The Lake Washington High School fastpitch softball team won the state title last year. However, the Kang’s first home game this season might have been just as emotional.

The April 1 game was the first played on the high school campus in the team’s decades-long history after parents wrote letters to school and administration officials requesting better facilities.

The contest was a shutout victory against crosstown and league rival Juanita, improving the team’s record to 3-0. However, the victory for the program will last for years.

“It’s just awesome,” said former Kang softball player Kristi Walker, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch to her daughter, and current Kang player, Hannah Walker. “We’re very happy.”

The Walker family includes three generations who have played for the Kang softball team.

Though there were hints of bad weather on the horizon, Lake Washington Athletic Director George Crowder said the skies cleared just in time for the historic game.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” he said. “It was like the Olympic gods said ‘Let’s give these girls a break.’”

Winning 6-0, the game was preceded by a field dedication. Highlights of the contest included sophomore Tori Bivens pitching seven innings with ten strike outs, allowing three hits and walking two batters, according to Crowder. Senior left fielder Jessica Newton took the first swing at the plate for the Kangs.

However, the win for the program comes after years of playing at various city parks, while the softball field at the high school sat idle and unusable, according to LWHS fastpitch booster club president Jodee Hull. The team had played at Everest Park, Grass Lawn Park and most recently at Crestwood Park. Hull said that the parks, including Crestwood, lacked the infrastructure necessary for fastpitch, such as fences, batting cages and bullpens.

“The infield was really deep,” she said. “It was not designed for fast pitch.”

Kristi Walker, who was on the team when they played at Grass Lawn Park, said they jogged the 2.5 miles to the park for practice, which got old by her senior year.

“Softball became not fun because it was hard to get to the field,” she said.

In 2011, the softball field was converted into a parking lot for construction when the high school was rebuilt. After construction was finished, the team had to wait another two years for the field to seed. It fwas inally opened for practice last year.

Hull, whose daughter Kylisa Hull is a junior on the team, has coached Little League in Bellevue for 11 years and hopes now that the girls are playing at home they will be able to grow the program. Practicing and playing outside the school grounds, she said, prevented many girls who lacked access to transportation from playing.

Fellow booster club member Janet Steele, whose daughter Hannah Steele also plays on the team, added that they would pack as many girls into their vehicles as possible to drive to practice. As Hull and Steele see it, it’s about time a team that walked away with the state championship last year gets to play on its own field. The year before, they took second in league and made it to the state semi-finals in 2012.

“The girls are excited to play on campus,” Hull said. “They were always contenders, they always had a solid program.”

Parents and players hope that removing this inhibition, possibly reflected in the lack of a junior varsity team for the past two years and the consistent team size, will bolster the number of girls involved.

Additionally, having their home games actually played on campus, they hope, will lead to more support from the student body. The first game reflected the pride many students and parents have in the program as the stands were packed – including the school’s drum line. It also allows the booster club to do things such as decorate the stands and hang banners.

“We feel more students will come out and want to support the team,” Hull said. “It’s a beautiful looking field.”

For some, the new field is also seen as fixing perceived inequalities between the baseball team and fastpitch team. The possible inequalities recently came to light when high school administration officials announced they were moving the baseball team from Lee Johnson Field in downtown, where they have played for decades, to the renovated baseball field on campus. The decision was recently put on hold, however, due to protests from not just the baseball team but alumnus and school district board members.

While the seniors on the fast pitch were eager to get their own field before they graduated, Hull said overall they have stayed focused on the game rather than controversies surrounding it.

“The district has done a good job of stepping up and making it right and making these girls feel honored to be a part of it,” Hull said.

Head Coach Traci Tawney said she will have plenty of returning players next year, and hopes for more girls to turn out now they have their own field.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “It’s just exciting for the players, fans and former players to get the support of the students.”

She also hopes the new field will serve as a catalyst for creating better connections between the high school program and Little League teams in the area.

“They want to know what’s next for them in the community and that the people support it,” she said.