ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY

As he jogged in from his position at shortstop, Matt Fisher glanced up at the scoreboard and grew angrier with each step.

After just 3 1/2 innings, his Valley North baseball team trailed, 8-0, against Auburn last week in the American Legion state tournament.

Fisher, a 15-year-old on an 18-and-under team, began a between-innings tirade that resulted in a four-run fourth-inning rally and sparked a 16-12 victory and a state championship for Valley North.

“I was a little mad,” Fisher said. “I started going crazy. Some of the guys looked at me like, ‘What is he doing?’ A lot of them just acted like it was normal.”

A 15-year-old yelling at 18-year-olds is normal? In essence, Fisher was a high school freshman yelling at seniors and college freshmen. Normal?

Apparently on Valley North, it is. And it is one of the reasons the team, unheralded at the beginning of the season, is 12-0 in the postseason.

“[Age] isn’t even an issue on our team,” said 18-year-old center fielder Tim Weigand, a co-captain for Valley North. “We don’t look at them as younger guys. They are as equal as we are. The baseball team is like a big family, that’s why we’re so successful.”

Valley North, comprised of current and former Chatsworth High players, plays Montana today at 10 a.m. in the first round of the American Legion District 7 tournament in Boise, Idaho. The winner of the six-team tournament advances to the national tournament next week in Rapid City, S.D.

None of the Valley North players has ever been to Boise, and none planned on going this summer.

“No way I thought we’d be here,” Weigand said. “It wasn’t even a thought in my mind at the beginning of the season.”

Part of the reason for such skepticism was the number of young players that would be counted on to fill key roles. Fisher would start at shortstop. Mike Kunes, also 15, would be thrust into the role of No. 1 starter when Ismael Marin suffered an early season injury. Infielder Matt Cassel, another 15-year-old, would also start.

“To tell you the truth, I really didn’t know what we had,” Valley North Coach Matt LaCour said. “It took a while for the younger guys to adjust to a varsity-type of play but they watched how the older guys went about their business and adjusted. That may be one of the reasons we got this far.”

No one can say for sure, but without Kunes, Cassel and Fisher, Valley North likely wouldn’t have gotten this far.

Kunes is 12-0 for Valley North (32-6). Cassel is hitting over .400 and Fisher hit a game-winning grand slam in the state championship game in Yountville.

“The key is that they don’t act like normal 15-year-olds,” LaCour said. “They come to the field, they know they have a job to do and get it done. They aren’t just screwing around.”

LaCour even had praise for the guys who haven’t contributed as much on the field.

“The guys on the bench have been really impressive in the way they have handled their roles,” LaCour said. “They’re doing the little things--Chad Redfern has become very good at stealing signs.”

Even off the field, the older players and the younger players have developed a bond. It is not uncommon for the teammates to attend the same parties, go to the movies or head to the mountains for a snowboarding trip together.

“I never thought I’d be hanging out with 15-year-olds,” said 18-year-old catcher Micah Berger, who played at Pierce College last spring. “But it’s cool. It’s just kind of weird to see kids acting so old.”

Fisher, who along with Cassel played on the 1994 Northridge Little League World Series team a few months after the earthquake that destroyed many of the players’ homes, explained his maturity.

“It comes from playing in big games before,” he said. “I know I have a name and people know me so I always have to act right. Well, not like I have to, but it’s something I should do.”

Berger, who graduated from Chatsworth High in 1996, said a tirade such as Fisher’s would not have been welcome when he was 15.

“It was real segregated between the older guys and the younger guys back then,” Berger said. “The seniors on the team didn’t like us.”

He added that he didn’t like the way that felt and that he would make a conscious effort to make the younger guys feel comfortable.

“But it never came up on this team,” Berger said. “They don’t act like little kids and we don’t act better than them.

“I don’t know if you can find that in too many other places.”

Maybe not. But on the Valley North team it’s normal.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

American Legion Baseball Region 7 Tournament

Today’s First-Round Games at Wigle Field, Boise, Idaho

10 a.m., Valley North vs. Montana

1:05 p.m., Anchorage, Alaska vs. Sheridan, Wyo.

5:05 p.m.; Boise Gems vs. Bellevue, Wash.,

8:05 p.m., Medford, Ore. vs. Boise Capitols