All-Area soccer picks are in, no surprises at the top

Over the past 4 years, no soccer player in the Mid-Columbia has been as dynamic as Summer Yates.

Now, the Chiawana High School senior can add Tri-City Herald All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year to her laundry list of accomplishments.

A University of Washington commit, Yates spent much of her high school career traveling the world playing with the U.S. Soccer Girls National Teams, even while the Riverhawks were in season. But there has always been something special about playing for her high school squad.

“The national team is my first priority, and I love playing for them,” Yates said. “High school is just more getting back and playing for my home town. It’s more for fun. I love playing with them, and I wish I got to play here more.”

And Yates and Chiawana have had plenty of fun together. She led the Riverhawks to three of their four state playoff appearances and was named to the All-Mid-Columbia Conference first team in each of her four high school seasons (twice as a midfielder and twice as a forward).

This year, she led the league in scoring despite missing four games while in Duyun, China, with the U.S. U-19 team, notching 24 goals in conference play to eventually lead Chiawana to a state playoff berth, which came after beating Lewis & Clark 4-0 in a winner-to-state, loser-out game of the MCC-GSL playoffs.

The Riverhawks fell on the road to Wenatchee 1-0, moving them to 0-4 all-time in the state playoffs, but Yates will still remember this season and her high school career fondly.

“It was a blast for me,” Yates said. “I never get to play back at home that much, so it’s always fun for me getting to play with the high school team.”

Prospects for Yates’ future look bright. She’s still waiting to see what lies ahead with U.S. Soccer, and is leaning toward studying business and marketing at UW while playing for the Huskies.

“I’m super psyched for college,” she said. “A lot of my friends that I played with on the national team are coming to UW with me, and the coaches are great there.”

Her goals for the future are about as lofty as they come, but with her ability and creativity on the pitch, one would be foolish to bet against Yates’ success.

“My dream since I was really young is to play on the full team, the U.S. team, play professionally one day,” she said. “And then just have my best possible career at UW, hopefully lead us to a national championship. That’s always the goal.”

ERIKSON NAMED ALL-AREA COACH

As easy of a pick as Yates was for the area’s top player, selecting the top team – and coach – was an equally clear-cut choice.

The Kamiakin Braves won 19 games in a row to begin the season en route to conference and district championships, their first state semifinal appearance since 2013, a 20-1 record and third-place finish at state.

All that adds up to Chris Erikson — in her 31^st year as Kamiakin’s coach — being named the All-Area Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.

“It was really satisfying, because there were so many elements that came together for us throughout the season, and then we were able to maintain that into the playoffs,” Erikson said. “I feel really good about the goals we set, and that we moved forward and acheived them, for the most part.”

Erikson is joined on the All-Area squad by 12 of her players. With that much talent, it’s no surprise that Erikson ranked this year’s team among some of the best she’s coached, naming the 1994 and ‘99 state runner-up squads in that elite company.

But it’s not just ability that set these Braves apart.

“They decided what they were going to do,” Erikson said. “You can try to get someone else to do something, but it really has to come from the players. I managed it, but they performed. They set their goals and they worked for them. I don’t know that you can ask for more than that really.”

Their character shined through in the final game of the season, a 1-0 victory over Bellevue in the state consolation game that came a day after suffering their first loss, to eventual champ Mercer Island in the semifinals. It was the first time one of Erikson’s teams had won its final game at state, as they’d previously accumulated three second-place and three fourth-place finishes.

“That was the perfect way to finish because it showed their character,” she said. “ ‘We’re gonna go out with a win. We’re gonna play well. We’re gonna go for this game.’ I was just really happy about that, and I’m sure they were too.”

As good as Kamiakin was this year, next season might be even better given the number of key-contributing juniors on this team. Kamiakin underclassmen on the All-Area first team include forwards Britney Donais and Maddie Morgan, midfielder Kaeri Ward, and defenders Rylie Clark and Emma Johnson.

“When these girls come back as seniors, they come in as a strong, talented group,” Erikson said. “But now they have to carry a much bigger load. The seniors we had this year also had to make a significant change and step up into big roles, and they did that. I think that made the difference for us this season.”

Kamiakin seniors on the All-Area first team are midfielder Aaliyah Valladares and defender Kaylee Kraft.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 5:13 PM with the headline "All-Area soccer picks are in, no surprises at the top."