Longtime Timberline baseball coach Rubadue retires after emotional final day
Eight times Mark Rubadue coached Timberline High School into either the state 3A or 4A baseball tournament.
Two Saturdays ago, the dream of another state appearance was still alive. Timberline grabbed a 3-1 lead over host Kelso in the top of the seventh inning of its Districts 3/4 playoff opener.
But in the bottom half of the inning, the Hilanders rallied for three runs and a walk-off win, ending the Blazers’ season and setting up a difficult task for Rubadue. After a total of 15 years across two stints, he informed his players he was retiring as head coach.
“It was so emotional,” Rubadue said. “Telling the kids this was going to be it for me was hard. To be honest, I didn’t hold it together very well.”
Rubadue subsequently posted an announcement to Twitter, hinting that he hoped his assistant coaches, Beau Pocklington and Doug LaPalm, would be considered in the search for his successor. Timberline has not named a new coach at this writing.
Response to Rubadue’s tweet came from opposing coaches, former players, parents of those players, praising his work with students on and off the diamond.
The Timberline Athletics account tweeted, “a great coach and a great person who did it the right way.”
Those sentiments were appreciated by Rubadue, who says he’ll cherish memories of his relationships with the stakeholders in his program as much as the competitive triumphs of his teams.
“The camaraderie and the relationships I built are going to be the hardest things to let go of,” he said. “That was my favorite part. We have a golf tournament every year and lots of parents keep coming back. A lot of them have turned out to be good friends.”
Rubadue graduated from North Thurston, where he was an all-state pitcher, despite standing just 5-foot-9, under legendary Rams’ coach Jim Fouts, before moving on to become an all-NWAC player for Centralia College in the early 1990s.
He began his coaching career as junior varsity coach at Thurston before joining now-principal Paul Dean’s staff at Timberline. When Dean began his rise through the school’s administrative ranks, becoming athletic director, Rubadue took over as head coach.
Experience playing under an overly demanding coach during college led to Rubadue becoming more of a player’s coach.
“I’ve never been a yeller and a screamer,” he said. “I didn’t want kids to play hard because they feared me. I don’t think that brings out the best in players.
“If you show them that you care about them and are going to work with them, they’re going to compete and play hard and give you everything they’ve got.”
The formula worked as Timberline was more often than not a part of the postseason under Rubadue, including one of his most memorable moments: The Blazers, also state academic champs, played in the 2009 3A state final four at the Seattle Mariners’ home park, then known as Safeco Field.
“That was an amazing experience for me personally. I really, really enjoyed it,” he said.
As with a lot of coaches, Rubadue says a lot of his memories are of the more negative variety, games when he still wonders what would have happened if he’d made a different decision or two.
“I’m very competitive, there are some games that eat at you,” he said. “Some that stand out are the ones where I think I made a mistake.”
One decision that worked out well was to recommend his assistant Derek Weldon take over when he resigned a first time to have a chance to coach his own kids, who hadn’t chosen baseball as their favorite sport, in soccer.
Weldon coached the Blazers for two seasons, then moved on to NCAA Division I Tennessee Tech for three seasons before his current job as head coach at Olympia. The Bears under Weldon reached the 2019 state 4A championship game and are rolling this season, winning the 4A District 3/4 championship on Saturday against powerhouse Puyallup before moving on to next week’s state regionals.
He credits Rubadue with helping him find his stride.
“I learned from him as a young coach and have continued to learn from him over the years,” Weldon said. “Rub’s an amazing human being and a great personal friend. He’s been an incredible mentor to me.”
Like many who responded online to Rubadue’s retirement announcement, Weldon appreciates not simply the Blazers’ success on the field, but the approach that led to it.
“He’s done it the right way for a long time,” he said. “He treats people with respect. He’s fair. He gave his players ownership over their teams, which is a huge reason for all the success they’ve had at Timberline.”
When Weldon departed and the man hired to replace him quit right before the 2014 season was set to get underway, Dean asked Rubadue if he’d be willing to return to the dugout.
“There’s no way I would have said ‘no.’ I love Timberline, so I said ‘you got it,’’ he recalls. When those relationships with players, coaches and parents kicked in again, he decided to continue past the one emergency season.
This time, though, Rubadue, who will stay on as a physical education teacher at Timberline, says his retirement from baseball is permanent.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and don’t want to be one of those coaches who hangs on too long,” he said. “There’s a fire you have as a young coach. Now, my youngest son is graduating and I feel I need to hand it over. Coach Pocklington and Coach LaPalm are ready.
“It was a rough decision to make. I’ve put a lot of my life into the program and created something I’m very proud of. The program is in a good place, so it’s a good time to go.”
