MOUNT VERNON — At the end of each college softball season at the University of Oregon, the coaching staff gave Danielle Baird and the rest of the Duck players two weeks off to get away from the game.

“It left such a huge void. It would drive me insane,” Baird said of the break. “That’s probably why I stayed down there every summer to train. Without (softball) in my life, I really didn’t know what to do. I knew that I needed to stay involved.”

Now that her playing career is over, the former Sedro-Woolley High School standout is filling the void by coaching the sport she loves. Next season, she’ll be doing that close to home as the new softball coach at Skagit Valley College.

“It’s nice to come back and give back to your community,” Baird said. “It’s kind of what I’ve always wanted to do. I didn’t know it would be at Skagit, but I knew I would be involved in softball somewhere in the community.”

Baird replaces Denny Zylstra, who retired from the squad he coach from 1986-97 and again from 2004-08.

“I think she’ll do fine,” Zylstra said. “She’s a very organized young lady. I think we went in the right direction. I think turning the program over to someone of her quality is about as good as we can do.”

Baird started four years for the Cubs, and left as one of the top players to ever come through the county. She left Sedro-Woolley in 2002 with a .422 career batting average, 126 runs scored, 85 RBI and 53 stolen bases. She and Sarah Hyatt were the inaugural members of the school’s softball Hall of Fame.

She then played four years at Oregon, graduating in 2006 after helping the Ducks reach the NCAA Regionals three times before earning a degree in political science.

Baird spent the past two seasons as an assistant to her former high school coach, Leah Francis, at Bellevue Community College.

“Dani’s great with the kids, girls respect her,” Francis said. “I think she’ll do a great job up there. Obviously we’re sad to lose her. She’s a great friend of mine, someone I liked having around. It was nice to know I didn’t have to watch over her shoulder, that I could leave her alone and know that the kids will get good coaching.

“Skagit is very lucky to get her. We’re going to miss her dearly. It’s going to be fun to see her take that program to new levels, and it will be fun when we go up against her.”

Zylstra said he had already decided to step down after the 2008 season when he approached Baird early in the spring. She had committed to Bellevue for that season, but kept the idea in the back of her mind.

“I didn’t make the decision until I completed the season at Bellevue,” Baird said. “The thought was there all along, but I didn’t want to make a decision until I was done, because I didn’t want it to be a distraction to the players there or the coaches there.”

Baird has a challenge in front of her. The Cardinals showed big improvement this season, even contending for a Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges playoff berth, but the program’s recent history has more often been a story of struggles to fill a roster.

That’s where Baird and her local ties may help.

“I definitely think it will be a benefit to have been from the area. I look at it as an advantage,” Baird said. “I think that lots of kids do what to stay home and play in front of family and friends. I know that weighed heavily in my decision to go to Oregon and not to California to play. I know there will be some competition to keep kids here locally for the first couple years, but hopefully kids will see the turnaround and see the type of program that we’re going to have going here and say, ‘That’s where I want to go.’”

Recruiting will be a little more difficult this season, because Baird has only recently been hired and a lot of the recruiting for the upcoming season is done in the spring.

“My goal is to turn it around, to help provide the opportunity for kids to find programs beyond Skagit where they can play,” Baird said. “I know how it is to want to keep playing.”

At 24, she will bring a more youthful style to the Cardinal program.

“I’m coaching kids who aren’t that far in age away from me,” Baird said. “Sometimes I see them almost as younger teammates, like when the freshmen would come in and I was a senior.”

“I’m sure she’ll have a good rapport with the kids,” Zylstra added. “I think she’ll provide a really exciting brand of softball, and get kids interested. Probably having a youthful person in there will help.”

Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at