From rising star to WV soccer leader

It’s role reversal.

DeeDee Garbe burst onto a veteran West Valley High School girls soccer scene as a freshman with a knack for scoring goals. In bunches. In her first 17 games the center midfielder scored 28 goals and added another 11 assists – this for a team that was shut out three times.

Meanwhile the Eagles reached the state playoffs for the first time in school history in Garbe’s freshman year and reached the state semifinals the next season. Last year the Eagles were co-champions of the Great Northern League, but were denied a third trip to state.

Now Garbe’s a senior with a habit of scoring multiple goals in every game in which she plays. She has 22 goals with two games left. But this time, she’s a senior leader on a team with a flurry of young, talented freshmen as a supporting cast.

“We have a lot of freshmen this year and it does seem kind of weird,” Garbe said. “But then again, it doesn’t feel like I should be a senior, either.”

When you play soccer the way Garbe does, you can be forgiven for losing track of time. The soccer seasons have a way of melding one into another.

“The club season starts in November and about the only time we don’t play is during the high school season,” she said. “Right now I’m playing on a couple indoor leagues, sometimes just pick-up games. I think if I had to add them all up I’ve played in hundreds of games since I got to West Valley between league games, club games, tournaments, indoor games. It’s a lot of soccer.”

That level of experience goes a long way toward explaining Garbe’s level of skill. From the time she first joined the program she’s had a way of making plays that make everyone, teammates included, stop and think “wow.”

Playing out of the midfield, Garbe has a way of controlling games, fueling an offense as well as leading it.

This year freshmen Courtney Hossfeld and Kaylee Tate have added extra bite to the Eagle offense. Each has had multiple-goal games this season, with Hossfeld scoring a hat trick against Riverside last week.

“Our team chemistry has been getting better and better all season,” Garbe said. “Court and Kaylee have played so well and keep getting better with each game – that’s what you want to see. You want to see your offense getting better and peaking for the playoffs.”

Garbe said the team is focused on returning to the state playoffs and she believes her young teammates are primed to help make that happen.

“Last year I thought we had a better team than the one that went all the way to the semifinals,” she said. “But there was something missing last year. We didn’t have that same kind of drive to make it happen.

“This year I think we do. We’re young, and we keep getting better.”

After Thursday’s 5-0 win over visiting Clarkston, the Eagles have just two games remaining in the regular season: at Medical Lake on Tuesday and at home against Pullman.

“Our coaches keep telling us that we can still finish second, and that’s important for the playoffs,” she said.

The finale with the Greyhounds will be important. In the first game at Pullman the teams played to a scoreless tie, with Pullman winning in a shootout.

“I think it’s a big advantage for us to play on our home field,” Garbe said. “We have a bigger field than anyone else in the league, and we’re used to playing on it and doing all the running you have to do to cover a bigger field. I think our fitness is just better than anyone else – you can see that at the end of a game. When an opponent is tired we still have gas in the tank.”

West Valley lost its two regular season games with Cheney this year – something of a habit the team has developed, Garbe said.

“We always seem to lose to them in the regular season, but we seem to have a way of beating them in the playoffs,” she said. “I hope that stays the same.”

Garbe leaves a solid legacy at West Valley.

As a freshman, Garbe and goalkeeper Karina Carpenter were the lone Eagles playing premier-level club soccer. Not so as seniors.

“We’ve always had summer soccer camps,” Garbe said. “I think most of our freshmen came to those camps, and we were always encouraging them to play club soccer.

“Now we have a lot of girls playing club, and that really helps us as a team. For one thing, since they play together on club it helps our team chemistry. They’re used to playing with one another and know what each other can do.”

Garbe isn’t sure she’ll continue her career in college, although that thought is appealing to her.

“I’m thinking about it,” she said. “I’d like to go to Whitworth and play there. It’s a great program and a wonderful school.

“I’m just not sure at this point.”