2022 Fall High School Sports Preview: Coach Mike Duke building foundation for Rogers girls soccer program

With one win and 16 losses in 2021, it might be reasonable to assume that the Rogers girls soccer team had a down season.

But for the Pirates, wins and losses take a back seat to overall competitiveness and team building.

The goal is to build a program that attracts athletes, fosters an engaging environment and, of course, teaches the fundamentals of soccer to mold more creative players.

“The expectations are always to grow as people and the team, we were not known to win a lot of games,” Rogers coach Mike Duke said. “However last year, by the end of our season, we really started clicking and playing together more as a team.”

That didn’t translate to wins on the scoreboard, but Duke said his team built off moral victories as the season progressed by scoring goals and not allowing too many balls into the back of their own net.

A case in point: In its third game of the season, Rogers was blanked by Pullman 9-0. Then in their final game, the Pirates pushed the Greyhounds, falling just short in a 2-1 result.

The team took a photo after that game and Duke said everyone was ecstatic with the final score – not because they lost, but because they fought together as a team, and as a family.

“We have a framed photo of us after that game, and there is not one frown,” Duke said. “In the picture, you would have thought they had just won the World Cup. And that’s what I want. I want them to know that as growth.”

Duke sees his team as one big family, fighting for each other every day, every game. He thinks he has cultivated a desirable team to play for, which in turn will help turnout as Rogers tries to shake its reputation in the Greater Spokane League.

Duke was voted as the league’s girls soccer coach of the year in the fall and boys soccer coach of the year in the spring.

Even though he is in a building process with the school’s programs, Duke doesn’t want his squads to roll over to teams with more talent.

“He expects us to win, like he wants us to win, but it’s not the end of the world for him,” center back JoeAnna Avila said. “It’s more if we lose, it’s ‘OK, we have each other.’ ”

Avila is one of two players Duke has had in his program for an entire four-year stretch. The other is goalkeeper Lylliana Wise.

Wise was the only GSL keeper to garner postseason honors, securing a second-team all-league award.

The postseason honor came as a surprise. Not for her performance, per se, but that she was thrown between the sticks midseason having no prior goalkeeper experience. She said she is still getting used to the nuanced positional intricacies, but she feels at home in net.

It helps that she is probably the best athlete on the team, according to Duke.

“I think we’re going to do way better this year. We have so many new girls that are so very talented and they’re very athletic, so I feel like we’ll win more games,” Avila said.

Duke lists Avila at 5-foot-2, maybe 5-3 with a slight build. Her size belies that she also is one of the best defenders in the league.

“When you think of a center back, you think of the biggest person on the field and she is maybe, in some cases, the smallest person on the field,” Duke said.

What she lacks in physicality, she makes up with her intelligence and her tenacity.

“She is just so smart with how she plays the ball, how she uses her body to get around players. She can take the ball off of anyone’s foot, it is really fun to watch,” Duke said.

He also said that he would take the first-team all-league Avila over any other GSL defender.

“If you came out and looked at her, you’d be like, ‘You gotta be crazy,’ ” Duke said. “There’s five to 10 girls that are signed to play Division I next year, and I’m taking JoeAnna 100 times out of 100.”

Avila wants to work on controlling her approach as she advances the ball up the field. Instead of just booting, she wants to try and find the midfield to help them facilitate an attack.

Duke, who is in his fourth season at the helm, also has that goal for his team as a whole.

Instead of “kicking and praying” as Duke said has been Rogers’ fallback for years, he hopes for a bit more control between the lines, using his speedy forward Emily Peabody to get on the end of precise passes that cut though the opposing backlines.

“We have a lot of young athletes, but not necessarily soccer players, that are still learning the game,” Duke said.

After every game, Duke requires his players to tell him what they learned. It doesn’t matter if they’re a club player or if they played their first minutes, Duke wants to hear what they can instill in their next game.

“They’re buying into it so far. For lack of a better term, they’re drinking the Kool-Aid,” Duke said.

The team can’t wait to get their season started.

“I’m so excited, I love playing soccer for Rogers,” Avila said.