The History of the Parrots  

The Parrots were originally a U7 team of six boys and five girls (Sophie Spickard, Claire Lagerwey, Kathryn Kirkland, Katie Schoene, Emily Stevenson, and Deva Crouch) who played mod soccer in the Woodland Soccer Club (near the Zoo and Green Lake) of the Seattle Youth Soccer Association.  They played the 1992 and 1993 fall seasons in this format before combining as U9s with the girls from another boys-and-girls team called the Green Gators (Stephanie Brossmann, Molly McDonald, Mesa Schumacher, Liz Edleman, Heather Manley, and Amanda Rapinan) to form the first all-girls Parrots.  Anjel Wahlman and Clara Jones were two players new to soccer who joined the team at this time.

As U9s, the Parrots played up at the U10 level in the Seattle City Tournament, reaching the semifinals in the winner’s bracket, and losing in a shootout in the loser’s bracket semifinal to place third.  

The boys from the Parrots and Green Gators had combined to become the U9 Raging Squirrels, who added three girls (Amanda Ardavany, also known then as "Frizz", Llewe Johnson, and Laura Chirot) who joined the Parrots the following spring as U10s.  (The Parrots spent the next two spring seasons playing in the Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club league.) 

All the above teams were coached by Steve Spickard.  Until they reached the U13 level, many of the girls played basketball on teams (usually named the Coconuts) which were also coached by Steve.  Juli Edwards, a player from one of these teams, who had been playing soccer with the Woodland Bumblebees (now the Comets), joined the Parrots during early June of the U10 Spring season.

In June of 1995, the Parrots first played the Blaze (for a while known as Sparta Blaze), who had formed that year but who were already the strongest team in the state.  The Parrots lost 4-2.  In August the Parrots played up in the Cory Condit Tournament, and won the U11 Silver Division, giving up no goals in the tournament  In fall, they won every game in their city league division by at least three goals, and won the City Tournament as well, giving up only one goal all season.  (The Bulldogs and the Shooting Stars, now Relentless, were the other two dominant Seattle rec teams at that time.)   The Parrots played up in the state rec championship American Cup, reaching the U11 semifinals in Vancouver where they lost 1-0 to the eventual winners, the Sun City Strikers.

Amanda Rapinan moved out of the city at this time, and was the only girl to leave the Parrots during first five years.   

The following year as U11s the Parrots reached the finals in the Narrows Cup playing up, losing to the U12 FWU Reign 4-2 in the finals. They won the Snohomish Bigfoot tournament at their age level. 

Throughout the early years of the team, Udo Brossmann contributed as assistant coach when his job permitted.  Udo grew up in Germany, and his daughter Steph has been a key player on the team for many years. Udo is pictured on the right in the Bigfoot picture directly above Steph.

A week after Bigfoot, the Parrots reached the finals of the SeaTac Cup, losing 2-1 to the Royals.  After this tournament, guest player Alex Wexler, who had been on the team for the Mercer Island spring league, joined the Parrots. 

During the fall season, the team played up in District 1 GU12 Silver, winning their division with 12 wins and a tie, and a 44-3 goal differential. 

In October the Parrots went to their first out-of-state tournament, travelling across the border into Canada to play in the North Vancouver Northshore tournament.   This trip was one of the highlights of the Parrots early years: each game was very exciting and challenging, and we stayed in a very nice hotel connected to a fascinating market complex.

That winter the Parrots were finally eligible for the Commissioners Cup.   They placed third in the GU11 State Cup round-robin behind the Blaze and the Royals, who were at that time at a level above the other competing teams (The Parrots, The Eagles, The Reign, and Eastside FC.)   Yes, there were only six teams in the GU11 State Cup that year (there are 32 now), and the Eagles and Reign no longer exist. The Blaze won the final over the Royals.

In late February the Parrots had their first training session with Jesus Bautista, a well-known, excellent Seattle-area coach and trainer.  Jesus trained the Parrots during week-long camps the following three summers.  In 1998 he also trained the team once a week for over 30 weeks.  Jesus had a clear influence on the skills and tactical understanding of the Parrots.

