Family Bonds Strengthened During Huskies’ Magical Run

By Brian Tom

By Washington Huskies

June 14^th, 2018

On April 23, Washington dropped a game to UT Rio Grande Valley, 5-3, that could be looked at as the turning point of what has become a magical season for the Men’s College World Series-bound Huskies.

The loss came on the heels of a late comeback win at California that helped the Huskies avoid a road sweep and was supposed to serve as the positive momentum shift that the team desperately needed. Instead, one day later, the UW players found themselves in the outfield of Husky Ballpark, out of ear-shot from awaiting family and fans, having an unpleasant post-game talk with their ninth-year head coach Lindsay Meggs.

That night Meggs challenged his kids. It was the kind of speech a father would give to his sons, imploring them to be the best versions of themselves from that day forward. It was an uncomfortable family meeting, but it was a necessary one that ended up bringing the team together.

“We’re hard on our guys,” said Meggs, who coached his sons, Joe and Jack, during his first eight years of leading the Washington program. “I think our guys will tell you that. It’s tough love. It’s love, but it’s tough love.

“It’s demanding,” he continued. “We have a pretty good feel for how hard it’s going to be to get to this point. With that in mind, a lot of people don’t want to put that time in, they don’t want to put that kind of effort in. They’re along for the ride and enough is enough, but this is a group that really felt like once we got it going, if we could keep it going, that anything could happen.”

Family Bonds Strengthened During Huskies’ Magical Run

Little did Meggs and the entire team know, but the Huskies would take off after that family meeting. They were 18-18 following the loss to UTRGV, but would go on to close out the regular season by winning each of their next five series’ and not only secure a post-season berth, but come within three outs of capturing the Pac-12 championship.

“I remember after the loss we had to UTRVG,” said junior third baseman Willie MacIver. “We all got together as a team and said, ‘We know we have this chemistry. We’ve had it all year. We’ve gone through ups and downs together.’

“Through the whole time, we all stuck together as a team. No one started pointing fingers. No one was upset at each other. Everyone said, ‘Alright, this is our time. We’ve got to come together. We’ve got to play for us.’ We’re doing it for each other as a family.”

Sure, like all families, there are spats and disagreements here and there. But at the end of the day, the players truly treat each other like they are blood brothers.

“We’re a family, and families don’t turn on each other even when times are bad,” said MacIver, who was a ninth-round draft pick by the Colorado Rockies. “In the back of our minds, we knew we had to start winning, and we knew if we came together, we could do that. We’ve always known we’ve had this special thing.”

The Huskies have gone 17-6 since that loss and have indeed turned 2018 into a “special thing.” And along the way, everyone has contributed in their own ways.

“The one thing the coaching staff has really instilled in us is having 35 leaders,” said redshirt freshman pitcher Lucas Knowles. “So each person in the dugout is a leader in a different way. Everyone has their role. Not everyone is going to start (on the mound) or hit the big home run in that game, but everyone has a role. So (having) 35 leaders is a big staple in our program.”

As the team started winning, the personality of the 35-man squad started coming out more and more. Unlike a lot of squads that tighten up as the stakes get bigger and bigger, the Huskies have done the polar opposite. They have embraced the pressure and have actually seemed more relaxed as the spotlight has gotten brighter.

Besides the uniforms, you can always spot who the Diamond Dawgs are on the field. They’re usually the team purposely taking fly balls off their chests during the opposition’s batting practice, chanting, “Dos! Dos! Dos!” Or they’re the ones dancing like no one is watching during stretching. And the dancing carries over into the games, as the Huskies are never shy about busting a move in the dugout when their favorite songs come across the loud speakers.

The Huskies have also adopted several rallying cries in recent week, none more visible or vocal than their usage of the word “JOOG.” Anytime anything good happens on the field, the team will start chanting “JOOG! JOOG! JOOG!” The have even created the “JOOG” bat, which senior KJ Brady can be seen parading around the dugout after anything good happens. It doesn’t stop there, though, as MacIver has created t-shirts to commemorate their newest rallying cry.

While the Huskies have an outward appearance of keeping things light at all times, there have also been some serious challenges that they have had to overcome to reach where they are today, the kind of stuff that bring families closer together.

There was a time early in the season that several of the key players missed significant action on the field due to injuries. AJ Graffanino has missed more games than he has played due to a hamstring injury. MacIver broke his hamate bone before the season began and missed the first six weeks of the season. In both cases, the family circled the wagons and picked their brothers up, keeping the team afloat through adversity.

But perhaps the most challenging moment off the field this season came when Brady lost his mom in a car accident in late April. Brady’s teammates and coaches rallied around the senior and picked him up, supporting him in the most trying time of his life, because that’s what families do.

“I think he really felt good about the support he had from his teammates and his coaches,” Meggs told the Seattle Times recently. “I think the beauty of team sports is, if you’re really a team, then you always have somebody to go to, and I think the guys were there for him. It meant a lot to him.”

When the Brady family held a funeral in Marysville, Wash., on May 20, one day after the Huskies returned from a sweep of Utah in Salt Lake City, no less than 30 teammates traveled an hour north to support their grieving teammate.

The family atmosphere of the Huskies extends beyond just the 35 guys on the roster. It reaches all those that have worn the Purple and Gold on the diamond. The run the current Huskies have went on is a tribute to all those that have put in their dues on Montlake.

A viral video emerged after the Huskies won the Super Regional of former Husky and current Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star, Jake Lamb, screaming uncontrollably. The joy captured on video encapsulates how most of the UW Baseball alums feel.

“I don’t think anybody can understand how much this means to people until you see something like that,” Meggs said of the video. “You can talk about it, you can share an email with someone, you can talk in detail about a text, but I think that is worth a thousand words.

“That’s a big leaguer whose life isn’t going to change because we’re going to Omaha, but it’s so important to him, and it’s not just because he has a brother (Dylan) in the program, but because he knows how hard we’ve worked and what this means to people. I thought that was fantastic. I think that’s maybe the best moment for our program in terms of what this means to people and how excited they really are.”

It’s a feeling of joy, that is only matched by a special family bond that the Huskies have formed during their magical run.

“We’ve always known we’ve had this special thing,” said MacIver. “There’s a special feeling with this team that I haven’t had with any team, really. It’s incredible. When you have that feeling, you can come back when you’re down like we did at Fullerton. You can stick together when the times are tough. It’s not a surprise to us that we’re here because we love each other and we love to play baseball.”