Mike Soulis, Nate Soulis earn Coach of the Year honors this spring

Jun. 12—JAMESTOWN — This spring was a pretty fun one for the guys in the Soulis household — for the second year in a row, no less.

Jamestown High School head softball coach Mike Soulis earned WDA Coach of the Year honors while his son Nate and current head baseball coach for Thompson was named the Region 2 Baseball Coach of the Year and the State Coach of the Year.

"There are countless reasons why Coach Soulis deserves this award," JHS graduated senior Katie Falk said. "He is such a great teacher of the game but cares about us so much.

"Not many coaches would spend over a week with a group of girls but he did," she said. "He took us to Oklahoma City. He also is very respected by his players which is something a coach must have in order to be successful. He would do anything for us and we know that."

The Jays ended their season at 27-11 overall and 16-2 in the West Region. The team capped off the regular season with a sweep of 2023 Class A State champs Dickinson to earn themselves the No. 2 seed entering the WDA tournament. For the first time in program history, the Blue Jays earned a share of the regular season title.

The Jays pitched a 2-1 performance at WDAs to earn themselves a state tournament berth for the third time in three years.

"I was able to watch my dad's games on YouTube and watch his team get to State again and I was just really happy for him," Nate said. "I know how hard he works at it and how much he cares about the program and the girls that he coaches. I was just really proud of him. He really deserved it."

While he might have deserved it, Mike is practicing what he's been preaching to the Blue Jay squad — that it's "we over me."

"It's not me," Mike said. "I can't do what we've done without Coach (Megan) Wenzel and Coach (Kassie) Ward. At the high school level, you can't pick your assistant coaches but even if you could, I don't think I could have picked ones that were any better than the ones I have. I am just thankful. I can't say enough. They don't get enough recognition for what they do and what they've meant to our girls and our program."

While the state tourney didn't go exactly as they hoped, the Jays still made it to the championship day and wound up earning some sixth-place hardware.

"I'm a lucky guy that I've had the chance to get back into it," Mike said. "Obviously you need to have the kids for anything to be accomplished. It should be recognized as the program of the year — not a coach — not one person — it's a makeup of a lot of different people who have contributed to where we are at. This program is going in the right direction."

The Blue Jays program isn't the only one headed in the right direction.

While Nate said the Tommies had some holes to fill, the third-year head coach guided the squad to a 4-0 start. A 6-2 loss to Roseau (Minnesota) was the lone blemish on the Tommies' record entering the month of May.

"We had four really talented seniors leaving and three of our top pitchers so I knew it was going to be a challenge but I also knew that we had some talent coming up," Nate said. "It was just about finding the right place for them to have success and for them to grow. The first couple of games were a struggle especially offensively. The part about coaching that is so fun is watching them grow.

"For some of them, it was like they were totally different players by the end of the season and that's the part that I enjoy the most about coaching," he said.

The Tommies lost one conference game all year, dropping to Langdon/EM 10-0 on May 5. May-Port-C-G topped Thompson in the second-to-last game of the Region 2 tournament but Thompson rallied and won its second-straight regional title with a 11-5 win over the Patriots.

"I've worked with a lot of great kids, kids that love baseball, I mean, this is a baseball town," Nate said. "You know that you are going to get those kids who want to put in the extra work and they don't complain about it. It's a fun group to work with.

"I got great support from the school and the community and Ryan Avdem my assistant coach," he said. "Once you hear your name called in that situation you just think about how lucky you are to be in that spot and to work with the people that you do."

Thompson entered the Class B state tourney as the No. 1 seed for the second-straight year and pretty well breezed through the whole tournament, topping Bishop Ryan 11-1 in the quarters and Central Cass 2-1 in the semis and finished it off with a 9-0 blank of No. 3 seeded LaMoure/Litchville-Marion in the championship game.

"I watched the games while we were in Fargo and I listened to the championship game on the radio on the way down to Oklahoma," Mike said. "I followed him throughout the year on GameChanger and kind of saw what he was building and continuing to build. I am biased but Thompson's got a good program and they've got a good one as a coach.

"I am just so proud of what he's developed into and what he has worked towards obviously on the field as a player and now as a coach," he said. "He's been around a lot of good coaches who have helped to shape what he's accomplished and who he is."

Nate was named the Class B Coach of the Year following the state championship game.

"It's tough keeping the bus between the lines after you hear that as a father," Mike said. "He's spent stupid hours down at the ballpark and to be able to coach the game that he loves — he's embracing it and continuing to be very successful."

It's pretty awesome."