The following year, the Parrots divided in the spring into two teams, both coached initially by Steve Spickard.  Jamie Williams, Jessie Anderson, Kristina Rhodes, and Precious Alex joined the Parrots. Alex Wexler left to join the Crossfire Sounders, and Kathryn left to join Relentless where she played for five years before moved to the Fusion (mentioned below).  Laura and Deva left to play on school and rec teams, and to pursue other interests.  Molly, Mesa, Liz, and Heather needed a team, and fortunately there were some girls from a CYO team in Greenwood and a few players from the Comets who wanted to get more training, so they began getting together twice a week.  After practicing all spring, but playing no games, the team was taken over in the summer by Sean McDonald, becoming the Woodland Fusion. They won the Seattle City Tournament that fall, and have spent the past four seasons in District 1 Gold, winning the league undefeated last season and going straight to the LPT for Classic.  (There are now eight of the early Parrots on the Fusion, which is more than are on the current Parrots.)

In the spring and summer of 1997, the U12 Parrots won the Snohomish Invitational, reached the semifinals in the Evergreen Invitational, and were runners-up in Bigfoot. Precious, who had basketball commitments, dropped off the team at this time.

In their fall season in District One Gold, the Parrots placed first with 39 points, losing only to the second place Whatcom Rangers (26 points) and finishing with a 30-6 goal differential.   (Five years later, they invited Darcie Gardner to Surf Cup XXII, and learned that she was the player who had scored the PK which gave the Parrots that 1-0 loss.) 

The Parrots lost in the State Cup quarterfinals 2-0 to two-time state champions, Sparta Blaze.

In 1998 the Parrots added one player, Alix Brown.  Kristina dropped off the team due to injury and other interests.  In spring, Jesus began training the team two or three times a month, much to the Parrots benefit.  Eugene Poublon, who is now co-coach, began training the team also every Monday in the fall, and continued through March, and has had a very large influence on the team.    

Because the team roster was at 13 for the second straight year, and players were gone during the summer, many guest players were used in tournaments, most often from the Crossfire Sounders, but also from Sparta Blaze.  The augmented Parrots won three tournaments, the Snohomish Invitational, the Washington Copa, and the Eastside Reebok Cup.  (In the latter tournament, there were more Crossfire players than Parrots on the roster.)  They only lost two games in five tournaments, and lost another two in the regular season (tying twice) to come in third in their ten-team division, two points out of first with a 39-10 goal differential.  (A transfer from Minnesota, Danielle Rueland, joined the team briefly for two weekends in midseason, before moving to Relentless, and Emerald City 85, where she remains.)  

Carolyn Burnett and Karras Fletcher, from the Fireballs, a Bellevue district team, supplemented the team during the Championship Cup.  The Parrots went out in the elimination round, losing on the sixth penalty kick in a shootout with Spectre (now Extreme, 2nd in P1 in 2002).  The Parrots' record for the 1998-99 season was 40-7-4.

During the fall of 1998, the split between the committed soccer players and those who had been dragged up from rec had become clear.  When the season ended, over half the team decided they were playing at too high a level, or wanted a change from what had been a year-round schedule for the past three years.  Most attempted to go to less demanding teams where they could pursue other interests.  Claire left to join the Fusion, the aforementioned district team. Llewe and Alix left to join the Bulldogs, though Llewe left the Bulldogs after a year to play for the Fusion.  (She is currently taking a year off resting her knees.  Alix doesn't play club soccer anymore)  Amanda and Anjel stopped playing club soccer in favor of other sports, though Amanda is now back playing with the Fusion.   Anjel plays as the only girl on her high school team.  Jamie left to play for Relentless, and played an important role on this team, which also reached Division 1 in 1999, before dropping to Division 2 in 2000.  Jaime moved to the Fusion in 2002.  Emily, who had been playing up, dropped back to her own age level to play for Phoenix 86 Red, who eventually changed their name to Mercury, and who have spent the past two years in Classic.   In 2002 she moved to the Shoreline Aftershock.

