Blackfoot Journal

COMMENTARY BY GREG EICHELBERGER




The tale of the Snake River girls state soccer championship is truly a rags-to-riches story. Few expected the team to win a district crown, let alone a state title.

The 16-player roster from 2009 graduated and only four veterans were returning to the team — and one of those broke her ankle before the season began-.

“We also had six girls on the roster who had never even touched the ball,” said Panthers head coach Randy Turpin, the head coach for the past seven years. “It didn’t look very promising.”

Lucky for him there were three foreign exchange students, Henrikke Fjaerestad (Norway), Stefanie Monschau (Germany) and Sanni Ryhaenen (Finland), who had played in European soccer leagues since they were children.

Other team members included Katie Hall, Ruby Sanchez, Aubrey and Carsey Kofford, Karen Alvarez, Nakia Huffman, Candie Lopez, Kenzie Lynn, Adrianna Campos, Whitney Powell, Xenia Reyes, Courtney Steinbaugh, Kenna Jensen, Kaytlynn Clark and Melissa Rau.

“Other than the exchange girls and a few vets from last year, we had a pretty raw group of kids,” Turpin said. “With most of these girls, we had to teach basic fundamental soccer, something you would teach to a 6-year-old just learning the game.

“No one, at that time, could have ever predicted we would be in a championship game — including me.”

It didn’t take long, though, for this team to jell. After the first week, Turpin said his charges had become playing as a team and within another week, had begun functioning as a solid, cohesive unit.

The girls didn’t just work with each other on the field, they became fast friends and started hanging out together off of it.

“I had a way to break the ice, since this was a fairly new group,” Turpin said. “We would have three or four girls at random just tell us a little about themselves, their families or whatever. Once the girls began to know something about their teammates, real friendships began to foster.”

Those relationships tightened on the soccer field, too, as each girl knew her role and trusted the others to know theirs, as well. With the example of the exchange students and a core group of girls, the team began to become quite a soccer power, too.

“They became a very good team,” Turpin said. “They were fun to be around, but even more fun to watch. They were developing skills I never thought they would in such a short time.”

Meanwhile, the coach was putting more responsibility on the team captains to help run the squad. It was a way to inaugurate some of the senior girls into a leadership position.

Several wins put Snake River on the map. While Fjaerestad, Monschau and Ryhaenen did most of the scoring (collecting 75 goals), the rest of the players handled the defense.

When playoff time came around, the team’s record was 19-1 (the lone setback a 1-0 loss to Teton) and they were assured of a postseason berth.

“We were able to put together a fairly decent record,” Turpin said. “We also scored a tremendous number of goals, over 90 by the state tournament. Our defense wasn’t bad, either, as we only gave up nine goals.”

In the playoffs, goalie Steinbaugh pitched two shutouts, but in the semifinals against Sugar-Salem, defender Jensen was tackled late in the game, sustaining a neck injury.

“She was a senior and an important member of our squad,” the coach said. “When she went down we were all concerned and I was especially worried because all of us had grown so close. At the time we had no idea how serious it would be.”

It turned out that Jensen would be admitted into a nearby hospital, but was soon released. She was on hand to root for her team in the title game against Payette High the next day.

“Before that game, Jenna came and hugged each of the girls,” Turpin said. “It was her way of wishing them good luck.”

The club would need it, however, as Payette was the defending champion. Down 1-0 at halftime, Turpin told the girls that no matter what happened, he was proud of them and this would be a great year win or lose.

Motivated, Monschau and Ryhaenen punched in the tying and winning goals, respectively, and the Panthers brought home their first state soccer title.

“It was nice to win something for this side of the state,” Turpin said. “This was such a fun ride with these kids. No matter what happened, I was so glad I was a part of this year’s team. It’s great that we won a championship, but even if we hadn’t, I will remember this for the rest of my life.”