Richland grad Hope Solo finally elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame
I often wonder how Hope Solo’s soccer career would have gone had someone in the Olympic Development Program hadn’t seen her as a goalie.
Solo, a Richland High School graduate in 2000, had been a fast-moving forward much of her career to that point. She had in fact scored 109 goals for the Bombers during her prep career.
She actually at first didn’t care for the move. But eventually she relented.
And now it was announced this week that she will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on May 21 in Frisco, Texas.
Former Seattle Sounders star Clint Dempsey, who will also be in that induction class, told Solo on live television.
Joining Dempsey and Solo will be Solo’s long-time US National Women’s Team teammate, Shannon Boxx.
And at the University of Washington, she refined herself as a keeper, and was a four-time All-PAC-12 all-star.
And over her 14-year professional career, Solo played for eight different teams.
But it is her international career she is most known for.
I remember talking to her before the Athens Summer Games. She was tired at the time of being called up by the U.S. team, only to never see a minute.
Before those games, she told U.S. officials she was just as happy playing for her professional team in Europe at the time. It took some serious convincing to come to Athens. She did, and was an alternate for the U.S.
But after that Olympics she became the country’s top keeper for at least the next decade.
Solo ended up earning 102 shutouts in her US Women’s National Team career, including winning one World Cup and two Summer Olympics gold medals.
Those major wins — the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold, the 2012 London Olympics gold, and the 2015 Canada World Cup gold — helped make her well-known around the globe.
When she was playing well, she told me the soccer ball would look like a big old beach ball.
I still remember a point-blank stop she made of a missile from Brazil’s Marta that 99.9 percent of the world couldn’t do.
She’s had her controversies over her career — suspension, being shunned by her teammates, etc. — but no one can argue she was one of the best female goalkeepers in the world. Not this country. But the world.
Most recently, she has been a proponent for equal pay for women soccer players, as well as gender equality.
The hall of fame induction will be a well deserved honor, especially for someone who never wanted to be a goalie in the first place.
Penn State visit
Gabe Tahir, Kamiakin’s all-state defensive back this past fall as a junior, visited Penn State the weekend of Jan. 22-23.
The Big Ten Conference’s Nittany Lions have had an interested in the 6-foot-2 Tahir for a couple years, and the coaching staff was pleased that he took the time to come visit the program.
Tahir was to make an unofficial visit to the University of Washington program on the Jan. 29-30 weekend.
In passing
Ed Cheff, the former long-time standout head coach of Lewis-Clark State College’s baseball team, passed away Jan. 17 in his Seattle area home.
Cheff, 78, had a 1,705-430-2 record in his 34-year career at LCSC, and retired in 2010.
He had 30 consecutive seasons with 40 or more victories with the Warriors.
His teams won 16 NAIA World Series titles, and had 16 of his players end up in the major leagues.
▪ Gordon Hudson, who played for Ed Troxel’s first two Kennewick High football teams in 1978 and 1979, died from natural causes last fall in San Jose.
Hudson was 59.
After Hudson’s senior 1979 football season, his father moved the family to Utah, and Hudson ended up playing football for BYU. Successfully.
He was the Cougars’ tight end from 1980-83, was a unanimous All-American in 1982 and 1983, and was eventually inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Hudson played one season (1985) with the LA Express of the United State Football League, and one season with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Indoor track
Mid-Columbian athletes had great performances at two separate college indoor track meets Jan. 14-15 at The Podium in Spokane.
On Friday, Jan. 14, at the WSU Cougar Classic Open, Eastern Washington University distance runner Justin Roosma (Walla Walla Valley Academy) won the men’s 1-mile run, finishing in 4:07.70.
The next day in the Cougar Classic Invitational, WSU’s Mitch Jacobson (Walla Walla) took the men’s high jump title with a leap of 6 feet, 11.8 inches.
In between those first-place performances were other top finishes.
On Friday, Central Washington University’s Austin Albertin (Kennewick) placed second in the men’s 400 meters with a time of 49.09 seconds; then he took fifth in the men’s 200 with a time of 22.60 seconds.
In the women’s 3000 meters, Lewis-Clark State College’s Emily Adams (Waitsburg) placed fourth with a time of 10:47.73.
In Saturday’s meet, Gonzaga’s Riley Moore (Richland) crossed the finish line fourth in the men’s 3000 meters with a time of 8:26.21.
Boise State’s Nyenuchi Okemgbo (Hanford) placed fourth in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, clocking in a 8.81 seconds.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 12:50 PM.