For about a month in early 1999, it was unclear whether the Parrots would survive, as only four Parrots were completely committed to coming back.  But first Hillary Heath (Phoenix) and Kelly Kosco (Shooting Stars) committed, then Carolyn decided to leave the Fireballs, followed by Lisa Overbo (from the disbanded HSA Excel), Nerissa Kresge (Excel), Elizabeth Arcese (Fireballs), Kate Miller (from Virginia), and Lauren Rubinfeld (Bulldogs).  All came to the team through word-of-mouth.   There was a wide range of experience on the team, but the chemistry was great.

The largely-new team came together quickly, doing well in May, reaching the finals in the Snohomish Invitational, and the semifinals in the Viking Cup.   They qualified for Division 1 of the WSYL during the first weekend of the U14 LPT with three straight victories over the Spokane Skyhawks (now Shadow) 4-1, Kitsap Red 4-0, and Dosveedanya 1-0.   The euphoria from that team accomplishment still lingers.

Three more players, Marissa "Ritz" Baldwin (Shooting Stars), and Katie "Kat" Coulombe and the returning Alex Wexler (both Crossfire), joined in late June/early July. They came to the team primarily because they wanted to play in more of a possession style.  They are all strong players who have been important members of the team over the past three years.

This augmented, 17-strong Parrots lost only five games through the remainder of the U14 season.  They lost in the semifinals of the Diadora to the State Champion FC Royals (in the last two minutes), but won the consolation game to place third, and they reached the finals of the Portland Cup, losing to the Posh 2-0.   In the fall season in Division 1, they lost only two games (to the Blaze and to Crossfire).   The team played creatively in a possession-oriented style, and ended up finishing second in the league. 

However, the increased numbers affected playing time.  Clara, who had been a solid player and starter for the team for five-and-a-half years, left to play middle school soccer, and to try other sports.  She has since joined the Fusion.   Elizabeth, a likeable, hard-working player, left after the regular season to return to the Fireballs, who have remained a solid team, and reached Classic in 2002. 

In the State Cup the Parrots won their first two games 3-0 and 1-0, extending their unbeaten string to eight, but lost the third to the Reign 1-0, and failed to advance.  This loss affected the players strongly, and inspired them to try to do whatever was necessary to score early and often throughout the U15 season against every team we faced.

Carolyn, a starter with great potential, left after the 2000 State Cup.  We were particularly sorry to see her go, but this was her first experience with year-round soccer, and she wanted to pursue tennis and skiing interests.  She continued to play with the Fireballs, and is still a key player for them now that they have reached Classic.  A skilled player, Kate joined Spectre, much nearer her home in Bothell, and promising and enthusiastic Lauren went to Relentless.   Both players were good players, and wanted more playing time.  Kate returned to Virginia the following year.   Lauren still plays for Relentless.

In March of 2000 Danielle Du Nann, an intense, upbeat player who had played a year up on the State Champion Emerald City 84, but had been injured during regional ODP camp in July 1999 and hadn't recovered completely, joined the Parrots.

Goalkeeper Nerissa left the team unexpectedly in mid-Spring because of health concerns, but fortunately, Aleah Grimes asked to join the team after her Eastside White team failed to advance to LPTs.   Dabney Rohrbach came from the Bulldogs under the same circumstances in mid-June 2000.   Both players wanted to play at a higher level than district.   Two months later, Teryn Allen of the Bulldogs joined. In January 2001, Megan Farnam joined the team.  The Eagles, her former team, had decided not to participate in either State Cup. 

The Parrots had had a successful year, winning the Snohomish Invitational.  They defeated the Posh 3-0 in the semifinals of the Rainier Challenge, losing in overtime to the Royals in the final.  They lost to the SoCal Blues 3-2 in the quarterfinals in the Slammers Newport Classic, giving up the lead they had held for much of the game in the final ten minutes, and losing on an own goal with two minutes remaining.  They won the Bigfoot playing up a year.  They placed first in P1 by seven points, and defeated their primary rivals, the FC Royals, 3-1 in the finals of the Snickers Cup in an exciting overtime game watched by a great supportive crowd.  In late July of 2000 they began a streak of not losing to Washington, Oregon or BC teams which lasted over a year before their losses in fall of 2001 to Extreme and Blaze.   During that streak they were tied by the Blaze twice, and the Extreme, Fusion, and Washington 86 ODP once each.   With two exceptions, they won all their other games by at least two goals.

