Rogue River Jr. Sr. High’s girls’ soccer team is an anomaly among teams from programs of its size around the state.
As it was last year, when it had 26 players on its roster, it has 28 in practice this year, including 11 new players.
For perspective, that’s six more players coming to practice each day than the Chieftain football team currently has.
The Chieftains brought all 28 players to the huge Willamalane Soccer Showcase on the first day of the fall sports season, Thurs., Aug. 27, to give each of them experience against other players besides their own teammates — some of them, depending on their youth soccer experience, possibly playing 11-on-11 on a high school field for the first time. The showcase is at the Willamalane Center in Eugene.
Just as the Chieftains did at last year’s Showcase, they split the teams up, thoroughly mixing them between their experienced and new players, one group with junior Isla Hook in goal, the other with freshman River Smigiel, “to match them up with whom we were playing,” Rogue River coach Clyde Fields said.
The Chieftains each played three 20-minute “games”. One against, the Crosshill Christian/Jefferson co-op from the Willamette Valley, the Dallas junior varsity, and the Summit JV2 team, with the other playing the JV teams from Marist Catholic, Sheldon, and Roseburg.
“We just wanted them to get out there and play, with no real expectations,” Fields said, adding that he and his coaches weren’t looking for tactical play.
“We just wanted them to get a taste of it,” he said, with a full week of practice through this week before the Chieftains’ season opener against 4A Madras on Wed., Sept. 9.
The other factor is making sure players come through the season-starting experience in Eugene in full health. It was during last year’s Les Schwab Showcase that Adelaide VonBrunst suffered a season-ending leg injury. Fields said he and the coaching staff are “gradually” working her back in. VonBrunst was able to play in Eugene at the showcase.
The Chieftains have the distinction of being the only school of its size to bring two teams, allowing it to play teams from bigger-school programs that are part of returning state-playoff teams. Marist Catholic is the defending Class 4A champion, while Sheldon was a semifinalist in Class 6A last year, and Summit was a Class 5A quarterfinalist.
The trip also served as a primer for the Chieftains’ trip to Salem to play Blanchet Catholic and Salem Academy Fri.-Sat., Sept. 11-12, the program’s first major road trip since Fields took over the program in 2023.
Reach reporter Brian Mortensen at [email protected] or 541-582-1707.