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Washington Huskies

One for All the Ages

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When Washington’s winner bulged the back of the net, it was as if it was wired with an electrical charge capable of instantly zapping purple-clad alumni across the continent and back through the ages.

Not only was it pandemonium on the Washington bench but also in the rec rooms of UW players and coaches and fans spanning seven decades. Stabbing his close range shot between post and N.C. State keeper, Harry Bertos finally, after 63 seasons, pushed the Huskies over the hump and into the elite circle of NCAA champions on Dec. 15.

Ron Jepson, Washington’s first head coach, watches the Huskies’ NCAA championship celebration from Bellingham. (Courtesy Ron Jepson)

Scattered across the Northwest and nation were some 600 former players and coaches, now fans, who were watching the national final on their phones and rec room screens. Up in Bellingham, the UW men’s soccer program’s first coach spontaneously defied gravity.

“We jumped up off our seats,” exclaimed Ron Jepson of his family’s reaction. It was a “momentous occasion,” added Jepson, the coach of UW’s first varsity team. An engineering graduate student from England, he was handed Washington’s reins in October 1962, when the nearest collegiate competition was in Victoria and Vancouver.

Euphoria in Carolina

While Jepson was 2,947 miles away from the drama in Cary, N.C., Marty Rood was in the house at WakeMed Soccer Park. Rood, who played under Mike Ryan in the early Seventies, had flown from Seattle on the morning of the match, arriving in Raleigh a couple hours before kickoff, to join the scores of UW traveling fans dwarfed by the 10,000 cheering the hometown Wolfpack.

Rood stood alongside other alums spanning the seven decades of Husky soccer and found himself hoarse from support and celebrations going long into the night.

“This win was more euphoric than any in my years of soccer,” shared Rood. “It just didn’t seem they would lose…they just never gave up. They were relentless!”

Marty Rood, right, and friend Peter Knowles pose with the trophy following the game. (Courtesy Martin Rood)

Much like the state’s past 13 collegiate champions at the Division II and NAIA levels, most of this Washington roster was homegrown. Seven of the starters and 10 of the 15 (19 in total) to see action at the College Cup finals hail from the state. That’s always been a hallmark of the Huskies (by comparison, N.C. State had 11 internationals and six in-state players).

Like Part of the Team

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Washington Soccer, Washington Youth Soccer

Washington’s 2016 Top Team Performances

While broader views of this past year are as mixed as imaginable, there’s no mistaking 2016 as vintage in terms of Washington teams’ feats on the pitch. National championships at the professional and collegiate levels, along with some watershed seasons for certain programs, made this a year to remember for many.

Here are a few teams who will treasure the memories of 2016 because it was a very, very good year.

Western Washington women – If the perfect season is to finish a campaign unbeaten, untied and No. 1 in the nation, then the Vikings were almost perfect. They reeled off 24 consecutive victories after an opening draw to win their first NCAA Division II crown. Western (24-0-1) had been knocking on the door for three seasons before ending Grand Valley State’s three-year reign with three sensational strikes from distance in the title match.

Sounders FC – Left for dead in late July, Seattle made a coaching change and the addition of one very special Uruguayan maestro brought about a reversal of fortune for the ages. Never mind losing their most goal-dangerous player, the Sounders went 12-3-5 down the stretch to reward the land’s largest fan base with the first top-flight championship.

Seattle United B98 Copa – One of the special youth sides in state history, United nearly came all the way back from a national runner-up finish. As it was these U17s easily repeated as state and regional champion before being stopped the semifinals of the US Youth Soccer Association Championships on penalties. It will be interesting to watch how some of these players figure in our state’s soccer future.

More teams of merit: Continue reading Washington’s 2016 Top Team Performances →

Know Your History, NASL Sounders

Birth of a Legend

He’s called well over a thousand games for the Huskies and long ago became a local broadcasting institution. But it may come as a surprise that Bob Rondeau cut his teeth on play-calling as the voice of the Sounders.

That’s right, before he first exclaimed “Touchdown, Washington!” came shouts of  “Goooooooal, Sounders!”

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Bob Rondeau has been the voice of Husky football since 1980 and UW men’s basketball since 1985. Courtesy UW Athletics.

Back in 1979, when KOMO AM-1000 added soccer to its stable of UW football and basketball, Rondeau stepped up to the mic with no experience in play-by-play and admittedly little knowledge of the game.

“I knew less than nothing about soccer,” says Rondeau. “I didn’t know a soccer ball from a cue ball.”

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Know Your History, NW Collegiate Soccer, Washington Soccer

The Whole Sixteen-Goal Story (Part 4)

Seeking a Silver Lining

Losses teach more lessons than victories, but it was difficult to know where to begin digesting what happened that day in Balboa Park.

For Mike Jones, it had been the perfect storm of adverse conditions. USF was unquestionably the stronger team and a deserving winner. But Washington had played strong Canadian programs such as Victoria and Simon Fraser and proved competitive. Earlier that season, the University of British Columbia had beaten the Dons, 3-1, prompting Jones to believe that on a given day, the Huskies might have earned a result.

“Looking at the two teams, it was probably a 3- or 4-nothing difference with us playing our best,” argues Jones. “Back then, other than the ethnic teams playing Sunday, it was all so new up here in the Northwest. When you got into games with college programs that had a lot of international players, it was hard to get much of the ball. I couldn’t see us scoring against (USF), but I think we could’ve held our own.”

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Know Your History, NW Collegiate Soccer, Washington Soccer

The Whole Sixteen Goal Story (Part 3)

Behemoth by the Bay

Awaiting Washington in the City by the Bay was a team with a history of pummeling the opposition. San Francisco had earned bids in six of the first nine years of the NCAA tournament, and became the first West Coast program to win the championship two years earlier, in 1966.

Under Stephen Negoesco, the Dons were routing foes with regularity. Their savvy international contingent twice scored 10 goals and was averaging 5.5 through the first 10 games. They had leveled 63 shots at Cal.

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Balboa Park’s soccer field.

San Francisco was cultured, experienced, rested and playing at home. Coming off a loss to their arch-rival, San Jose State, a few days earlier, they were also in the mood to deliver a beating.

Continue reading The Whole Sixteen Goal Story (Part 3) →

Early Days, Know Your History, NW Collegiate Soccer, Washington Soccer

The Whole Sixteen Goal Story (Part 1)

Soccer’s history is glutted with millions of matches where one, two or three goals are scored. So when perusing a local club’s all-time results, it reads much like binary code, with a few crooked numbers thrown in. But just when the eyelids are feeling very heavy, out of nowhere a whopper of a score line appears.

This is the story behind one such score line which, given contemporary conditions, seems inexplicable. Ah, but context is everything.

For the region, it’s about two intra-city rivals vying for a chance to make history. For Washington state’s most established men’s collegiate program, it’s a story of how a proud program can reach it’s then-zenith and nadir, all in the span of some 20 hours.

washington_huskies-logo1959It’s the tale of a shotgun playoff, bending the rules between friends, a critical yet costly play and the extenuating circumstances surrounding not only the University of Washington’s first excursion outside the Northwest, but also their initial invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Innocence Lost Continue reading The Whole Sixteen Goal Story (Part 1) →