Three Parrots, Hillary, Juli, and Sophie,  made the 2000 86 State ODP team.

Well before the end of the U15 season, three strong players we liked very much showed strong interest in our team once their teams were eliminated from the State Cup.   By the time we reached the semifinals, they had all decided they wanted to join the Parrots.   Katie Hall, a gifted, athletic, possession-oriented player with nice touch and vision and a very high work-rate, had been playing at the U14 level on a Classic team, NYSA Impact, and wanted to play at a more competitive level with stronger players.  Alex Pielak, a player with excellent vision, touch, and passing ability, and with unusual strength and power, had been a regular guest player with the Parrots since U10 with her former teams.   Alex was a teammate (playing two years up) with (another former guest player) Kayla Schrader on Norpoint 84.   Kayla is small, strong, very fast and exciting, and showed great potential in her half year with us.

To make room for these players, we had to cut three players, all of whom could start on several P1 teams.  Previously, we had only cut one player, so this was an unusual step for the Parrots.  Several teams were immediately very interested in Dabney.   She chose Emerald City 85.   Jessie and Megan chose to accompany the Parrots to regionals in Albuquerque., and helped the team there, but they joined new teams in the spring.   Jessie went to Emerald City 85.  Megan made it onto the rapidly-improving Eastside FC 85 Red.   Both teams moved up from Classic to P2 in the June LPTs, at which point Jessie and Megan returned to practice with us for a month before regionals.   (In fall of 2001 Eastside Red and Emerald City placed 1-2 in P2.)  In 2002 Jessie moved to Relentless to be reunited with a couple of her friends from her original Shorelake Club team.  Megan was moved to the Eastside White team, which is playing in Classic.

We had thought we would have 16 players for the year.   But, unexpectedly, Jaime Souza, a fantastic goalkeeper, athlete, and personality (who also has some strong field player skills), decided to take a change from FC Royals 85, and see what life with the Parrots is like.    

Ten months previously we had been in the worst goalkeeping situation in the 24-team WSYL with no goalkeeper and no backup, and suddenly we were at the opposite end of the spectrum with two fine keepers.

Our spring and summer went very well.   We defeated the Royals 3-2 in our rematch at the Northwest Showcase of Champions.   We won Rainier Challenge 4-0 over the Oregon State Cup finalist Willamette Posh.   At regionals we lost only to the two time regional champion Slammers.  (We played defensively and lost 4-1, which was a learning experience.)  We won the Evergreen International 5-0 over the Washington state semifinalist Blaze.   We won the Rimland Pacific 3-0 over the two-time Oregon state champion Lake Oswego Fusion, who had reached the semifinals at regionals.   We played in the GU16 Super Group of both the summer and Thanksgiving Surf Cups, and learned a lot about the strongest teams in the country.  We only won one game of the six, against the Parsippany Electrons of New Jersey 3-2.   But at Thanksgiving we played a strong game against the current national champion West Valley Samba, losing 1-0.

Seven players made it onto Washington State ODP teams.  Five Parrots, Alex P, Jaime, Juli, Kayla, and Sophie, made it onto the 1986 2001 State ODP team.  Alex tore her ACL at the camp.   Jaime and Juli both made it into the Region IV Pool.  Two Parrots, Hillary and Katie H, made it onto the 1987 2001 State ODP team.  Katie H was injured just before the regional camp, but the coach insisted she attend for her leadership qualities.  Hillary made onto the Region IV Team, and has been invited to attend two national camp weeks, and scored at the most recent one which national team coach April Heinrichs attended.

Two players, Alex W and Ritz made it into the State Pools (85 and 86 respectively), but neither could participate further due to injuries.

After years with rosters averaging 14 and rarely having more than one minor injury at any time and never more than two, this year injuries struck our team en masse.   Though we had 17 players on the roster, we had so many injuries that we were unable to field teams for our three summer tournaments without adding guest players, averaging three per tournament, and still being at eleven at several points in each of them.   Ten players have been out two months or more this season, most of them two months consecutively.   We struggled to get eleven players on the field for the last half of the season, and often failed to do so.  However, we were able to win Division 1 again with a 9 wins, 2 losses, and 3 ties, and a 4 point margin over the second place Extreme.

