Alrighty, it is the middle of December and all 5 Fall Sports Teams have finished their respective seasons and post-seasons.  There have been many exciting things that have happened amongst the teams and players, and this is to re-cap those events.

Cross Country – Men’s & Women’s
Well both teams started off where they ended last season – strong.  Coach Koenigs brought in many new runners to compliment the incoming sophomores that he retained from the 2007 season. All of these runners, 16 Men & 12 Women, worked extremely hard to improve their times in each event that they participated in.  There were 6 actual meets that the teams competed in before the NWAACC Championship Meet, with a time trial meet with Seattle U at the beginning of the season.  In 5 of 8 of these meets Everett was running against not only other community colleges but also many 4-year Universities and Colleges along with some club teams.  In everyone of those meets Everett was usually highest CC placed or the second highest CC placed. 

These meets of course led up to the Northern Region Championship Meet that was held at Lake Paddon in Bellingham, WA.  At the N. Region Meet, both the Men & the Women took home the 1st Place trophy for the second year in a row, along with being the N. Region Combined Team Champions.  Yon Yilma was the N. Region Individual Men’s Champion; Coach Koenigs was named the N. Region Women’s Coach of the Year; and 6 members were named to the All-Northern Region Team – Amanda Brager, Mitch Elias, Megan Hall, TJ Horn, Tim Welch and Yon Yilma. 

As they moved onto the NWAACC Championship Meet – the last meet of the 2008 season, which was held in Battleground, WA, the Trojans were looking to improve on their second place finish in 2007.  Both teams had worked hard all season and felt ready to go for that first place trophy.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. .  The Community College’s of Spokane took home 1st place finishes in both the Men’s and Women’s events with the Trojans once again bringing home 2nd place in both the Men’s event and the Women’s event.  Yon Yilma and Tim Welch were named to the All-NWAACC Cross Country Team and Yon was also named an All-American in Cross Country.  Due to their academic success, Christa Porter and Taneal Detschman were named to the NWAACC All-Academic Team for Fall Quarter 2008.  At the end of the year banquet, the following awards were given: Team Captains – (Men) Mitch Elias & Spencer Boyes, (Women) Megan Hall & Taneal Detschman; Most Improved – (Men) Mitch Elias, (Women) Lacey Cotterill; Runner of the Year – (Men) Yon Yilma, (Women) Megan Hall. 

Men’s Soccer
The 2008 Men’s Soccer Team started out the season meeting a new head coach, Scott Willsie and new assistant coach, Pablo Mummey.  Coach Willsie wasn’t a stranger to the returning players as he was the assistant coach during the 2007 season.  With a strong recruiting class the Trojans looked to make their mark in the Northern Region and make it to playoffs.  However due to some unfortunate injuries the Trojans finished with a roster of 19 and a record of 5 wins, 11 losses, 2 ties.  They had 24 Goals For; 37 Goals Against; 17 Points; and 2 Shutouts.  This means they scored 24 goals throughout the season, had 37 goals scored by other teams, earned 17 points with their wins and ties, and kept two teams from scoring any goals against them.  They unfortunately were only one win away from making it to the 2008 playoff series. 

Even though this was not the season they had hoped, there were many good things to come of it.  Jake Berg, Cole Anderson and Jon DeOlivera were named to the All-Region Team. Abou Kahn & Eric Cruz were named to the All-Star team and participated in the NWAACC All-Star Event on December 6th.  With his academic success, Jeremy Kenagy was named to the NWAACC All-Academic Team for Fall Quarter 2008.  At the end of season banquet the following awards were given: Captains – Jake Berg & Chad Deaver; Most Improved – Jeffers Haile; Special Mention – Jordan Salcedo; Most Inpsirational – Jake Berg; Offensive MVP – Cole Anderson; Defensive MVP – Jon DeOlivera; and Team MVP – Abou Kahn. 

Women’s Soccer
For the coaches and returning players from the 2007 season, they were looking to improve on if not keep even with how they finished last year – making it to the first round of the playoff series.  According to Coach Prince, “we had a lot of injuries and our season pretty much was a disappointment as we had much higher expectations.”  The season ended with 16 rostered players with an overall record of 2 wins, 18 losses and 2 shutouts and a league record of 2 wins, 16 losses and 2 shutouts.  The Trojans scored 12 goals throughout the season, had 76 goals made against them, earned 8 points from their wins an ties, and kept 2 teams from scoring any goals. 

Two players were recognized by the NWAACC in regards to their academic success – Kaitlan Ducken and Brittany Rice were named to the NWAACC All-Academic Team for 2008 Fall Quarter.  The following awards were given at the end of year banquet: Most Improved – Angela Min; Most Inspirational – Nena Slocum; Coaches Award – Brittany Rice; Hustle Award – Kaitlan Ducken; Leading Scorer – Hayley Bustad; Best All-Around Soccer Player – Megan Drawsky; Team MVP – Leah King. 

Volleyball
The 2008 Women’s Volleyball Team was loaded, it had a full roster with 12 players, talent and skill and the coaching staff knew they had a top four team in the Northern Region.  With the start of pre-season games it looked good for the Trojans.  After returning from the Treasure Valley CC Crossover Tournament, at which Korissa Clevish received All-Tournament Team recognition, they started league play.  After the loss of first league game, it became apparant to the the coaches that it was going to more difficult to be a top team in the North for this team.  The talent and skill were there to compete with every team, however the lack of team-play and lack of determination to dominate and win killed any chance the team had place in the top four. This along with two players quitting due to financial reasons were unfortunate due to the potential this team had. 

Many individual accomplishments came from this season though: a few players worked on their jump serve and towards the end of the season were becoming quite consistant with it; one or two players got to try the hand, literally, at setting and running the offense; many started comprehending the need to mix up their hits as the game goes on; while others just overall improved each and every skill. Sophomores Korissa Clevish and Kelsie Luchini were named to the Northern Region Sophomore All-Star team and participated in the All-Star Event on December 6th at Edmonds CC.  Crystal Holmes was named Most Improved; Kristi Clayton was named Most Inspirational; and Korissa Clevish was named Team MVP. 

All five teams are looking forward to next season and recruiting suitable student-athletes to fill their teams.  The leadership they are looking for from their returning sophomores will help each team to accomplish the set goals.  Congratulations to each and every Trojan student-athlete and we, the coaches, thank you for your participation in Everett Community College Athletics.  We can’t wait for next season! To all of the sophomores – Thank you for your two years of participation and good luck as you continue on in life’s journey.