One wouldn’t speak and the other couldn’t stop talking.
That’s how North Thurston High School fastpitch coach Pete Feliciano remembers seniors Aaliyah Kautz and Cierra Davis as freshmen.
They were polar opposites personality-wise, but the one trait they shared from the moment they stepped on campus was excelling at the sport. Kautz serves as a utility player, willing to play any position at any time, and Davis is the Rams top pitcher since she first arrived.
Now during their senior season, the two have embraced the role of team leaders for a young North Thurston squad that is coming off its first state playoff appearance since 1999.
“Their senior leadership is huge for us this season. Aaliyah is now a vocal leader. She’s very vocal, which is funny because she didn’t say a single word her entire freshman year. Not one word. She came in worked hard, but didn’t say a word,” said Feliciano, who is in his first year as the Rams’ head coach after working as an assistant the previous four seasons.
“Cierra is a jokester,” he adds. “She’s been that way since day one here. So, you have two different personalities, but each bring leadership. You have a jokester who keeps everyone loose and one who will get in someone’s face in the dugout when they need to. It’s really a nice balance.”
And one that the young Rams have benefited from greatly.
North Thurston graduated a lot of talent from last year’s team, including Dominique Greeno, a former 3A Narrows League offensive MVP who holds several school hitting records. The team entered the season with plenty of questions considering the roster with riddled with new faces.
With Davis and Kautz, who both earned second-team all-league honors last year as juniors, leading the way, North Thurston finds itself once again in the hunt for a league championship and another postseason run despite all the turnover.
“Both have played a ton of fastpitch,” Feliciano said. “They are two of the most competitive players I’ve ever met and they just have an understanding of the game. Just knowing the game and sharing their knowledge to the other players is really helpful given how young we are.”
After playing against one another during their youth fastpitch years, Davis and Kautz didn’t actually find themselves in the same dugout until they were freshmen.Davis moved to Lacey from Chehalis four years ago.
“Cierra and I have gotten closer every single year since,” Kautz said “It’s just been a lot of fun playing with her these four years. On the field I know she’s going to hit her spots every time. I can count on her. Off the field we are just great friends. I know she has my back and she knows I have hers.”
Lacking a starting pitcher, the Rams turned to Davis’ arm four years ago, asking a lot out of the newcomer on the mound.
“I was kind of prepared for it because I knew coming on to this team that they really didn’t have a pitcher,” Davis said. “I was actually putting in a lot of work before I even transferred up here to get ready for that. So, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but it was still overwhelming at times.”
It was occasionally baptism by fire in a hard-hitting Narrows League for Davis on the mound during her younger years, but the experience helped her emerge as one of the league’s top pitchers. At last year’s district tournament, Davis helped the Rams survive back-to-back loser-out games with wins over Sumner (16-4) and Capital (5-2) to secure their trip to the state tournament.
“We had to harness her emotions when she was a freshman and sophomore. Failure is really tough for her. This is a tough league. You’re going to get hit sometimes and she did,” Feliciano said. “Her maturity and learning how cope in the moment and get through and grind has been huge since then. She’s now able to focus on the next pitch and not get rattled.”
While Davis has always pitched, Kautz is the type of player who can successfully be plugged in anywhere on the field.
“She’ll do whatever you ask her to do out there,” Feliciano said. “She’s offered to catch. She’s offered to pitch. She’s offered to play anywhere if needed.”
If pressed, she would say second base would be her preferred choice, but Kautz has long been of the mindset to play wherever the team needs her most at that particular time.
“She blows my mind. She is so versatile,” Davis said. “It’s nice knowing that if I’m tired she can come in and pitch. She even catches for us sometimes. She’s everywhere.”
Both will play fastpitch at the next level with Davis attending Kansas Wesleyan University and Kautz heading to George Fox University, but the current focus remains on another state appearance.
“It’s an entirely different team from last year. Early on we were just trying to mesh together and that was difficult because we didn’t get a lot of time on the field because of the rain,” Davis said, “but once we got out on the field we started to click. I expect us to win some games, but have fun and be a team. That’s a really big deal to me.”