Kayla broke her kneecap in a motorcycle accident in August, and after a series of discouraging developments in the healing process, unexpectedly decided to quit the team.   Hopefully, she will play again somewhere, for she is an outstanding athlete with a positive personality.

Fortunately, our injured players were operated on, and/or did a lot of rehab, and they all recovered for the State Cup with the exception of Ritz.  Ritz has had a nightmare in trying to recover from a stress fracture to her pelvis/lower back, and is still nearly back after a year.  

An unusually-strong attacker, Mary Kuder, decided to drop down from the U17 State Champion Emerald City 84 to the Parrots to play at her grade level for her final two years, and chose to join us for the State Cup.   Mary is an outstanding team player and gifted goal scorer with solid skills and understanding in many areas.   She would be an great asset to any team, and fit into the Parrots quickly. 

We had a good run in the State Cup, winning nearly every game decisively (2-0. 8-0, 7-0 in quarterfinal, and 4-0 in semifinal).   But we lost in the final on astroturf against the Royals in a 1-0 game in which our style and intensity didn't stand up to theirs.

Three players left the team during the next week primarily to get more playing time.   All had had recurring problems with injuries or health last year, and spent a lot of time on the sideline.   Danielle was entering her senior year, and wanted to be seen by college coaches as a starter, and found an excellent opportunity on a Washington Soccer Club U19 team which ended up reaching regionals as a wildcard team, and went to several major out-of-state tournaments.   Danielle remained a very positive, energetic contributor to the Parrots during her two years with the team.  She is hoping to attend the University of Denver with a partial academic scholarship.   Aleah had been an outstanding keeper for us, giving up very few goals in her 21 months with the team, but had been injured during the last half of the 2001 fall season.   She fell into a backup role, and left to contest for the #! keeper spot on Eastside FC 85 Red, which she eventually won.   Aleah has been a strong asset to them.   Teryn, a field player who had been taken onto the team as backup keeper August 2000, went to Crossfire because she understandably wanted neither to play in the shadow of the other forwards on the team, nor to have anything to do with goalkeeping.   Teryn is a friendly, popular player with a lot of speed, power, and aggressiveness.  She has since moved over to Eastside where she is playing with three other teammates from Lakeside. 

These were hard players to lose, but they needed bigger roles, and we couldn't provide them.

A fourth player, Stephanie Brossmann, unexpectedly left the team to lead a more balanced life apart from soccer.   Originally, she was going to drop to the Fusion, the team filled with ex-Parrots, but she tried out for the U19 Washington Soccer Club team to which Danielle went, and she was a starting defender for them in their march to their wildcard spot representing Washington at the U19 level in regionals in Hawaii.  She had been with the Parrots since they first became an all-girls team at U9, and played for the related Green Gators before that.    This was the most painful loss to the Parrots in their history; she had been a core player for nine years, and without Stephie's (and her family's) commitment to the team at the end of the U13 season, the Parrots might not have survived.  She has joined the Extreme for her final year.

The good news which came with these players deciding to leave was that three exceptional players joined the Parrots: Christy Crudo, Amy Druse, and Dani Bridges.  Christy is well-known around the state as the center midfielder for the Blaze, who were State Champions as U11s and U12s, and who won P1 as U14s.   Trained by her father, Tony Crudo, coach of the Blaze, and former US national team player for four years, Christy is unusually strong in a variety of areas, particularly in getting into the attack and maintaining possession.   She had made many appearances with us as a guest player since U10, and had been a mainstay on the 86 state ODP team with several Parrots for the past two years.   Christy is a very friendly, social person who fit in immediately.   Amy finally came to the Parrots from Eastside FC two years after being initially interested.   She reads things very well defensively, works continuously, has a fantastic team attitude, and is very motivated to play in our style.   Amy is very focused, perceptive, and likeable.   And she's fast.  Dani is another gifted athlete with very solid skills who fits into our possession style well.   She has quick feet, excellent distribution skills, and a lot of imagination and deceptiveness.   She is also very focused and intense, and hard for defenses to handle.   Her speed is exceptional.

