LOVELAND — Tad Carls calls it his “Field of Dreams.”
And to see it, all he has to do is turn his chair at his desk, prop up his feet and stare out the window. If he closes his eyes, he can dream about what might lie ahead at Resurrection Christian.
“I love coaching way more than I ever did playing,” the Cougars’ skipper said. “It’s a passion of mine and sometimes I think I want it a little bit more than they do.”
Carls’ passion is beginning to seep down to his youthful Cougars, who attempt to repeat their 2005 run to the Class 2A semifinals, and then some, beginning Friday in Brush against Akron.
Carls, of whom his youngest son, Lucas, says, “His family lives for baseball; it’s all baseball all the time,” grew up in Chicago and still bleeds Cubs blue. But it wasn’t until his move to Colorado that the elder Carls realized his love for coaching.
First it was soccer. Then seven years ago at Fort Collins’ Heritage Christian, he got his first job in the dugout. A master’s degree and a call from Resurrection Christian later, Carls had a full-time gig at the new Loveland-based school as assistant principal, counselor and baseball coach.
“It’s been awesome over here,” he said. “I get to be in their lives from the time school starts in August all the way through summer ball.”
A dominant pitching staff — anchored by the sophomore trio of Lucas Carls, Jordan Piche and Tyler Lohr as well as senior Dustin Stallings — comes at opponents in a variety of ways. That quartet has combined for 175 strikeouts and just 35 walks. Stallings hasn’t walked a batter in his 15 2/3 innings pitched.
Stallings, one of just four seniors on the Cougars’ roster, was on the 2005 team that bowed out against eventual champion Las Animas in Pueblo. He notices a drastic difference between that team and this one.
“You’re always a little nervous beforehand, because you never really know if they are taking it seriously or not,” said Stallings, a home-schooler who leads the Cougars with a .577 batting average and 32 RBIs. “But it’s a lot easier when they come out and hit a couple of bombs.”
Last week against two-win Lyons in the semifinals of the district tournament, the Cougars (18-3) almost missed a chance to get this far. An eight-inning, 2-1 victory over the Lions was more than just another win, it was a steppingstone for a young team that realized it can’t just throw bats and balls out on the field and win.
“I think they understand now, what it’s going to take this time of year,” Tad Carls said of his players.
Lucas is not the first Carls boy to play for his father. Chris Carls was a two-time all-state selection for The Denver Post, as a junior and senior, and had a high-80s, low-90s fastball that was dominant on the high school level.
Chris Carls played his freshman year of college baseball at Cornell before transferring to the NAIA’s Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, and he says no other coach has had the influence on him that his father did.
“I realized once I got to college that a lot of the guys I have played for just didn’t have that administrative skill,” Chris said. “(My father) just has that sixth sense and can put a ‘team’ together like no other.”
Lucas Carls is 8-1 on the mound with 69 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 40-plus innings this season. He also has a lofty .561 batting average. But the pressure of playing for his father isn’t nearly as intense as in other cases, and with Chris already having carried the flag for the Carls clan, Lucas doesn’t have any trouble with the pressure of wearing the Carls name on his back.
“I love the pressure it puts on me. It makes me need to be better, it makes me want to be better,” he said. “I have something to look up to, someone to follow after as a role model.”
While parochial schools have had success in 3A in recent years (see Faith Christian and Bishop Machebeuf), it has been since 1999 when Aurora Christian beat Wiley that a 2A parochial school has won the state crown. It’s a trend Carls and his Cougars hope to break these next two weeks.
“We do devotions before every one of our practices, and that is one thing these guys really thrive on, that structure,” Tad Carls said. “It’s one of the things that sets us apart, not necessarily from the other Christian teams, but I do think they thrive on having that as a part of their life.”
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
