MOSES LAKE — Jameson Lange, head baseball coach at Big Bend, said he’s in the same boat as everyone else around the country right now, whether it’s the professional, high school or college level.

“I think baseball’s one big fraternity, and these are trying times right now,” Lange said “But there’s a lot of things that are greater than baseball right now.”

The Vikings’ spring season ended after just 12 games as leagues around the country were forced to cancel or postpone their remaining schedules to try and prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Lange said, for his players, it’s a sense of incompleteness. Since Sept. 23, the Vikings coach said, his team has been working out, preparing six days a week. The incomplete feeling extends beyond just athletics, to the relationships and the other intangible elements his players are missing, he said.

When the initial message had come down that the season would be canceled, or, at the very least, postponed, Lange said he told his players to just control what they can control.

“We can control getting our education and working hard in the classroom,” Lange said. “We can control being great teammates and taking ownership in our program, and representing our program as a member of our team, and collectively, as best that we can.”

Lange said their goal at the junior college level is to prepare his guys for their next step after Big Bend, particularly in obtaining their associate’s degree in two years to be able to transfer to their next institution.

“If they develop their skill set to be able to go on and play at the next level, that’s what we’re trying to do as a coaching staff is prepare them for the next stage in life, academically and baseball,” Lange said.

The Vikings coach called his sophomore class a “pretty special group,” and said they’re now in a bittersweet situation. All but one of the sophomores on the Big Bend roster expressed interest in returning to the program next season. Lange said this says a lot with every sophomore on track to graduate with their associate’s degree this year.

Two-thirds of the sophomore class has offers to play at the next level as well, whether it be Division 1, 2, 3 or NAIA. It’s a special feeling, Lange said, having kids come and say they’re not done yet as a group.

“Obviously, I can’t take them all,” Lange said. “But it was kind of a special moment as a head coach to be able to be around a bunch of different guys that you build relationships with, work your butt off with for two years to want to finish something that we didn’t get to.

Lange said everything is still in the decision-making process as far as how they’ll approach filling out the 2021 roster. The Big Bend coach said, for his current players and especially his sophomores, education is the number-one priority.

If he feels a player has the opportunity to go on and play at the next level, and, academically, there isn’t anything more for them to pursue at Big Bend, Lange said they need to move them on, whether they want to come back or not.

“It’s about preparing for life after Big Bend,” Lange said. “I’m grateful, but we did our job. They didn’t get to finish their second season, but if they have the opportunity to go and make themselves better, then we need to move them on.”

The Vikings brought in a sizable freshmen class this season, and Lange said there are 12 players signed in the 2020 class. The Big Bend coach said he can’t have 30 players wrapped up in his freshmen class.

For current freshmen, Lange said they’ll look at where they’re at academically and how they’re holding up to the standards they hold at the program. As athletes, the Big Bend coach said he’ll look at how they developed since beginning back at the end of September.

Because BBCC is a two-year institution, Lange said he has to able to give his athletes a chance to showcase their ability.

“With our 2020 class coming in, it’s going to be competitive,” Lange said. “People are going to be fighting for jobs. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be challenging for the coaching staff, and for the returners, and for the incoming 2020 guys.”

Lange said he doesn’t like to over-recruit. Running with a 38-40 man roster typically the past few seasons, the Vikings coach said his goal was to get that down to between 30-34 by year three.

Lange said he still wants to stick to that plan moving forward and just has to find the right group and right guys to run with.

Times like this, the Vikings head coach said, are “greater than baseball.” Lange said we all just need to be able to take care of the issue at hand, globally and here in Grant County.

“I think it’s a time when we need to be able to sit back, take a seat back and enjoy the time with our families, get things back to normality,” Lange said. “The games will be played.”

Good programs are set up, no matter what rank, professional, college, or amateur, for players to get out what they put in, Lange said. Players were sent home with their workout plans, shoulder maintenance programs, Lange said.

The Big Bend coach said it’s no different, in approach, from the fall and winter leading up to the season.

“We just happen to have the pause button hit on us,” Lange said. “I tell our kids all the time, adversity hits, how do you handle it. You handle adversity with what I look is opportunity.”

Lange said the situation is easy to dwell on, but he told his players to just control what they could control. Just keep paddling, Lange said.

“Picture a duck, a duck on a lake,” Lange said. “You see a calm and collected body on top, focused and driven. But, underneath, the feet don’t stop, just keep moving forward.”