Spring of 2002 was a little disjointed with the team due to injuries, track practices, and driver's ed, and it was hard to commit to many practice games.   Nonetheless, we did well at the Northwest Showcase and the Texas Shootout, going 6-1 against top teams from a variety of states (and British Columbia).   Unfortunately, in April, Alex Wexler dislocated and broke her patella at practice, leading to surgery, and was out for five months.  Then, two players, Katie Schoene and Amy, learned they had stress fractures in the foot and tibia respectively, and missed the Shootout though they attended and supported the team from the sideline.   Katie's stress fracture had been an ongoing problem from high school which she had disguised for many months.   She was out for four months, with crutches for six weeks and a boot for three months, finally playing in her first game in early October.   In her first year of track, Amy (at Sammamish HS) qualified at the district level in long jump, triple jump, hurdles, and in two relays, and the pounding was too much for her leg, though she had cut back on soccer.  Hillary Heath suffered a severe ankle sprain while "scissored by a dafender" scoring during her first 15 minutes of 87 Region IV pool training, and didn't return to game action until early September.

Nonetheless, we won all our games in the Evergreen, including a 4-1 victory over the Santa Rosa Riptide.   The following weekend we reached the semifinals of the Gold Level of Surf Cup XXII, losing on a very late goal 1-0 to Cal North state finalist Pleasanton Rage in a game we played very well in, creating many interesting shots on goal.   This was one of our best tournaments ever from a chemistry viewpoint.   All four guest players, Adriana, Ashley, Darcie, and Trish, fit in very well, (and we needed all of them because we had five Parrots on the sideline as Dani and Katie Hall were hurt.)   

We added two more players very late in July.   First, came Dana Stirn, who had been practicing and playing with us since coming back in late April from a stress fracture during her final games with Dosveedanya before they dissolved in March.   Dana is a smart, athletic, very speedy, hardworking player with good touch.   She has been blossoming quickly on the team, and is hard to want to see off the field.   She covers a lot of ground quickly.    She earned her spot with her very positive attitude at practice, and her tireless hard work at the Evergreen.   A couple of days later came defender Brittney Beitel of the Blaze, whose coach, Tony Crudo, suggested to her that she join the Parrots, as he knew she could make a strong contribution to the team, as she has very solid skills from her seven-and-a-half years with the Blaze, and is blazing fast.  Brittney, also known as MB, played with us in the Texas Shootout, and everyone appreciated her and was very comfortable with her immediately.    She's an exceptional player who brought a lot of peace of mind to the team in any defensive position.

Our next tournament was over Labor Day: the Friendship Classic at Pleasanton.   We played very well in our first two games but were unable to finish, tying against the Walnut Creek Strikers and the Claremont Stars.   We were outplayed in our third game in bracket play against the DeAnza Sharks and lost 2-0.

Alex Pielak suffered a torn ACL in the summer of 2001, and had recovered from it quickly, returning in time to play the final four games of the State Cup, scoring five goals.   Although Alex had some great games for us, she had played up for her entire club soccer career, and for various reasons her parents took her off the team at the end of July, and she has now joined Eastside FC 86 Red, the current #1 team in Division 1 at the GU16 Level.   Alex, always a very skilled player, appears to be reaching her always great potential under the coaching of Randy Hanson.   She helped lead her team to the State Cup finals, and sent the game into overtime with a characteristic long-range shot, but unfortunately her team lost in a shootout.

We added two players in October 2002, both of whom had been interested in joining the Parrots for a long time.   First, Tricia Loomis decided to leave Aanvallen 84, the P2 team she has played up on for many years, and which, as U18s, is going to disband at the end of their current season.   Trish is dominating physical presence with remarkable skills, speed, and agility for a player of her size (6 feet/170 pounds).   She's a very intelligent player who is making a strong contribution to the team already due to her reliable decision-making and her consistency in execution.   Adriana Gonzalez-Medina had wanted to join during the summer, but she stayed with her previous team, Kitsap Red 85, for nearly two months longer to see if something could be worked out with them, then three final weeks to help them through injury problems.   Adriana is an energetic, small buzz-saw of a player with quick feet and some of "the glue effect" with the ball which she can maintain even when running rapidly at defenders  She has a great deal of personality and positivity which adds to our team, as well.   We are very happy to have added players who fit in immediately to the chemistry of our team.

