Things were a little different when Des Charouhas was coaching baseball at Lake Washington High.
Charouhas began one of the more legendary stretches in KingCo baseball history, leading the Kangaroos to nine league titles in nine seasons. His teams had seven stand-alone wins and two ties beginning in 1955, with the 1963 team — the last before Charouhas left for Redmond — going 25-0.
The record still stands as the best in school history, one better than the Kangs’ 2016 mark of 24-2 with a Class 3A championship.
Charouhas, 90, still lives in south Kirkland.
Back when he was coaching there was no state championship. Players were selected to an all-state game, and the all-state MVP sent to a national all-star game in New York City.
The pitcher from the 1963 undefeated team, John Sloan, went on to win a game as a starter in New York and play for Washington State University. Many of the other players were picked up by the University of Idaho, product of an early observation by Charouhas.
“[KingCo] was really just getting started, and Kirkland was ahead of everybody else by a mile,” Charouhas said. “One of them was that both Kirkland and Redmond kids went to Lake Washington. … We had the draw of the very best kids. They had all this experience. That was one of the important reasons why we were so doggone good.”
It was Charouhas and his first team in 1955 who built the original field, overhauling a “rock pile” of an infield and bringing rakes and mowers from home. There was a field, but it wasn’t kept up and there wasn’t a fence.
“There was just no money at that time to do anything, really,” Charouhas said. “It was so prehistoric that I had to get teachers to umpire, if you can imagine. One teacher was okay, but it wasn’t ideal.”
Charouhas orchestrated expanding the Kangaroos’ schedule, searching out the best competition in Western Washington and playing on Saturdays. The school didn’t provide adequate transportation, so Charouhas went to LeRoy Johnson Sr., founder of present-day Lee Johnson Chevrolet, and bartered for a way to get his players to and from games.
At times, the players — now in their 60s and 70s — still get together for reunions, which Charouhas said he enjoys attending.
