“I knew after we won districts as a golf team (in October), I was thinking about getting ready for the baseball season,” Bringhurst said. “I knew that coming into this year that we would have a pretty solid baseball team with a good chance of making it to state. So I was super excited about the possibility of getting to compete in state for two different sports, and how cool that would be.”
That dream became reality last week when the Spudders baseball team won the district title to advance to state.
Bringhurst said the rest of the Ridgefield golf team has been going out to Tri-Mountain Golf Course every day after school for the past month to get ready for state. In Southwest Washington, the high school boys golf regular season is held in the fall because of a limited number of available golf courses in the region. Girls golf is played in the spring.
“I’m kind of bummed that I’m not able to be there with them,” he said of his golf teammates. “But I usually play on the weekends, playing 18 holes on Saturday and Sunday with some practice thrown in there too.”
Bringhurst also said his family has a golf simulator in their basement, which he and his brother Cade use to keep their golf game sharp year-round.
“My brother, he’s the golfer,” Bringhurst said. “He just plays golf. He puts in a lot of time into his game, and it shows.”
Prior to four years ago, Kellen Bringhurst was primarily a baseball player. He’s played with Spudder teammates like Camden Ryder, Spencer Andersen and Brock Harrison since Little League.
“I’ve been playing with them for like 12 or 13 years,” he said.
He picked up golf in the eighth grade as he looked for another sport to play in high school.
“I wanted to stay busy, so I thought ‘you know what I’ll give golf a try my freshman year,’ ” he said. “I made varsity. … I just picked up a love for it, caught the golf bug, and I’ve loved it ever since.”
He qualified for state in golf and made the second-day cuts both as a sophomore and a junior, finishing as high as 27th overall.
When asked what sport he’d be playing right now if both golf and baseball were played exclusively in the spring, as is the case in some areas of the state, Bringhurst winced.
“I really don’t want you to make me answer that question,” he said. “It’s tough because I love them both so much. … I’m really thankful that I live in an area and play in a league that allows me to do both. If they were both in the same season, I honestly don’t know which one I’d pick.”
After playing in the baseball regional on Saturday, Bringhurst, along with baseball teammate Nick Radosevich, will join the Ridgefield golf team on Sunday at Liberty Lake Golf Course east of Spokane where the state tournament will be held Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Radosevich, a sophomore, was one of the five other golfers Ridgefield qualified for state.
“A team with four guys at state is really good,” Bringhurst said. “But we were able to get all six. And if we can all play well, make the cut, we have a legitimate chance to win state.”
If all goes well and the Spudder baseball team wins two games in Centralia on Saturday, Ridgefield baseball coach Nick Allen has arranged for Bringhurst and Radosevich to get some baseball practice at nearby Central Valley High School while they are competing at the state golf tournament.
“It’s going to be a crazy week for them,” Allen said. “But it’s a good problem to have.”
Then Bringhurst and Radosevich would rejoin their baseball teammates on Thursday in Yakima, where the 2A state finals are held.
“I hope that’s the way it works out,” Bringhurst said. “I’m super excited to get to compete in both sports, excel in both and help my teams try to win a state championship.”
