CV’s girls’ soccer success twice as nice this year

There’s something extra special about winning state championships back-to-back.

Winning a state championship is a rare thing indeed. It’s such a rare thing that it often feels as if the sun, moon and stars have to align themselves in a specific pattern in order to pull it off.

And then you do it all over again.

Central Valley accomplished the feat Saturday, beating Jackson 5-2 for a second-straight Class 4A girls soccer championship.

Coach Andres Monrroy stopped just short of predicting this kind of success four years ago when a deep and richly talented freshman class entered Central Valley. Two state titles later, nine seniors will graduate after becoming the first back-to-back state championship team to come from Eastern Washington.

Before the Bears, there were just two state champions to come from east of the Cascades: Mead beat Redmond in 1993 and Richland topped Curtis in 1998 – and Richland was the only team from the Eastern Region to even appear in the state championship match (2005) between the Bombers’ title and Central Valley’s first championship last year.

It could be argued that what the soccer team has accomplished is even bigger than the back-to-back state titles the girls basketball team accomplished in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002.

 Since 1981, the first year we had a state championship for girls soccer, there have been just three back-to-back state Class 4A champions. Federal Way accomplished the feat in 1991 and 1992. Skyline has accomplished it twice, in 2008 and 2009 and again in 2011 and 2012.

No one has won three straight titles.

There will be a natural tendency to begin looking at the potential of a third-straight state championship instead of looking at just how incredible this two-year run has been.

And there are some very good reasons to do so and one very good one not to.

First of all, the incredible run of talent that has grown up and grown through the program has by no means run dry. Second, the Bears most potent offensive weapon will be a junior next year: Washington Girls Soccer Gatorade Player of the Year Kelsey Turnbow.  And thirdly, coach Monrroy.

It’s been a running joke each season under coach Monrroy – Central Valley always starts the season as a young team. But, in many ways, it’s true. He always finds an infusion of young players to refresh his roster depth every year.

And at Central Valley, those young players always come with an impressive soccer resume from having played club soccer at the premier and select level.

His program does a wonderful job of steeping those young players into the culture he and his players have built over the years – a culture that stresses team over individual accomplishment. It’s not about teaching soccer skills, it’s about blending a wealth of ingredients into a well-seasoned stew year after year.

It’s how a team can replace exceptional players and still improve.

The Bears best player, Turnbow, just completed her sophomore year, but the team has been far from a one-person team.

In fact, Central Valley won its first championship, beating Issaquah 3-2 in a shootout last year, without Turnbow, who was off with the U.S. National team during the semifinals and finals. She missed six of the team’s 19 games over the course of an 18-1 championship season – and still amassed 20 goals as a freshman.

In the news release to announce Turnbow’s selection as the 2013-14 Gatorade Washington Girls Soccer Player of the Year, Camas coach Roland Minder, who could not defend Turnbow’s game in a first-round playoff game last year, was succinct in his observations. “Kelsey Turnbow will be a force for years to come,” he said. “We could not handle her combination play up top. She has the whole package: reads the game, skill, pace, nose for the goal. She is a true forward.”

The one reason not to beat the three-peat drum?

The Greater Spokane League is a physically tough league. This year’s state championship team did not make it through the regular season undefeated. And it’s tougher to navigate a regular season when you have a gigantic target strapped to your back in the form of defending state championship. Everyone, EVERYONE gets amped up to play the defending state champ.

Now imagine how excited everyone is going to be to play a two-time defending state champ.

Second only to that challenge is the one a team places on itself in terms of living up to lofty expectations.

Celebrate the back-to-back wins and put talk of a three-peat on the back burner until next November.