Inside The Huskies

Huskies Connect with a Second DeBoer, Making for a Proud Dad

Coach's daughter, Alexis, commits to UW softball program.

Dan Raley

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Kalen DeBoer wasn't the University of Washington football coach for more than a day when the recruitment of his softball-playing daughter, Alexis, ramped up.

As Husky athletic director Jen Cohen introduced her new football leader from Fresno State at a Nov. 29 news conference inside the UW coaches' offices, she acknowledged the younger DeBoer sitting nearby, pointing out that she was a highly regarded athlete in her own right.

On Sunday, Alexis DeBoer, a third baseman for Clovis North High School in Fresno, California, committed to Heather Farr's  nationally regarded Husky softball program, cementing a connection that seemed highly probable all along.

Asked if he could comment on her decision, even though she wasn't signed to a national letter of intent, Kalen DeBoer sputtered and said, "It's my daughter! It's a different deal. Obviously, it's a fine line, but this is a proud moment to be a dad." 

In fact, the Huskies were in hot pursuit of this DeBoer, who was a .357 hitter with 8 home turns and 20 RBI as a Clovis North sophomore, well before her father was identified as a UW football coaching candidate and then hired almost immediately.

At his regular Monday news briefing, Kalen DeBoer told how Alexis and his wife Nicole had come to the UW on the exact same date the year before to attend a Husky softball camp. While in town, the two DeBoers even attended the UW-California football game. There was a connection well in place before the football job opened up.

"This was one of the schools going back, even when we lived on the other side of the country [Indiana], that she had identified because of the success and what Coach Tarr does, her staff, and it's an awesome group of young women in this program. ... It's crazy how full circle we've come," Kalen DeBoer said.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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