There is no question that in 2002 we had an amazingly-strong group of players to the Parrots (starting with Mary and ending with Ad).   It was an exciting year.   Unfortunately, it ended in a 3-0 loss to the Royals in the final.   The Royals played very directly completing no more than one pass without losing the ball on all but six occasions in the game.  But the Parrots were unable to score in the face of the tenacious Royals defense, and the Royals shots were all on frame, so they earned their win.

The loss was hard on everyone, and unexpectedly a few players decided to leave the team.   Christy and Brittney (MB) went back to the Blaze.   Their schoolwork was suffering being on the Parrots, as the commute was cutting into their study time.   Christy injured her wrist speed-skating shortly thereafter, but recovered well enough to end up earning a full-ride at Washington State.   She broke a bone in her foot sometime in fall of her freshman year, but it took nearly a year to diagnose it.   She tried to play, but the pain was too great.   Luckily, she learned of the depth of the problem early in her sophomore season, and was able to redshirt.   But she's doing well in school, majoring in two subjects.   Brittney/MB went to Idaho.   Alex Wexler had had two major injuries over the previous two years, and had missed so much practice time, and had played in so few games (eleven), that at the end of the season she wanted a change, and decided to move to another team, Eastside FC Red 84, who decided to play as U19s.   Alex eventually dropped off that team, and quit soccer for a while, but picked up again with her high school team, Mercer Island HS, and got her confidence back and had a good season there, reaching the State AAA final weekend.    Here's more of her perspective on her life from a recent P-I article from those days: Alex.   She has since gone to Central Washington, where she isn't playing varsity soccer, but is reportedly enjoying the school.  Mary Kuder was the final player to leave.   She got the opportunity to play with the Sounders Women, and thought that commitment plus track at Lakeside would make club soccer hard to fit into her life.   Once track and the Sounders season ended, she joined Eastside U19s shortly after Alex Wexler left.   She went to college for a year at the University of Portland, but decided that she wanted to transfer.   Yale was happy to have her, and she's very happy with the move.  Soccerwise, she began starting as a right fullback several games into the season, and from that point on Yale went on a long winning streak, and ended up winning the Ivy League, and reaching the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Playoffs.

We were very happy with the three new players who wanted to come to the team at U18s.    Kali Paris came first, willing to join as second keeper to Jaime.    Jaime was injured during the first part of the season, so Kali quickly took on a bigger role than expected, and reached the point where she shared time with Jaime, as everyone developed great confidence in her.   Kali had to make the transition from being a quiet line keeper to a more dynamic sweeper/keeper type player, and made the transition well.    She played the entire fall season in goal for us as Jamie was needed on the field, and we set our personal league record for fewest goals allowed in a season (8).   Kolina Beck joined us from Eastside FC Red 85.    She is bright, big, strong, fast, and physical.   Also, very gregarious and funny.   Kolina has a lot of presence on the field, and really pushes herself to get into the attack, and to recover on defense as well.   Her development was held back a little in the spring when she injured her knee playing hockey, and high school nearly killed her because she kept playing with lower back problems.   But she was a strong player for us, and ended up starting at least half our games over the year.   Amber Luce wanted to join us at the beginning of the season, but our players didn't leave in an orderly way, so she had committed to a team before there was space on ours.    She tried the other team for six weeks, but out of frustration called us as she wanted more commitment.    Amber is a creative player whose skills developed pretty rapidly.   She was held back for years as a field player because she has had the ability to play keeper, so she was played there.   But she ended up giving us a lot of minutes as a forward or midfielder, starting nearly every game in the fall.    All three players seemed excited to be on the team, and through their enthusiasm and hard work have helped lift our intensity at practices.

At the Thanksgiving Surf Cup we reached a peak for us when we went through our bracket #1, surprising the Surf (whom we tied) and the Pleasanton Rage (whom we beat 3-1).   We played the eventual champions (the Slammers)  in the semifinals, and easily could have won the game (missing a PK in the second half) to lose 1-0, but it was performance we were happy with, as we were playing with 12 players in the final two games.   But Hillary was finally with us after many ODP conflicts in the past and scored her first Surf Cup goal for us in that tournament.

