournament appearance since 2006 and the Grizzlies came home with a sixth-place trophy.

Based on his prowess on the Hoquiam sideline at Hoquiam Square Garden, as well as his work helping Twin Harbors elementary school learn the game of basketball, Eccles earned The Daily World’s Coach of the Year honors for 2016.

On the baseball diamond, Twin Harbors baseball went through a sea-change with sharing players between the Grays Harbor Babe Ruth League and the Harbors’ American Legion baseball teams.

One of those shared teams was the Grays Harbor Longshore, which played a traveling and Senior Babe Ruth baseball schedule for 16-18-year-old players. Longshore made the most of their schedule and went farther than any other Grays Harbor-based Senior Babe Ruth baseball team — the 2016 Senior Babe Ruth World Series.

Although Longshore’s stay at the World Series was short, there is a Pacific Northwest regional pennant to show off and the honor of being named The Daily World’s Team of the Year for 2016.

Curtis Eccles

Eccles, a Castle Rock native, moved over to Hoquiam during the summer of 2006 after coaching boys basketball and baseball at Woodland. After a rough start, Eccles got his first winning season at Hoquiam in 2010-11 and hasn’t looked back — six straight entering this season, including a 21-7 mark to finish the 2015-16 season.

In January, Hoquiam knocked off Forks on the road, 79-51, which gave Eccles his 133rd career win at Hoquiam, passing Brian Grun on the school’s career win list. He finished the season in March with 140 wins and currently stands at 147 after the Grizzlies’ win over Tenino on Tuesday.

Just as the season kicks off, Eccles and his players hold the Little Dribblers Basketball Camp. The camp is designed to help elementary school children stay active and learn the sport of basketball, while it gives Hoquiam’s players a chance to teach what they’ve learned and pass their knowledge along.

Eccles also runs a summer basketball tournament for sixth, seventh and eighth grade teams as well, adding to his off-season duties.

“I knew when we hired him we liked his basketball background and we loved his enthusiasm for the game,” HHS athletic director/girls basketball coach Mark Maxfield, who hired Eccles in 2006, said. “We felt he would spend time building the program and he’s done that. He helps the youth basketball teams, the middle school program and the two camps as well. He has a passion for the game and he’s very unselfish with his time; in this day and age, that is what it takes.

“With the kids he had (last season and the start of this one), they’ve come up through his system,” Maxfield added. “Everything came together for him and for them, because he did all of the hard work beforehand. He and the kids are reaping the benefits of that work.

“He’s a joy to be around. He’s always upbeat and positive, even when things are going poorly. He looks at the positive side and that bodes well for him and for the program. He’s a lot of fun to be around. I don’t know how he does it sometimes.”

Grays Harbor Longshore

Every summer, the Grays Harbor Longshore, coached by Rusty Standstipher, hits the road to regional baseball tournament to get players experience and exposure. In this past summer, Longshore used every bit of it.

The roster is a true mixture of Harbor and import players — Aberdeen’s Austin Silva and Sage Bridges, Elma’s Oscar Escalante and Justin Spencer, Hoquiam’s Camden Andersen, Kolby and Kyle Standstipher and Jace Varner, Montesano’s Jake Herzog, Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s Aidan Arrington and Rochester’s Chase McCarthy and Brandon Rogers. It also had championship experience as well with the Standstipher brothers and Andersen a part of Hoquiam’s 2015 state 1A championship team and Arrington pitching for the Titans in the state 2B baseball title game in May.

In late July, Longshore ran a three-day gauntlet in 90-plus degree heat in Quincy to win the Senior Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest pennant. Down 4-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning against Wilder, of Port Angeles, Longshore loaded the bases.

Kolby Standstipher hit a three-run double to tie the game before Andersen delivered a walk-off RBI single to advance to the regional title game. Against Rural Baseball Inc, of Winlock, Longshore got two solid pitching performances from Escalante and Kolby Standstipher to win the first game. In the second title game, Kyle Standstipher threw a complete game, striking out 11, while McCarthy and Arrington had three hits each.

In the Senior Babe Ruth World Series, Longshore was unable to produce the offense needed to stay with their opponents in going 0-4 in pool play.

“The kids played their asses off,” Longshore head coach Rusty Standstipher said after the final game. “It has been fun. It has been a good experience. We’re not that far away, athletically, with the other teams here.”