The Skyview High School softball team won the Class 4A state championship last week, and this week the seniors talked about their legacy, not just as a team, but as role models for younger athletes
Paul Valencia
Clark County Today
They had come close in previous years.
A second place finish at state. Then back-to-back trips to the state quarterfinals.
This year? This year was different.
“I don’t think there was a doubt in our minds,” said senior Kayla Lester.
The Skyview Storm were on a mission. With 10 seniors, and the No. 1 seed, this was their year.
So when it was over, after making the final out in the championship game, players and coaches found each other to celebrate.
Maddie Milhorn acknowledged her first feeling was relief. She had just pitched four games in two days, and she and her teammates finally accomplished the goal of a state championship.
She said she didn’t think she was going to be emotional. Then she found one of her best friends, Addy Harmier, and they embraced.
“I made sure to find Maddie because that was so special,” Harmier said.
There might have been some tears.
“That’s the last time we’ll ever play on the same field together,” Milhorn said.
For the 10 seniors, the Storm won the Class 4A state championship at that exact moment their high school careers came to an end.
“Kind of surreal,” Milhorn said.
Leading up to that moment, there was a team full of confidence and love for each other.
“During the championship game, the dugout was insane. We were all screaming every play, every pitch, every movement anyone made,” Lester said. “The energy was insane and electric, You could feel it.”
Clark County Today met with the seniors earlier this week to talk about life as champions, and the legacy this team has had on the softball community.
While the final out concluded the season, the players still had a few hours together. They all rode the bus home from Richland.
“It was not just celebrating our win, but also celebrating ourselves and our moment as a team together,” said Layla Royle. “We played lots of little games, to celebrate one last moment together.”
It was a four-hour ride home. Coach Kim Anthony described that trip as “moments of silence and moments of chaos.”
The four-year journey for this group had a lot of such moments, too. Anthony said these Storm seniors went 95-8. Yes, the coach said, they left the state tournament disappointed in the previous years. That just made this year mean even more.
“It’s the best way to wrap up the group,” Anthony said.
She appreciated that coaches in other sports also reached out to her over the weekend. One state champion basketball coach told Anthony that Skyview had one of the best groups of athletes the county has ever seen.
Talent alone can’t win championships, though.
“You need some magic in the air,” Anthony said. “It’s nice that other coaches recognize it’s not that easy. It went bigger than just the softball community.”
The softball community was proud, too.
AS ONE fastpitch is a 10U team from the Vancouver Girls Softball Association. The team uses Skyview’s field as a practice field. After the championship, members of AS ONE decorated the Skyview field with signs, celebrating the state title.
A couple Skyview players got the chance to talk to some of the younger athletes.
“We had a really good conversation with them,” Lester said. “They asked us how fun it was. That was really sweet. It was just adorable.”
“I think it’s cool that we’re looked up to as role models for little girls,” Madison Johnson said. “We’re seen as something cool.”
Addy Case said there is a lesson for all younger athletes. After all, Skyview had some heartaches through the years before reaching the ultimate goal.
“All of our hard work and dedication,” Case said. “It shows that we worked really, really hard and finally got to where we wanted to be.”
“I think it’s super cool knowing we have little girls looking up to us,” Avery Henderson said. “That makes us better people.”
Milhorn said that is something that is important to this group. There will be a banner to showcase the state championship that was won, but the legacy of this team goes beyond softball.
“These individual girls are great humans,” Milhorn said. “Our impact on the school is not just from athletics.”
This week, the school celebrated the team. There was an announcement on Tuesday, when students returned from the three-day holiday.
“Our teacher started yelling at our class to be quiet because she wanted to hear (the announcement), and then she started clapping,” Henderson said.
“I had people I didn’t even know come up to me to tell me congratulations,” Case said. “That felt really good. Someone brought us cupcakes.”
“I had a teacher who I don’t even think knew that we were, in fact, good at softball,” Royle said with a laugh. “How’d the weekend go? You win some games?’ Pretty light. We won state, you know.”
Anthony also wanted to thank the Skyview parents and fans who have supported the team for so long. This championship is for them, too.
“When I was rewatching the final out, I couldn’t believe how loud it was, the roar,” Anthony said. “It was cool to see how much support we had.”
The 2025 Skyview Storm state champions included 10 seniors: Emma Kauffman, Addy Harmier, Kayla Lester, Madison Johnson, Layla Royle, Avery Henderson, Lainey Phillips, Reese Purdue, Addy Case, and Maddie Milhorn.
They were joined by teammates: Taylor Lies, Malea Figueroa, Lila Alvarado, Sadie Vigil, Dylan Yates, Madison Paik, Audrey Jackson, Maya Figueroa, Peyton Powers, and Devyn Yates.
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