1B Prep Baseball: Naselle, Northport use baseball as 'medicine' after drowning at Long Beach
Lessons in Loss – Northport player drowns before State quarterfinal against Comets
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High School Baseball
The thrill of a 1B State Tournament game in Naselle last weekend was overshadowed by the tragic loss of a young life on the eve of what should have been a joyous occasion for both sides.
On Friday, May 23, Noah Heberling, a 15-year old player from the Northport Dragons drowned in Long Beach while on a team outing. Northport was in South Pacific County in order to play in Naselle in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament on Saturday.
According to accounts of the incident, coaches from Northport jumped in the water in an effort to save Heberling but wound up needing rescue and medical attention themselves. One of the coaches who jumped in was Heberling’s father, Ronnie.
The search for Noah Heberlin was suspended on Saturday. His family has set up a GoFundMe to help with end of life expenses.
In the wake of the tragedy, the game went on, and Naselle won by a score of 25-4. But in a tight-knit baseball community, the final score wasn’t even in a footnote among the more meaningful moments of the impromptu celebration of life for the Heberling family.
“Boy, this was a bittersweet day,” Naselle head coach Randy Lindstrom said. “Northport still wanted to play today and we honored them. And they asked us not to play down to them, because they knew how we were feeling about it. They said they wanted our best shot.”
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