Today marks a historic day for Washington athletics. The Pam Pack’s baseball, softball and girls’ soccer teams all hosted first-round playoff games. It was the first time in school history that all three sports had their postseason stretches start at home.

Hosting a trio of first-round games is quite the feat for any school, no matter the season. It speaks to the success of the youth baseball and softball programs in the area, as well how the soccer culture has developed.

“Our girls’ soccer has hosted recently and softball has hosted recently. Baseball has been the one hanging in the balance,” said Washington athletic director Jon Blank, noting that the baseball team hasn’t played a home playoff game since the late 1990s.

“I think one of the biggest things we can look at with our current success is continuity in coaching. (Softball) coach (Doug) Whitehead has been doing it for a while. (Soccer) coach (Ed) Rodriguez has been doing it for a while. (Baseball) coach (Kevin) Leggett is kind of new to head coaching a little bit, but he’s been part of the baseball program for a while now. … The players know their expectations and that’s the building block for success.”

Hosting three first-round playoff games at once is another accomplishment in what has been a pretty remarkable school year thus far for Washington athletics. The boys’ soccer team highlighted the fall with an appearance in the state championship. The Pam Pack swim team, too, made headlines when, in the winter, the boys captured their first state championship in school history.

“Success builds success. A lot of our teams have experienced success lately,” Blank said. “Football has kind of got the ball rolling. Girls’ soccer has been highly successful lately and now boys’ soccer, too. You’ve got golf, tennis, swimming winning the state championship.”

There’s a sign next to Blank’s desk with Washington athletics’ motto: “Building Champions.” Across the board, the school’s programs have come a long way in doing just that. A handful of teams — football, golf, boys’ soccer and boys’ swimming, just to name a few — have competed for state titles recently.

“It’s been a great year,” Blank said. “It’s been exciting for Pam Pack athletics. Our kids and coaches have done such a great job. I think we’re building a culture here at Washington High School of the kids expecting to win. The community expects to win. The parents have bought into our coaches and our coaches are hard workers. They put in the hours and they want to succeed.

“… I think you have to also look at the success of the youth programs leading into middle school. When they get here, some of our junior varsity programs are also strong. You just have the building blocks to make things work at a high level.”

Now the Pam Pack sets its sights higher. The next step, Blank says, is for perennially successful teams like softball and girls’ soccer to get over the hump. He’d like to see them host multiple playoff games each season and make a deep run in the playoffs.

“We need to get to the expectation of hosting multiple playoff rounds,” Blank said. “Right now, you’ve got some teams that are just excited about hosting one game. We need to start making that the expectation. We need to break the mindset about being nervous bout the playoffs. We should expect success in the playoffs because of the work we’ve put in throughout the season.

“… I think people really expect us to be at home in the playoffs now. That’s a great expectation. We need to keep living up to it. I know we’re putting in the work to make sure that happens every year. We just want to have that culture of success here. We really believe that we’re building champions here.”