‘A tough dynamic’
Steve Snider expects to provide the girls soccer program at Mead with the stability it hasn’t witnessed in four years.
For his players, Snider’s arrival as the team’s fourth head coach in as many seasons offers a much-needed sigh of relief as much as it prompts irresistible thoughts of whether he’ll simply be a stand-in for one season before departing for another opportunity.
“It’s a tough dynamic,” Snider said, “having to go through selling the process to the girls again. It’s another new coach, new ideas how to do things and another transition. I’m sure none of them has been looking forward to that. I’m trying to express that I’m here for the long haul – as much as I can convey that or promise that.”
Snider said he hopes to continue the success established last year when Mead, coached by Jason Johnson, reached the semifinals and finished fourth in the 4A state tournament. The Panthers return a great deal of talent and experience and are the favorites to emerge with a Greater Spokane League championship. Mead shared the title with Ferris last year, then the Panthers won the district championship.
Mead’s strength is most pronounced in the midfield, led by fleet-footed Marissa Mykines on the right side and fellow senior Jaimey Etten patrolling the middle. Perhaps the most sizable boost to the Panthers comes in the form of diminutive-but-versatile Jackie Hakes, a 5-foot-2 senior defender who sat out last year’s high school season to focus on club ball with the Spokane Shadow’s 18-under team.
Even though Hakes missed out on Mead’s run at state, it’s hard to find error in her logic – or the favorable byproduct of her decision. She has verbally committed to Penn State and will test her considerable skills in the Big Ten Conference next year. In an interesting convergence of fates, Mykines could be among those players applying the pressure. A first-team All-GSL player in 2006, Mykines has verbally committed to Illinois.
“It’ll be our freshman year, so who knows if we’ll both be playing or what,” Mykines said. “But if they play her at her position now, and I play the position I’m playing now, I could go right up against her. It would be cool to play against her, seeing someone I know. It’ll be fun, but it should be weird.”
Added Hakes: “Marissa is a great player. It’ll be fun watching us play each other, and as of now, it looks like we will be. It’ll be a great battle. We’re always up to the challenge.”
Perhaps the biggest obstacles facing the Panthers will be self-imposed, as players need time grow accustomed to Snider’s coaching style and system. Conversely, Snider said he not only has to learn his players’ strengths and weaknesses.
Snider is hard-wired to coach soccer. He served double duty last year in Yakima as the girls coach at Eisenhower and the boys coach at West Valley. Before that, he was the director of coaching for a soccer club in Denver and coached the boys and girls varsity teams at Arvada West High School, similar in size to Mead with 1,700-plus students.
Mead athletic director Dick Cullen believes Snider is the man to carry the Panthers program into the future. He said the departures of the last three coaches “obviously has been a source of frustration,” but immediately added they “left for personal reasons that were all valid and just difficult.”
Travis Hanson left three years ago to accept an assistant superintendent job in Deer Park, Cullen said. Chris Allen left in 2005 to move closer to family in St. Louis, Mo. Johnson left last year when his wife graduated from law school and, unable to find a similar position in Spokane, took what Cullen described as an “offer she couldn’t refuse” at a law firm on the west side of the Cascades. Johnson was “nearly in tears” when he announced his resignation, Cullen said.
“I hated to see all three go,” Cullen said. “But people want to coach here, so finding people was not that difficult a thing. I felt bad for the (lack of) continuity for the girls’ sake because every (coach) is a little different. They all bring great attributes to the table, but they all have different personalities and different styles. … The girls have been through this big change every year, so we went after somebody with experience … who could really come in and take charge.”
Mykines and Etten are the only players who have played for all four coaches. Mykines said they’ve come up with a nickname worthy of a math competition tag team, “The Common Denominators.” They’ve played for five coaches in the last four years counting club coach Jeff Robbins.
“There are goods and bads, pros and cons with four new coaches,” Mykines said. “Each year, you get kind of excited for the next year because you’re going to get a lot better, and then the coach would leave and you have to start all over. … It made me grow quite a bit as a player dealing with diversity and figuring out each coach every year.
“In club, I’ve had the same coach pretty much my entire career. It’s like I’ve had two different sides of it. Each one is difficult, I guess, in different ways, but it’s been going good so far.”