We breezed to the semifinals in the State Cup, and ran into a tenacious Extreme side, but we ground out a win.   We played the Royals in the final.    The game was exciting, and the Royals created a few great chances on counters.   But the game came down to PKs, and all PK takers were pretty outstanding, most of them in the side netting.    Even more outstanding was Jaime in goal against the Royals.   She was clearly the star of that game.

Spring was unlike previous year.    We practiced but everyone was busy with senior stuff, and we had too many  injured players.   We played in 7-a-sides at the UW and WSU.  But we couldn't really ever get enough players for a practice game, and only played one where we had enough players (against the UW, and we had to borrow Colby and Whitney from the Royals for that).   We did win the Rainier Challenge, but it wasn't until we got to regionals in Spokane that we were at full strength.   We lost to Utah in our opening game.   They possessed the ball surprisingly well, and we looked rusty.   Against Montana we got organized, and began playing in our familiar style.   We needed to beat FC Portland in the final game of round robin play.   They would have advanced with a tie.   We played a brilliant first half, creating many chances, and we led 4-0 at halftime.   FC Portland didn't quit, and got two goals back and missed a PK with time running down.   So it ended up exciting.   In the quarterfinals, we met the Colorado Rush, which was  the only top team in Region IV we had never played.   The game was played at noon, and the temperature was in the 90s.   The Rush came in confident, as they had seen that we had lost to Utah 2-0, and they never had problems with Washington teams, having beat the Royals 4-0 in the previous year at regionals.    They got frustrated after they were unable to score early, and things started to swing our way for a while, but with a few minutes to go in the half they knocked in two goals: one on loose ball knocked in off a corner, and the other off a great finish off a quick counter.    The Rush ran out of gas in the second half, and everything steadily went our way as far as the excitement went, especially after Trish knocked in a great goal off a beautiful attacking combination.   Their chances tried up completely, and the ball kept bouncing around near their goal for several fantastic chances.   But things didn't quite fall our way, and the Rush hung on to win 2-1.   (They reached the final, and lost the Surf White 1-0.)   That was a sad moment because it had been our last chance to go to nationals or win a major tournament, but it was nice to go out playing with a lot of passion and style.    We did play in the Diadora and the Evergreen later on in the summer, but we had so few players due to injuries and other commitments that we struggled to get 11 players on the field, and in one game in the Diadora had to play with only seven.   But in our final game as at team we played the seemingly-cocky U18 DeAnza Force.    If we'd lost that game, we would have lost four games in row for the only time in our history.   But we returned to form, winning 6-0.    

A couple of practices and a party later, everyone went off to college.   Details of where they went are here.  

So the Parrots don't really exist anymore.   Sort of.   Except that the players plan to practice together again this summer.   And we did play in a couple of indoor tournaments just before Christmas 2004.   And Ritz has finally returned to our team after being on injured reserve with back problems for over two years.   She started at Edmonds CC this fall, and it was great to see her playing with us again over Christmas.

We currently have 18 players on our profile page and e-mailing list (which still includes ever loyal Jessie who is at Boston College, and Stephie, who is at Shoreline CC, as well as the favorite Parrots guest player, Darcie Gardner, playing at the University of Oregon), so we still do have a team on paper anyway.   All 18 are strong, individualistic players and are even more interesting as people.    That final year was very rewarding, and it was great to end with so much fun combined with so much fascinating soccer.    It would be impossible not to miss them and the atmosphere they created with the Parrots.   And through e-mail and cellphones, everyone seems to be staying in touch.

But the players from earlier days are wonderful people who laid the foundation for whatever we became, and those players are missed as well, but luckily we haven't lost touch with many of them.

Click to return to the Parrots Home Page

To travel to the 2003 WSYL Final Standings Page

Juli 2002 (Note improvement in arm technique over eight years...)

And before the Parrots was Red Lightning...

Claire Lagerwey, Joanna Stodden, Niklas Krumm, Sophie Spickard