EV field smoothed out; new scoreboard in the works

Gabe Escobar heard the way Greater Spokane League coaches talked about his home field.

In his first season as head girls soccer coach at his alma mater, the sarcasm about the East Valley High School soccer field was hardly disguised.

“Hey, I know our field wasn’t in the greatest shape,” he said. “They were always asking things like ‘How’s that field of yours?’ in a snide voice.

“I’d tell ’em that we’re working on it. But there’s only so much you can do when you don’t come on board until right before the start of the season.”

A year later and Escobar has made improvements.

“We had work parties,” he said. “I made a deal with the boys team and with the booster club. We re-sodded areas. We put in six yards of dirt in some areas. We overseeded. We worked on the irrigation system. All summer long I hounded the groundskeepers about raising their mower and only mowing once a week so the grass could grow and fill in.

“Now I’m after them to cut it short and cut it more often. They’re really good about it, but they’re like ‘Hey, coach – make up your mind!’ ”

The work should pay off. The uneven patches that caused oh-so-many turned ankles have been evened out and the rocks and pebbles that dotted the goal areas were raked and hauled off.

And there’s a bonus: The school will install a new, digital scoreboard.

In seasons past the score of a game in progress was a state secret. Keeping track of the score and the clock was a guess-and-by-golly operation.

“It will be great to have a scoreboard,” Escobar laughed. “The only thing is that I don’t know when it’s going to be installed. They started to do it and dug to put in the footings, but they broke a water pipe and it got flooded.

“But it will be there. I promise.”

Central Valley Bears

The Bears are further along than they were at this time last year.

“Last year was my first year with the program,” coach Andres Monrroy said. “They were still getting to know me and I was getting to know them. This year we’ve gotten a lot more accomplished because they know what to expect from me and I know what they can do.”

Central Valley is still young, with 13 sophomores on the roster, six of whom started a year ago.

“I feel like we’re very young,” Monrroy said. “But we’re experienced. If you just look just at our roster, you’re going to think that we’re really young.

“The biggest difference in this team from last year is that these girls have all grown. They’ve grown physically, and they’ve all grown as players.”

The Bears are small in terms of height, they won’t win many battles in the air, but they make up for by being exceptionally fast.

Senior Jaymie Balcom, a forward a year ago, moves into the midfield, where her leadership skills will help anchor the team’s attack. Junior Jackie Morden, injured at the end of last season, is healthy and will be a strong scoring threat. Sophomore sisters Alexandra and Nicole Richardson will anchor the team’s defense.

Starting goalkeeper Mallory Flesher graduated, so Monrroy will turn to senior Michelle Cole to start, with talented sophomore Danae Brooks backing her up.

“I think the toughest challenge for us will be to find a starting 11,” Monrroy said. “We’re a very deep team.”

East Valley Knights

Second-year coach Escobar has a large, talented group of seniors returning.

“I have very, very high expectations for this team,” he said. “They’ve worked hard all summer and the excitement and the intensity that they’ve brought to the first two weeks of practice has really been amazing. They’re in better shape than they were at this time last year, and we’re way farther along than we were at the start of last year.”

The nine seniors on this year’s varsity have been playing together since the third grade, but this is the first of their high school seasons with a returning head coach.

“It’s tough for a team to have a new coach every year,” Escobar said. “You keep starting over from scratch and you keep having to learn a whole new system and a whole new personality.”

Senior Morgan Manchester moves up from her starting spot in the middle of the East Valley defense to add toughness and intensity to the center midfield.

“I wanted to make that move with her last year and it’s something I still kick myself for not doing,” Escobar laughed. “But I think that once I penciled her in to start right next to her sister, Bryana, they got so jazzed by the chance to play together that you couldn’t pry them apart.”

Anchoring the defense will be junior Kennah Meyer and Lexie Plumb.

Kendall Abbey, who was a varsity defender as a freshman, returns to the pitch for her senior season and will strengthen the defense.

The offense will have plenty of scoring threats to work with. Senior Mallory Mott and Echo Abramson both know how to score any time they touch the ball.

“Along with these very good seniors I have a very talented, premier-level freshman class coming along right behind them,” Escobar said. “I have six freshmen who will see minutes at some point this season. I have to keep telling them that they may not see a lot of time this year, but they’ll be able to move right into a starting role next year.”

University Titans

The Titans missed the postseason a year ago and are eager to rectify that in 2008.

“We’re pretty young this year, but we have a lot of quickness,” coach Kevin Houston said. “We’re mostly sophomores, but size-wise we’re not really that small. They play big.”

Houston and his coaching staff have been impressed by his squad’s dedication and attitude.

“Every year I talk to the team about doing what it takes to be successful,” he said. “We stress that everyone needs to play a leadership role. Everybody needs to take on that responsibility. Every year I say that, but I don’t always get that. This is a different team. I have a lot of leadership all across the board.

“The thing we saw during tryouts, when we were picking the players for this year’s varsity, was that this group really listened and took what we told them to heart.”

Second-team All-GSL defender Lauren Millard returns for her senior season, her second as a team captain. She’s joined in a leadership role by senior forwards Alex Aldecoa and Mandy Schmedding.

“We were really counting on Mandy to have a big, break-out year for us last year,” Houston said. “But she was out sick the whole year. This year she’s back, she’s healthy and I think she’s ready to be a dominant player.”

The Titans graduated both goalkeepers from last year and most of its starting defense.

“I had two freshmen in goal on the junior varsity last year,” Houston said. “They’re both moving up to the varsity this year and we’re going to go with them in goal. Figuring out the defense is going to take a little while.

“We have four nonleague games, so we’ll get a chance to take a look at some different players and combinations to find what will work best.

“We played in a mini tournament over the summer, so we got to see a lot of girls. Coming in we had a pretty good idea of what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are. We’re working on those weak points.”

West Valley Eagles

The Eagles started their season back in November, moments after they lost their consolation final to Archbishop Murphy.

“We had that heartbreaking loss (in the semifinal to Burlington-Edison) and then came back the next day and really stunk up the joint in the consolation final,” coach Shelli Totten said. “We actually stayed over an extra night, so we went back to our hotel after that last game and we talked about what it would take to get back to the Final Four and to be successful. And we had a chance to just sit around and enjoy the fact that we were there. We ordered pizzas and just enjoyed being together. That was really nice.”

West Valley hit the practice field for the 2008 season with focus and intensity.

“These girls are working really hard and they’re doing a lot of really good things,” Totten said. “The intensity is good and their work ethic is awesome.”

The Eagles lost three starters from last year’s squad – one a four-year and the other two three-year starters.

“Every year, when you lose seniors, they’re hard to replace,” Totten said. “But at the same time, when you lose certain kids the rest of the team just finds a way to come together. Even when they have some really big shoes to fill, and they do in this case.”

The Eagles are led by a pair of returning All-Great Northern League first-teamers who are still just juniors.

DeeDee Garbe has been the GNL’s most prolific scorer the last two seasons and she’s poised to maintain her torrid offensive pace. Karina Carpenter is an outstanding goalkeeper who was almost impossible to score on in the playoffs a year ago. She held Burlington-Edison scoreless in the state quarterfinal match through regulation and overtime.

Senior Kayla Courchaine gives the team another formidable scorer in the offensive end. Senior Alex Fraser, a starter as a freshman who ran cross country the past two seasons, returns and will add strength to the midfield.