Federal Way girls soccer used to shine. Making it to the postseason was a given in the 1990s and early to mid 2000s, including a 4A state championship even back into the mid-80s (1986), as well as the early 90s (‘91, ‘92) and playoff appearances numerously when they weren’t winning state championships.

But lately, that last 3 to 4 years, it’s not been so good to be an Eagle in girls' soccer.
“I have been here since my freshman year,” said Molly Campbell, a senior and one of three Eagles captains this season. “Every year, my junior, sophomore, and freshman years, we have lost the game before districts (making the playoffs).”

So it’s gone for the Eagles.
Hopefully, that’s gone, a memory. The Eagles will now be on the move in a new direction, one of up and up.
And now in comes a new coach that might be a good upper, one who is fired up and ready to lead these girls back to the promised playoff land that was theirs for the taking year in and year out for so many years of what seems so long ago now. The one is Adam Ladage, the Eagles’ new head coach.
“He seems to know a lot about soccer and what he wants us to do as a team,” said Campbell, who captains along with fellow senior Kendal Feider and junior Haley Ward.

Getting in shape

At a recent practice, the final 10 minutes were all about straight running of lines, back-and-forth, back-and-forth.
“It’s good,” said Campbell. “We are all in shape and fit. Hopefully this will make us strong through a whole game.”
Ninety minutes is a lot of time running back-and-forth, back-and-forth, for sure, with one little 10-minute halftime break between halves.
There looked like there were multiple winners from each of three groups, too, even one of the keepers. Sara Shimer won one round of lines. She’s going to compete for the starting keeper spot with Sam Freed. There seemed to be competition and equality of skills all over the field in a recent practice.

“No one wants to be beat,” said Campbell, who will play defense and midfield in Ladage’s scheme of things for the Eagles.
This season, based on the running alone, appears something to anticipate when one talks about the Eagles from the recent past to Campbell’s insightful recollection being a fourth year player on the team and most of that time a starter.
“We seem to be more excited for this year,” said Campbell. “We want to improve.”
That is a goal, speaking of improvement, that Ladage in his first year coaching as a head coach at any level in high school (he was an assistant coach for soccer at Auburn last year) wants to go after.
“The goal is to be better than last year (fifth place in the South Puget Sound League North),” said Ladage. “Our goal is to get better each game and finish better than the season last year.”

Learning the drill

This team, in a recent practice, seemed right on cue to know what is going on out there as Ladage and his assistant coach, Carli Nixon, were actively participating, helping the girls do a “switching sides” drill where a girl at midfield passed to the left wing who quickly passed back to the center midfield girl, who one-touched the ball to the girl on the right wing, who then was to pass into the middle to another player running forward to trap the ball.

“C’mon, quicker, quicker,” Nixon shouted as the girls were challenged to get rid of the ball. Then a quick pass later to another girl running onto the lead pass was followed by a shot. A somewhat complicated drill being run very well. This kind of attacking will catch a lot of teams off guard and hopefully cause mismatches for other teams on one side of the field after the switching.
“We have a lot of smart girls,” said Nixon, who is not the head coach but has been an assistant for the girls soccer team at Federal Way the last three years. So she knows the girls and knows their games.

It's in their genes

Andrea Ferguson like Shimer, is a freshman, and, she will help out. “Start,” is how Nixon put it. The backline defense returns for the Eagles, too, being sophomores Madison Campbell and Taneisha McGruder and senior Lydia Berger, who is also a “leader” and strong in the back.
A name to note, too, of many said by Nixon, is athletic phenomenon Jacquie Evenson’s little sister, Jessica, who many should know led the Eagles as captain to a third place 4A state basketball finish in an amazing game that was a loss to nationally ranked Kentwood in the semifinal.

Jessica is only a sophomore and she has a lot of the great skills of big sis, who made it to Gonzaga from her sports prowess and high academics combined.
“Jessica is a leader like her sister, a motivational player,” said Nixon.
At the end of a recent practice, Ladage said that only “13 Select balls were counted” and the team had 14. So everyone kind of listened and sat still while two players went and looked. The Federal Way Stadium field looked barren as far as the eye could see and just two looking meant the looking could continue for quite some time.
One player, Evanson, then said, “You guys, nobody can leave until we find that ball so we should get up and go find it.”
At that, a good number got up to look. Ladage was questioned for miscounting and said, “I know the number of balls.”Anyway, Ladage was right, as, a short time later, ball No. 14 was found.

Rising Stars

There are other players that could rise up, too, like maybe fastest runner on the team Laneisha Robinson, who has been out of soccer a couple years but has the speed to make the position she plays dangerous.
Her back has been hurting her the last two years and she’s missed playing this fall sport.
“My back is better,” said Robinson
She was leading the way in her lines group, one of three. But close behind and winning at least one set of about 20 times of running back-and-forth at the end of a recent practice was freshman Bianca Arizpe.
Arizpe is coming from out of state and she was a high level runner there in the 800. She should get plenty of playing time, according to Nixon.

“There are several good freshmen on the team,” said Nixon.
“We have a good combination of young girls and returning girls,” said Ladage.
This team seems like it is just fired up and ready to do good work this season.
“We have a good group of committed girls,’ said Ladage. “We don’t have a lot of girls, no JV program.”
Twenty girls are on the team.
Ladage said that the “no JV” at Federal Way has a taste in his mouth he wants to get rid of.
“It is something they need and something I want to build for the future,” said Ladage.
The biggest problem for this team may be directly related to those numbers.

‘It’s hard to prepare for a game situation when we don’t have enough girls to do a full scrimmage (11 on 11) in a practice,” said Ladage.
So Ladage, and Nixon, and the girls appear excited and ready to go.
“It’s my first year as a head coach coaching anywhere,” said Ladage. “I am excited about the talent that is here, the talent and the possibilities for the coming years.”
And what that all foretells is just not known, the excitement of a team under a new coach who knows what it all means. But, on the surface, it appears this could be a very good injection of things.
“It seems there is a lot of excitement in this program,” said Ladage. “I don’t know if it will translate into victories...”

But it’s certainly a good step in the right direction. Now, hopefully with time and readiness, the Eagles can return to the flight of the playoffs under Ladage’s exciting new leadership.