Parker Zbaraschuk is realizing her three-word dream that she wrote on her bedroom mirror at age 12.
“Play big ball.”
The 2013 Centralia High School graduate and record-breaking fastpitch player for the Tigers accomplished that dream first by earning a scholarship from the University of Arkansas, where she spent four years playing for the Razorbacks.
But reaching this goal for herself alone was not satisfying enough for Zbaraschuk, née Pocklington. The Centralia native and daughter of current Adna High School fastpitch coach Bruce Pocklington dreamed of creating opportunities for fastpitch players of all ages to practice and compete year-round right in their backyard.
In 2023, Zbaraschuk and her wife, Rylleigh Zbaraschuk, a former fastpitch player at the University of Washington, launched The Yard PNW, an organization that aims to create high-level camps, clinics and tournaments for athletes of all backgrounds. They hoped to give young athletes meaningful athletic experiences where they could develop their skills, confidence and community.
Parker Zbaraschuk believes it’s especially important to help young athletes residing in the Pacific Northwest and, more specifically, Lewis County as they often have to travel out of state for camps and tournaments, just as she once did as an adolescent.
“I think so often girls in the Pacific Northwest get compared to all of these softball players who get to play year-round. They get told, ‘You’re good, but you’re from Washington,’” she said. “We want to be able to look at girls and be like, ‘No, you deserve this. They’re here to watch you.’”
The vision for The Yard PNW started with what was supposed to be a one-off Christmas fastpitch camp at the Northwest Sports Hub in Centralia in the winter of 2023.
In Parker’s words, “it blew up.”
“What we thought was going to be a one-day softball camp turned out to be two days worth of 200 kids at the Hub. After camp, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a thing. We need this here,’” she said.
Together, the Division I fastpitch athletes-turned-entrepreneurs sought to reinvigorate the area with accessible resources for the softball community in Lewis County. They launched The Yard PNW right after the Christmas camp, starting with partnerships with six local high schools to offer spring training at Recreation Park in Chehalis.
Once again, the community showed significant interest as 140 campers showed up to learn from 45 high school student athletes who helped coach the camp. As part of the camp, The Yard PNW donated $1,400 back into the high school programs.
“Not only did those kids get to connect with the high school kids, but the high school kids got a kickback as well and got their foot in the door of what it’s like to be a coach,” Zbaraschuk said.
The Yard PNW continued to offer camps into the summer and found ways to offer resources that Zbaraschuk said she wished she had as a youngster growing up in Centralia. They will host their first elite-level tournament, bringing in Division I coaches and teams from across the county, in October.
Perhaps its most significant step into further establishing its footprint in the fastpitch community is its national partnership with The Alliance Fastpitch, an organization that hosts national softball tournaments.
Through this collaboration, The Yard PNW will help facilitate camps and coaching clinics for newly formed futures leagues around the country and will co-host a youth camp during The Alliance Fastpitch Championship Series in Indiana in July.
The Yard PNW has also launched its own futures league, the Northwest Futures Fastpitch League, which Zbaraschuk said has already received 130 registrants for the spring league.
“The Centralia Girls Softball Association, the rec program in Centralia, was dwindling. It was some of our lowest numbers ever. Last year, we only had like 68 girls in Centralia play for the program,” she said. “Before that, Centralia had a booming rec system. We had 16 teams a year. We doubled the number of girls just from Centralia in a year.”
The Zbaraschuks are in the beginning stages of establishing a dedicated fastpitch facility in Lewis County in the future, meeting with architects and starting the process of finding suitable land. This would provide athletes with year-round training opportunities, and foster skill development and a lifelong passion for the game. Parker said the organization is working on a timeline of 18 to 24 months for the facility.
“There’s not a single softball organization in Lewis County that has a dedicated softball facility. If you’re playing youth softball, there’s nowhere for you to go hit,” she said. “Yes, maybe you can squeeze into the high school cage if you know someone who has a key, but there’s not a batting cage for girls. There’s also not a place here to play softball. There are places to play, but it doesn’t feel like an elevated experience. It’s not a stadium. You’re on a field.
“We want to make sure that the intention and the thoughtfulness of what we’re going to build is there. How does it feel to play there? What does it feel like to be a spectator there? If we’re going to attract the top-level coaches, we want to make sure that that facility is up to that standard,” Zbaraschuk continued.
Since their one-off Christmas camp in late 2023, The Yard PNW has worked with over 1,000 athletes through camps, private lessons and the launch of the futures league, all with the goal of helping young athletes carry out Zbaraschuk’s dream to “play big ball.”
