Monday, January 10, 2022 Early family and life experiences helped shape Jason Bartlett into a devotion to sports and soccer in particular. And when his daughter began to play, that devotion led to a new inspiration leading the next generation to that same devotion. “I played for the Raiders when I was 10 years old…

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Monday, January 3, 2022 One of the common themes through many of our profiles has been the lure of the greater Spokane community and the northwest. The story of Mike Oliver is no different, and it has produced three outstanding players and a pair of coaches within the family and many more beyond. “Originally from…

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Monday, December 20, 2021 A longtime fixture in the Spokane coaching community, former club coach Bryan Olson recently announced he is stepping down from his position as head coach of the Whitworth women’s program to pursue missionary opportunities in Nepal. A coach with the club since his graduation from Whitworth in 2009 under longtime former…

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Monday, December 13, 2021 If there is one individual that bridges the gap between the older generation of coaches and the new, it is Jesse Retan – arguably also one of the best players to hail from Cheney. Retan was among the many players that played in the club in its formative years as the…

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021 Wyoming is not necessarily a state that comes to mind when you think of soccer hotbeds, but playing in the heart of the Rockies forged a passion for the game for coach Brett Wanner. According to the coach, having a population less than a million in the state provided plenty of…

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Monday, November 22, 2021 Coach Lynden Smithson has served as a prosecutor for the City of Spokane for 19 years, but his work on the sidelines has been his most satisfying service in the community. “Some of the most gratifying times in my life have come from coaching. I have been asked to be a…

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Monday, November 15 Called upon by his children and their friends in 1989 to coach their team, Dan Raczykowski took it upon himself to learn how to coach the game to provide those kids with the best possible experience he could. Thirty years and many lessons later he’s still on the sideline providing that guidance…

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Monday, November 8, 2021 In the late eighties, his mother was looking for a way to get Kevin Moon off the island. Little did the two of them know that attending Whitworth would lead to a life’s passion for the eventual coach and a change in culture for Spokane soccer. You only have to be…

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Monday, November 1, 2021 As a player he put full dedication into playing full-time only to see his collegiate career cut far too short. But now, Nick Piger is dedicated to coaching the high school age boys primarily off the field, preparing them for the college process as an assistant coach with Tim Seely, but…

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Monday, October 25, 2021 Former Zag player Christo Michaelson may be one of the newest coaches to join the Spokane Sounders coaching ranks, but the Oregon native brings quite the pedigree and passion to the sideline. The youngest of three siblings by a wide margin, he grew up watching his older brother and sister find…

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