Fickes triplets making their marks

YAKIMA — As daunting a task as raising triplets might seem, consider this.

When the entire Fickes family of Selah is together, be it on a shopping excursion or group vacation, some wonder if triplets Alex, Kyle and Natalie, plus older sister Rachel, might actually be quadruplets. Or at least two sets of twins.

“Everybody thinks these two,” Natalie said, pointing toward her brothers, “are twins, and that my sister and I are twins. She and I look exactly alike.”

Triplets Kyle, Natalie and Alex Fickes excel at their respective sports for the Selah Vikings. (Kris Holland/Yakima Herald-Republic)

There are more similarities, of course, including a strong athletic bond that began with Rachel and continues through the second, third and fourth children born to Mark and Karen Fickes at Memorial Hospital on July 9, 1992.

First came Natalie, who this fall has helped Selah’s volleyball team to an unbeaten CWAC record, lofty state ranking and serious-contender status in its quest for the program’s fourth straight state championship. Rachel starred on the first two.

Next, in order, were Alex and Kyle, who last spring earned the rare honor of starting as freshmen on coach Mike Archer’s varsity baseball team.

More recently, of course, the brothers have regularly joined the leather-lunged legions who cheer on Natalie and her teammates in Carl Kellman Gym.

“We’re always there,” Alex said.

“In the front row,” Kyle added.

Said Natalie, “I watch all their baseball games — if I’m not playing (fastpitch) at the same time.”

So what was once one big busy family — Rachel, four years older, is a sophomore at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. — has evolved into one slightly smaller but extremely active group.

“Let me just say,” Karen Fickes stated, “that the whole process has involved a lot of prayer and hard work. My husband and I have been a team, although he’s the strict one who makes them get their schoolwork done, and he’s been a coach in sports for every one of them.”

She was quick to add that athletics, in the grand scheme of her childrens’ upbringing, have served as much more than organized ways of keeping the triplets occupied.

“Sports does more for our kids than just keep them out of trouble, although it does that, too,” Karen said. “It teaches them time management, it teaches them how to get along in a group and it teaches them to respect people of authority.”

Happily filling the latter role for Natalie has been Kay Aberle, who knows athletes and competitors when she sees them.

Aberle saw both in Rachel Fickes, who while only 5-foot-5 excelled as an outside hitter on the Vikings’ 2005 Class 3A championship team and the 2006 Class 2A title squad.

Natalie, meanwhile, is making her mark as a setter.

“She first caught my eye just as an athlete,” Aberle said. “She makes good choices, she’s quick and she makes things happen. Those are things you need from a setter, plus she’s left-handed.”

So is Kyle, a center fielder and pitcher for Archer. Alex is a middle infielder.

“They’re both internally motivated,” Archer said. “Kyle’s a little quieter than Alex. Alex is more apt to say the bad word out loud, but they’re both very intense, smart guys who pick up on the game and the things we do.

“Their competitiveness and wanting to learn the game helped enable them to play as freshmen.”

Those qualities also no doubt contributed to the triplets collectively earning their driver’s licenses last summer on their 16th birthdays.

“One of their friends had already gotten a license, so they all wanted to get theirs,” Karen said. “We all went to Ellensburg to get it done faster.”

Earlier, however, in the threesome’s early days, things didn’t go as smoothly.

Born six weeks prematurely (Natalie weighed 4 pounds, 2 ounces; Alex 4 pounds, 5 ounces and Kyle 5 pounds), each triplet encountered health challenges.

Kyle was flown by Lear jet to Seattle Children’s Hospital with pulmonary hypertension, which is an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein or pulmonary capillaries that can cause shortness of breath, dizziness or fainting.

Natalie experienced apnea — “she just forgot to breathe,” Karen said — and Alex had a lung problem.

Thereafter, though, came the mostly normal infantile milestones. “Kyle was the first one to crawl,” Karen said, “Alex was the first to talk, and he hasn’t stopped.

“We found out that Natalie and Kyle were left-handed pretty early, when we’d give them a spoon in their right hand and they’d move it to their left. This was after they stopped crawling over their chairs trying to get to each other’s food.”

Now?

They’re busy. Natalie also plays basketball and fastpitch and Alex and Kyle both play hoops.

When not playing sports or hitting the books, they sometimes stay home together and play ping pong. “Helps with the hand-eye coordination,” Alex said.

And of course there is a substantial number of classmates and/or teammates with whom to exchange smiles, high-fives, hugs, e-mails and text messages. “We all have the same friends,” said Natalie, smiling. “So we never get bored.”

And speaking of not boring, how about this: Imagine the family’s graduation party in 2011.

• Roger Underwood can be reached at 577-7694 or runderwood@yakimaherald.com