What seemed like just another basketball practice for coach Colin Portugal (he/him) instead marked a new beginning. He was coaching the JV basketball team during the 2024-25 season when athletic director Kealey Stanich alerted him of an open coaching position for another Inglemoor sport — baseball. With former coach Chris Foss departing in late 2024, Stanich needed to find a replacement ahead of the 2025 spring season. Portugal had played at the varsity level for IHS, and after graduating in 2014, pitched at Shoreline Community College before transferring to Central Washington University. It was there that he partially tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder, ending his baseball career. However, when Stanich told Portugal about the open coaching position, she wasn’t aware of his experience.
“I jokingly looked at her, and I was like, ‘I played baseball in college,’” Portugal said. “She looked at me and goes, ‘no, you didn’t — you’re the basketball guy!’”
Stanich encouraged Portugal to toss his hat in the ring for the position. He spent the next few months being interviewed by other coaches who were largely unaware of his experience. While being interviewed by the C Team baseball coach, Portugal recalled the moment when his interviewers shifted from doubting his baseball knowledge to being pleasantly surprised by it.
“It was funny because about midway through the interview, one of them looked at me and goes, ‘wow, you really do know baseball,’ and I kind of had this laugh,” Portugal said.
A few weeks later, Stanich entered the gym to inform Portugal that he got the job.
The season before Portugal was hired, the Vikings had an overall record of 6-14 and failed to make the playoffs, placing ninth in the KingCo 4A division. When preparing for his first season as coach, Portugal reviewed their season and attributed these shortcomings to one key factor.
“The first thing I noticed when I was talking to this group of boys at practice was their confidence,” Portugal said.
Thus, Portugal heavily emphasized creating a positive environment for his players. He used a more flexible lineup policy, allowing players to try out different positions that they hadn’t before. This worked especially well for then-senior Connor Dowell, who had previously been a second baseman but took the opportunity to switch to third base. In his first year as a starting third baseman, Dowell took home First Team All-KingCo honors. Portugal said that as a coach, it’s important to trust players and to sometimes let them have the final say. In the 2025 KingCo Championship game, junior Rocco Suarez, who was a sophomore at the time, was the runner at first base. Suarez — who represented the winning run — signaled to Portugal that he wanted to steal the base, which is a strategy to move runners closer to scoring. However, if the runner gets thrown out by the pitcher or catcher, the runner is out, which could make the difference between winning and losing.
“I didn’t feel confident in it because I was a little nervous in terms of the fact that we were in the 10th inning,” Portugal said. “I really wanted to try to preserve our base runners.”
After some consideration, Portugal allowed Suarez to steal second base. In a season-defining moment, Suarez was safe at second, just 180 feet away from baseball’s first KingCo title in seven years.
“The next thing you know, from there, we bumped him over on a fly ball to left field, and we ended up winning the game,” Portugal said.
Reflecting on that game-changing decision, Portugal said that he was glad Suarez took the risk to steal second.
“I was like, ‘you wanted it, you had it, go ahead and take it, right?’” Portugal said. “I am the coach, and I do get the final say, but if I trust my players, and if they see something and they want to try something, I’m gonna let them do it.”
That 2025 baseball team — under a brand new JV and varsity coaching staff, including Portugal — soared to an overall record of 17-7 and reached the quarterfinals at the state tournament.
As miraculous as that is, the baseball program wasn’t the only one in which Portugal found success. He also began as the boys’ basketball head coach in the 2025-26 season. Portugal had coached IHS basketball at the C team and JV levels since 2019, but this season was his first as varsity head coach. He filled the role left by Gregory Lowell, who coached the program for over three decades and finished his coaching career with a record of 14-10 in the 2024-25 season. Under Portugal’s leadership in the 2025-26 season, the team secured a record of 15-10. This included a division record of 11-2, which far surpassed Portugal’s expectations entering the season.
“In my pre-evaluation meeting, I knew we had a decent team, but I gave my team 500,” Portugal said, referring to a .500 winning percentage, or winning half of the games played. “That was my bare minimum.”
When taking on the task of coaching a varsity basketball team, Portugal channeled his experience as a former basketball player at Central Washington University. After his shoulder injury, he joined the practice squad for both the mens and womens teams.
“That’s actually where I was like, ‘this is cool,’ and started to really get that coach side of it,” Portugal said. “As a practice player, you’re not so much with the team. You’re in the coaches’ meetings, and you’re in the scouting report meetings.”
Leading into the season, Portugal told his basketball players that he knew how to run a Division II practice schedule, and that was going to be exactly what he was going to do for the team.
“I told them, ‘I really don’t care if you don’t like it or not — this is what it’s going to be because I’m not just going to coach you to be good varsity players,’” Portugal said. “‘If we want to be a successful team, I’m going to coach you to be better than that. Some of you might not get there, but with our practice plans, that’s how we’re preparing.’”
In the 2025-26 season, the boys basketball team placed second overall in the KingCo Mountain-Lake division, making the playoffs. For his efforts, Portugal was awarded the division’s Coach of the Year Award, honoring his outstanding commitment to the basketball program in just his first year as varsity head coach.
“I’m super grateful for receiving it, and it makes me really happy that the rest of the coaches throughout the league recognize it as well,” Portugal said.
The team found out about the award when celebrating senior Eric Battulga’s achievement of first team all-KingCo during a team meeting. After congratulating Battulga, he was about to end the team meeting when his assistant coach chimed in, announcing the award to the team and Portugal.
“They all went crazy — very supportive. Pat me on the back, tell me congratulations. Some of them were very forward and just saying that they’re not surprised — that they knew it was coming,” Portugal said. “But the support from them was just immaculate. I loved it so much.”
With a few illustrious accomplishments to his name as a rookie varsity coach for two IHS sports, Portugal is already looking forward to his future at the helm of baseball and boys basketball. Despite the success and praise he has found, he stays grounded and remembers what he ultimately aims to accomplish in the next period of his coaching career.
“My goal each time, going into this season, is just to do my job, which is to be the best coach I could possibly be for the team that I have, for the kids that I have and for this program and community,” Portugal said.
