Best friends: Shadle Park’s Chloe Flerchinger, Gonzaga Prep’s Bailey Benson lifelong friends, teammates

Chloe Flerchinger and Bailey Benson have grown up doing just about everything together. Softball, volleyball, club sports, family trips – you name it.

The only thing they haven’t done together is go to the same high school.

Flerchinger has been a two-sport star in her four years at Shadle Park; Benson has been the same across town at Gonzaga Prep.

Other than that, the two are practically inseparable.

The pair met at a clinic for softball pitchers when they were young. But you could say these two dynamic players, offspring of coaching families in Spokane, were destined to become lifelong friends.

Bailey Benson is the daughter of former Eastern Washington volleyball coach Wade Benson and Gonzaga Prep volleyball and softball coach Jill Benson. In addition, the Bensons run College Preparatory Academy volleyball club.

Chloe Flerchinger is daughter of Kirsten (Lynn) Flerchinger, longtime coach of the Spokane Sliders and Mudhens fastpitch club teams, and granddaughter of hall of famer George Lynn, the former Shadle coach and one of the driving inspirations of the Spokane club softball programs.

When Bailey was very young, the Benson family moved out of the area for a little while. “When we came back,” Jill Benson said, “Bailey had just kind of picked up softball, and we went to Steve Fountain’s pitching academy. Chloe also had just kind of started going there.

“And so they met then and they just instantly kind of got along.”

“One day our moms started talking, and so we had nothing to do,” Chloe said. “So then we started talking and then all of a sudden, we were playing together.”

“We were on like, rival teams, when we were in 10-U,” Bailey Benson said. “We pitched at the same place. And then our parents met one time when I was coming in for a session and she was leaving hers. And then they met and then we all met and then like, instantly, we were best friends. And she’s still my best friend.”

Chloe then joined the Benson’s club volleyball program and the rest, as they say, is history.

“The two of them, kind of like peas in a pod,” Jill Benson said. “Even though they are a lot different, but they’re so much the same.”

“We’re pretty much always together,” Flerchinger said. “We haven’t seen each other as much (this year), but I know that we’re gonna be spending all summer together and I’m so excited for it.”

They know each other better than they might know themselves.

“She has like this sense of humor like no one else would get,” Flerchinger said of Benson. “You have to know her to get it. From the outside, it doesn’t look like she’s being funny, but her close friends know that she is and sometimes she doesn’t even think she’s funny, but she’s hilarious.”

“She’s very humble,” Benson said of Flerchinger. “And she always is doing stuff for others and not for herself enough.”

Both players, having learned from each others’ parents since they were in 10-U, have earned all-league honors in both volleyball and softball.

“It’s amazing how in this day and age, when kids are being asked to specialize young, I would love them to be just examples of kids who can (play multiple sports) and are getting it done,” Jill Bailey said.

Because Shadle Park reclassified to 2A, the two haven’t played against each other in high school since their freshman year. Neither will admit who got the better of the other back then, but they agreed it was surreal.

“I feel like it was pretty even,” Bailey Benson said. “We both wanted to get hits off each other and we were like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna hit off me. I’m gonna hit off you’ type of deal. But we both wanted to see each other do well.”

“We couldn’t stay serious,” Flerchinger said “We were always laughing and if one or the other did something we just we started dying laughing.”

“Shadle always came out on top,” Benson said. “But it was super fun playing against them. Even playing against each other, we still wanted the other to (succeed).”

Shadle Park is undefeated in the Greater Spokane League 2A ranks. With Flerchinger and Crimson Rice on the mound and in the middle of the order, the Highlanders have lofty goals.

“I’m expecting state,” Flerchinger said. “I know we’ll be there, but now I think this team has the capability to take the championship this year.”

“(Chloe) is such an impact player and she’s been a dynamic player for us from the get-go when she was a freshman,” Shadle Park coach Scott Kine said.

“I think it’s really gratifying for her to hopefully finish strong and have the opportunity to win a state title. ”

The young Bullpups, meanwhile, are middle of the pack in the 4A/3A league standings.

“We have two seniors and I feel like the team chemistry is really good this year,” Bailey Benson said.

“I would say (Bailey) enjoys the fast pace of volleyball,” Jill Benson said, “but I think she excels (in softball) because it’s a craft. She loves volleyball, and it’s joy-filled. I’d say this is more personal.

“I think this year she excelled in volleyball in the leadership role, which is fascinating to see, you know, as a coach, having a senior leader who’s also your kid who did a very good job.”

Once their high school careers conclude, the lifelong friends will move in separate directions. Benson is headed to Hawaii to play at Division II Chaminade, and Flerchinger signed with NAIA College of Idaho.

But the distance will not separate them.

“I’m dreading it a bit just because she’s been my best friend for so long but it’s not like I can just like quickly go to Hawaii,” Flerchinger said. “But I know that we’ll still be friends through it. There’s no end in our friendship.”