Former county standouts shining in Idaho
Danner a hit for baseball team; Harris important to No. 1 ranked basketball team
Dillon Danner is leading the College of Idaho's baseball team in batting average despite playing the game's most physically demanding position, catcher, and an even more physically taxing schedule.
Tyler Harris, meanwhile, has seen limited playing time for CI's men's basketball team, which is ranked No. 1 in the NAIA. However, the Scotts Valley High graduate's playing time has increased significantly in the Coyotes' last five games. In fact, Harris made his first start of the season last Saturday, scoring a season-high six points on perfect 3-for-3 shooting from the field in the College of Idaho's 97-74 victory over Bushnell University of Oregon.
While one is a frequent starter and the other primarily a backup on a deep, talented squad, the two athletes from Santa Cruz County are each, in their own way, helping their respective teams thrive.
Danner has hit .467 in propelling CI's baseball team to a 7-1 start. The Santa Cruz High graduate has gone 7-for-15 with two doubles, two RBI and three runs scored.
Now a junior, Danner has started at catcher since he was a freshman. During that first year, he learned just how challenging playing the position can be given CI's brutal schedule.
Not to be confused with its much larger NCAA Division I cousin, the University of Idaho — which doesn't have a baseball team — the College of Idaho is a small private school. To limit travel costs, CI plays a schedule consisting almost entirely of weekend doubleheaders — that's 36 innings of baseball over the course of two days, assuming no games go into extra innings.
Crouching for long periods of time, catching fastball after blazing fastball, taking foul balls off various body parts (even protected ones), enduring collisions with baserunners barreling toward home plate — all of that can take its toll even in a single nine-inning game, let alone four played in less than 48 hours. On top of that, the Coyotes play most of their games in the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada — and at this time of year, winter temperatures in that region can get quite frigid.
“It's a lot if you're not used to it,” Danner said. “In high school, you're used to playing one (seven
inning) game a day.”
The Coyotes' grueling schedule has not deterred Danner, though. In fact, after completing his rookie season in 2021, Danner set a goal of being behind the plate in three of every four games during a given weekend.
He's come pretty close to that: Last year he started 38 of CI's 48 games — some of them as a designated hitter. Of the seven games he's appeared in this season, he's started four.
“He likes to be in the games, and he'll work his butt off to do it,” said Coyotes assistant coach Brian Schweiger, who works with the team's catchers. “He'll do whatever he can for the team.”
Batting-wise, Danner struggled during his first two seasons: He hit .189 in 34 games as a freshman and .218 last year. This year, though, he's connected for hits in nearly half of his at-bats. He's also had three multi-hit games, including two the weekend of Feb. 3-4, when CI swept a pair of doubleheaders from Park University of Gilbert, Arizona.
“His number one job is catching,” Schweiger said. “Number two is getting on base.
“But he has good plate discipline — he does a good job of seeing which pitches are strikes and which ones are balls.”
Harris, meanwhile, has appeared in just 15 games for CI's men's basketball team this season. The 6-foot-10 junior forward — who transferred to the College of Idaho after spending one season apiece at Gavilan College in Gilroy and the College of the Redwoods in Visalia — has scored 38 points on the season.
Harris has also grabbed 44 rebounds, pulling down a season-high seven on two different occasions.
Despite his limited playing time, by no means is Harris essentially CI's version of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, the practicesquad football player for the University of Notre Dame made famous by the movie “Rudy.” Harris can make major contributions when called on to do so — and as indicated by his start on Saturday, he does get called on.
“Right now, I play a lot of cleanup minutes,” Harris said. “I go in and make sure we maintain our lead. I clean things up with defensive rebounds and shot blocking and by making sure we don't give up layups.
“Offensively, I clean things up with tip-ins and a lot of drop-off screens. I'm a strong role player off the bench.”
Coyotes coach Colby Blaine believes his team wouldn't be ranked No. 1 in the NAIA without Harris. Blaine recalls one of CI's biggest games from last season, against Grace University of Nebraska at the NAIA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.: The two post players ahead of Harris on CI's depth chart
both got into foul trouble in the first half. Harris went in, and not only did he prevent the College of Idaho from relinquishing its lead, he helped the Coyotes extend it.
“There's never any falloff when Tyler goes in,” Blaine said. “We're able to weather the storm.”
With Harris coming off the bench to give CI a lift when needed, the Coyotes have won 25 straight games, including all of their conference games. In fact, CI hasn't lost since its season opener.
Harris has appeared in each of CI's last five games, averaging 3.8 points and
3.0 rebounds during that span.
“One of the reasons why we've had so much success is because we have so many guys who would get major minutes on every other team in our conference,” Blaine said. “Tyler's happy to play his role, and he's always ready for his moments when he gets `em.”
County Connections runs every other Thursday during the academic school year. If you have an update on a local college athlete, email Ray Hacke at raydhackelaw@gmail. com.