So much of life is like that Robert Frost poem, of two roads diverging. We muse about what might’ve happened by taking an alternate path; what would have “made all the difference.”

In our local soccer sphere, one particular path not taken was on Montlake. Where the world’s game was initially embraced by one University of Washington athletics administration, it was ignored by the next. Because of that neglect – or outright opposition – some observers contend Husky soccer has never achieved the heights for a school from a region so rich in natural resources.

If ever there was a golden era of girls and women in Washington state amateur soccer, it was the Eighties. Puget Sound was prolifically producing exceptional players who would go on to earn national and international recognition. Yet almost all would do so without ever matriculating through the university which might have offered the biggest mutual benefit for both player and school.

Whereas some athletic directors across America saw the future, others clung to the past or their personal favorite. At Chapel Hill, the North Carolina athletic director, Bill Cobey, chose to start a varsity women’s soccer program in 1979. Cobey believed that by getting out in front of the sport, UNC could become a juggernaut. He hired one coach to cover both men and women. That coach, Anson Dorrance, made history and the Tar Heels’ legacy is unrivaled.

However, back in Seattle is the story of a promise unfulfilled, of a region rich in natural resources yet never properly putting seeds in the ground.

Easy Pickings – for Others

During the Eighties, even Dorrance recognized there was no better environment to grow women’s soccer. In that decade, Puget Sound area clubs won or were runners-up in eight amateur women’s national championship games. Local players comprised nearly half of the first U.S. Women’s National Team roster. Players plucked by Dorrance were instrumental in UNC winning seven national titles during that decade – all while Washington’s collegiate aspirations were left to wither.

“This spot was an absolute hotbed in the women’s game,” said Dorrance, who once described recruiting in Puget Sound to a gold mine. “We were the first varsity in the South; the West Coast hadn’t really adopted the collegiate model…I saw a lot of talent (in Washington) and chased as much of it as I could, as did everyone else.”

 Washington was ahead of the curve when it came to organizing a women’s club program. That was 1974, when future USWNT head coach Mike Ryan was coaching the men’s varsity and agreed to train the women who formed a club for the state league. By 1977, Washington State, Western Washington and Seattle Pacific clubs joined UW in the Northwest Collegiate Soccer Conference while Whitman became the state’s first varsity women’s program.

It was Jim Owens, acting in his dual role of football coach and athletic director, who made Washington the state’s first varsity men’s program in 1962. Once elevated from being Owens’s assistant to AD, Joe Kearney founded the Western Washington Soccer Conference, served as its commissioner and instituted scholarship aid. The Huskies were also a national power in sports such as wrestling, swimming and, of course, rowing.

In 1976, Kearney left for Michigan State and was succeeded by Mike Lude. Soon Ryan was gone, and if there had ever been any question, football was not just king, but every other sport was now dozens of rungs down the ladder.

After Title IX was enacted in 1972, varsity women’s team sports started play in 1974 with basketball and volleyball. Later in the decade, colleges across the country began recognizing the growing popularity of soccer. North Carolina’s program started in 1979. The first Division I women’s programs in the Northwest were Oregon and Portland, in 1980. With two Seattle players leading their attack, the Ducks reached the 1981 AIAW finals (won by UNC).

What Might’ve Been

At that time, there was every indication that a team full of Washington players could contend nationally. Ryan guided Seattle’s Lowenbrau Zurich to a third straight national amateur cup title in 1982. Their string was snapped by a penalty kick shootout loss in the 1983 final.

Denise Bender of Mercer Island played on those Lowenbrau teams and chose to enroll at UW in 1980 following two years at Washington State. A stellar sweeper and leader, Bender had been voted all-conference for the Cougars’ club. She didn’t hesitate in joining the Huskies, nor did Patti Cox, the Lowenbrau goalkeeper. Now, imagine that pair being bolstered by Tacoma’s Dori Kovanen.

In 1981, Kovanen had her pick of 32 schools offering scholarships in either softball or soccer or both. She would eventually earn a Ph. D. in earth and ocean sciences; UW is considered one of the leading universities in those studies. As it turned out, Kovanen was integral to Carolina winning the 1981, ’82 and ’84 national championships.

Simply by going varsity in 1980 or thereabouts, the Huskies easily could have attracted another Lowenbrau leader, Kenmore’s Sharon McMurtry. Instead, McMurtry chose to play basketball at Seattle University. However, she was a regal midfield orchestrator on the pitch. McMurtry and Bender would play together on the inaugural 1985 U.S. Women’s National Team, with McMurtry earning U.S. player of the honors. No doubt Joan Dunlap, Lowenbrau’s scoring standout, would have looked sensational in purple. As it was, Dunlap won two NCAA titles in two seasons at Chapel Hill.

A spine of Cox, Bender, Kovanen, McMurtry and Dunlap would’ve made Washington an elite team, and just as attractive to prospective players in the west as North Carolina was to the east.

By 1982-83, the mythical varsity Huskies would grow stronger. A future USWNT player, Lorraine Figgins, was a UW freshman in 1982. U.S. Youth international Bonnie Broughton would join the UW club in 1983. Gretchen Gegg would succeed Cox in goal and also eventually play for the U.S.

During the Eighties, while using local talent, Western Washington, Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran rose to national prominence among small colleges. PLU won three NAIA championships by 1991.

“There’s no question that if the Huskies had begun their program 10 years ago,” claimed Ryan in 1991, “nobody would have touched them. Washington would have been the Real Madrid of women’s soccer.”

“In hindsight, if we had a varsity squad, a lot of people would’ve stayed, and we would’ve made a good run and could’ve been really good,” said Bonnie Wharton (née Broughton). “Look at the success Western was having, and most of those players were from the Seattle area. We could’ve attracted plenty of people from outside the area as well.”

A highly regarded university such as UW offering even nominal scholarship aid along with the promise of playing the other top programs would be impossible to resist. Washington’s profile would only rise further in the second half of the Eighties, when the local super clubs, Union Bay Flyers and Pepsi Stompers, spawned some all-time greats.

“Michelle Akers was the big prize, coming out of Shorecrest,” said Russ Amick, who led the formation of the Washington Women’s Soccer Foundation during the mid-Eighties, to raise operating and potential scholarship funds. “She was interested in sticking around and playing for Washington but only if they would become a Division I program.

“It was so obvious to people, and we would see it when these girls would go to national tournaments. Dorrance knew all about them and was fired up to sign them.”

Along with Akers, goalkeeper Amy Allmann, defender Lori Henry and midfielder Shannon Higgins all began their respective college careers between 1984-86. All would make the 1991 World Cup-winning U.S. team. Akers and Higgins became the first two college players of the year. Kris Jorgensen, Kathy Ridgewell, Shelley Separovich, Kerri Tashiro and Kerri Coplin would become All-Americans or standouts at Cal, Colorado College and Wisconsin.

In five seasons under Jerome Rauen as coach, the UW women’s club only lost six games, all to varsity programs. When asked what might have been possible with a varsity program, he is certain.

Said Rauen: “There was support in the community. We had the players. “They would’ve been up at the top.”