Daxton Poulson was in the middle of chatting about his hair, recently bleached light blonde, when he spotted a teammate outside the Halliwell Park clubhouse. Poulson was explaining how this all came together, how he and the Pocatello Rebels decided to dye their hair blonde for the state tournament, and he saw the perfect way to illustrate his point.

“And then Preston did it,” Poulson said, pointing to his teammate standing a few feet away.

Wait. He had to correct himself.

“Er, that’s Gavin,” Poulson said, smiling.

In the moment, Poulson mistook one teammate for another. He couldn’t tell them apart because they both sported blonde hair. Which is exactly the point. They all look alike, walking around with light blonde hair like they’re part of some cult, and to hear them tell it, it’s made real differences on the field.

“It kinda helped us in that game, to stay together as a team,” Poulson said.

“It’s bonded us together because we all look alike,” Alvarico said.

“I guess it makes us more related,” Flynn said.

The Rebels all bleached their hair blonde headed into this single-A state tournament because for this program, advancing to state amounts to a significant accomplishment. Since the club formed some 15 years ago, this is the Rebels’ first trip to state — ever. This is a big deal. So they’re treating it like one.

The idea came courtesy of Alvarico, a rising sophomore at Highland. When the Rebels secured a spot at the state tournament, he understood the gravity of the feat, so he knew the team needed to make some sort of statement with their hair. He considered a buzzcut. Then he decided on blonde hair.

For awhile, he had trouble convincing his teammates to get on board. He texted the Rebels’ group chat, encouraging everyone to dye their hair, but he had little luck. None of them wanted to be the first one to do it — what if nobody else joins? Then Alvarico made up his mind. He got his hair dyed, snapped a picture and sent it to the group chat.

“Then they were like, let’s just do it,” Alvarico said.

That’s when the dominoes began falling. Poulson, Alvarico and Preston Foltz got their hair dyed at Poulson’s family’s home. It was becoming a trend, and if there’s one thing teenagers know how to do, it’s keep up with trends. The rest of their teammates wanted in, so they decided to meet up at the Portneuf Wellness Center in Pocatello, where almost everyone else got their hair done. The work fell to Poulson’s mother, Melissa Suru, who isn’t even a hairdresser. Years ago, she dyed Daxton and his brothers’ hair. That’s all the experience she needed.

The process unfolded like this: With seven or eight of the boys gathered together, Suru put dye on each of the boys’ hair, making sure to cover every part of their heads. Next, each boy got a plastic bag on their head, which allowed the dye to sit. That lasted an hour or two. Then Suru applied toner to the boys’ hair, which gave it the light color — otherwise, it would have yellow and gold. “We wanted it white,” Poulson said.

So at the end of the process, almost all the Rebels had light blonde hair, just in time to kick off the single-A state tournament.

“I think it looks pretty good,” Flynn said. “We got made fun of it by other teams, but I think we’re just kinda starting to embrace it.”

Their coach didn’t know what to think at first. Chris Seckel isn’t exactly in his players’ group chat, so he had no idea. When the Rebels met for batting practice ahead of the state tournament, he rolled up like usual, expecting a normal practice. Then he noticed something a little… off.

“I walked in and half of them had their hair blonde,” Seckel laughed. “I was like, what are you guys doing? And they said, oh, we’re doing it. So we showed up to the banquet last night, and the rest of them were all blonde. So yeah, whatever works, make them come together.”

“At the banquet (Tuesday) they were all kinda embarrassed,” Alvarico said. “I was like, just embrace it, guys. You only live once. And I think now they’re loving it.”

For awhile, it felt like the Rebels’ blonde hair was about to propel them a ways in the state tournament. In the first round, they survived a late-inning scare against Ridgevue, took the game into extra innings and prevailed in the 10th frame, when Flynn supplied an RBI groundout and Evan Geisbrect drove in an insurance run with a sacrifice bunt.

Then their luck changed. On Thursday night, the Rebels ran into the Razorbacks, Pocatello’s other single-A Legion team, which operates one step higher. The Rebels tied things up with a three-run seventh inning, but an error cost them in the bottom of the inning, sealing the Razorbacks’ 6-5 win.

One day later, on Friday, the Rebels bowed out of the tournament with a 10-6 loss to Lewis and Clark. At their first state tournament in program history, they went 1-2. Not what they wanted, but also nothing to be ashamed of, considering how meaningful making state was in the first place. Whether they went two-and-out or won the whole thing, one thing was always going to be for sure: They all looked the same doing it.