ALUMNI UPDATE part 1 – LOCAL EDITION

Monday, November 18, 2024

It was another great fall season of collegiate soccer in the region thanks in part to a number of alumni from the club.

We will start with the Big Sky where alumni helped lead Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana to the Big Sky Tournament.

At Idaho Margo Schoesler was All-Big Sky Second Team, earning All-Conference honors for the fourth time in her career. She finished the season with five goals in 18 games (17 starts) while leading the Vandals to a second-place finish at 5-2-1. Injured Maddy Lasher finished the campaign with two goals and an assist in 17 games.

The alumni at Eastern are freshman just making their way into the squad, but a fantastic turnaround season of 4-1-3 led for former Shadow club coach Missy Strasburg earning Coach of the Year honors in the Big Sky. The Eags finished third and posted draws against the top two (Montana and Idaho). Addison Romey was the lone player of the trio (Genesis Willis & Natalie Wenner) to see action in their first season. At top seed Montana freshman Caylee Kerr also did not see action for the Griz.

Closer to home at Gonzaga, it was a fun season as the team transitioned through a coaching change and a number of transfers. At the end, though, Chelsea Le took the spotlight as she capped a long, difficult career on top with WCC Midfielder of the Year and All-League honors this season. She capped the season in highlight fashion with the 1-0 winner on senior night against Portland and then scored a fantastic strike on the road in their finale on the road a week later as the Zags finished a 6-3-1 campaign with a three-game win streak.

On the men’s side Chris Swider was tied among the team’s top scorers with five goals on the season, starting all 17 he played.

At Whitworth, the alumni-loaded Pirates both had quality runs this season under club coaches Kevin Moon and Cameron Bushey.

Bushey’s Whitworth ladies rattled off a six-game win streak near the end of the campaign to finish 9-5-2 in conference. Over that run the trio of Baylee Trejo, Yacine Bitibale and Bekah Hines were a constant threat. Trejo started it off with a three-goal, one assist weekend that earned Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Over the run she tallied four goals and two assists with Bitibale netting four goals and an assist and Hines in support with a goal and two assists. Trejo would later be named Northwest Conference All-League for the second time with a spot on the First Team with Bitibale earning a spot on the Second Team.

Under Moon the Pirate Men finished on a bit of a roll with a 4-1-1 run to wrap their 8-5-3 NWC campaign. Clayton Crockett tallied a goal and assist in the run and Dawson Heuett struck for his first goal. Crockett finished the season with four goals and four assists, earning a Northwest Conference All-League selection for the second time with a spot on the First Team.

And on the topic of Heuetts, his brother Garrett tallied on the same weekend for Pacific. He finished the season with five goals and two assists in 20 starts en route to being named to the NWC All-League Second Team.

Rounding out Northwest Conference awards news is arguably one of the most marquee performances. Cole Dobson (Pacific Lutheran) was named the Defensive Player of the Year for the third consecutive year, marking the first time in league history a player has won MVP honors three times. His First Team selection also made him one of five to earn All-League four times (and one of 16 for three-plus times).

The CC Spokane squads were once again among the best in the NWAC East. The men’s side rebounded from a disappointing four-year streak of not finishing top three to make the postseason with 6-1-3 record in a hotly contested three-team race that saw them all separated by a mere three points. Alumni Parker DeAndre and Andre Layman helped the squad as freshmen with Layman tallying a goal in 11 appearances and DeAndre making nine appearances. The Bigfoot men were knocked out of the opening round in a narrow 2-1 road loss.

Last but certainly not least the Sasquatch ladies were once again a dominant force in the NWAC and came up just shy in a two-way race with Columbia Basin for the East title by by two points despite an unbeaten 8-0-4 record. Seven alumni helped the squad reach the postseason with Reese Walker leading the way in the attack with seven goals and two assists and Karlee Whitehead and Kaiti Low in the back line with each earning 14 starts in 15 games. Low also added a goal and two assists. Elise Jones (1G, 13GP), Kami Ellis (2G, 14GP), Brooke Suter (10GP) and Ana Thompson (12GP) also contributed. The Bigfoot opened the postseason with a 1-0 home win and then topped one-seed Lower Columbia to reach the NWAC Final Four for a third consecutive year before falling to Peninsula. Along the way Walker was honored with her second All-Star selection and Whitehead her first.

Speaking of Peninsula – club alum Kyla Hughes helped lead the Pirates to the NWAC Championship. The freshman tallied an assist on their 1-0 quarterfinal winner after having tallied two goals and two assists in 13 games for the 10-0 Pirates.

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