CHIMACUM — Sure, Loren Bishop played ball.
Just not baseball.
Hard to believe, but, yes, Chimacum High School’s highly successful baseball coach doesn’t have a lick of hardball history on his athletic résumé.
What he does have, however, is the most wins among any active coach on the North Olympic Peninsula, not to mention the only state title.
“[Other coaches] ask where I played ball. I say ‘Chimacum,'” said Bishop, who entered this season with a 93-33 record in six years of coaching the Cowboys.
“It’s true. I played football and basketball and track [for the Cowboys]. I just don’t ever tell them I didn’t play baseball.”
Regardless, Bishop likely has as good of a feel for the game as any other coach in the state.
He has guided the Cowboys to three Nisqually Leagues titles, three state tournament appearances and the aforementioned state crown.
And he’s made numerous insightful baseball decisions along the way, like during the Cowboys’ state title run in 2007 when he held his ace, Arlo Evasick, out of the semifinals in order to save him for a possible championship game.
It made perfect sense to Bishop: Why be satisfied to make it to the final, when the whole goal is to win the damn thing?
His choice of No. 2 Devin Cray in the semis resulted in a 5-4 win over Nooksack Valley. Then Evasick went the distance in the finals, striking out the side in the seventh inning to beat Naches Valley 4-2.
“I’m sure I would have gotten a lot of crap over it [if it didn’t work],” said Bishop, whose son, Kevin, also played on that team.
“Don’t think that I didn’t lose a lot of sleep over that move.”
Such is the meticulous nature of Bishop.
The way Cowboys assistant coach Jim Dunn tells it, the 51-year-old Tri-Area lifer thinks every baseball decision through as if the game were a chess match.
“Loren is a thinker,” said Dunn, Bishop’s assistant since 2007. “He thoroughly thinks things out before he makes any type of decision.
“He thinks of all the different angles and all of the different scenarios. So when it comes time for a game-time decision, that decision is easy for him because he’s already thought of the process in his head. Everything is really well planned out.”
“I believe that is the key to his success . . . that and being able to have some talent.”
Indeed, Bishop has been the lucky enough to have a number of talented players during his run.
He inherited a winning program from former Cowboys coach David Anderson, who stepped down in 2003 after he guided the Cowboys to state five times in eight years.
Bishop has kept it going, harassing the talents of players like Evasick, Chance Eldridge and, now, Landon Cray to postseason appearances in four of his six seasons.
His teams are 8-2 in state tournament play, with last year’s going 3-1 on its way to a third-place finish in 1A.
That’s despite the fact most of his baseball knowledge came from clinics and his experiences while coaching in East Jefferson Little League.
“I think a lot of it is Loren lets the kids decide the outcome of the game,” said Dunn, who also served as Anderson’s assistant for four years.
“Loren does a great job at managing a game. The kids don’t necessarily have to think about anything. He just puts the right kids in the right position.”
And he’s done it with a laid-back attitude that is an exact polar opposite of his predecessor.
Bishop is not a disciplinarian like Anderson was before him, according to Dunn.
Sarcastic — and sometimes even a tad vulgar — Bishop likes to keep his players loose during practices and games. He also lets them in on decisions and gives them a full explanation of his own thought processes.
“He’ll definitely say what he thinks,” senior Dillon Dukek said. “He’s just kind of a goofy guy and has a good sense of humor. We all have fun with him.”
After a 2-2 start to the season, Bishop finds himself just five victories from the 100-win plateau.
Given the boatload of talent he has returning from last year’s team, including reigning Nisqually League MVP Landon Crab, it would seem likely he’ll reach that mark in the near future. Not that it matters too much to him.
“If the 100th win was the state championship it would probably mean a lot, but no not really,” Bishop said. “I didn’t really do this for my glory, I did it for the kids.
“I wanted to build a program that makes them proud and the community proud. And it has. A lot of people come to our games.
“They are not coming down there to watch me. They are coming down there to watch our program.”
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Sportswriter-columnist Matt Schubert can be reached at 360-417-3526 or at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.