A Decade of Champions: closing out the year 2000
SANDPOINT — The Daily Bee sports page continues its look back at each of the 23 Sandpoint High School state champions from this decade, which comes to an end in just 15 days. Today’s installment features the 2000 boys soccer team, and the 2000 girls volleyball team, rounding out the three champions from that year.
n 2000 boys soccer team
Roster: Charlie Kingsland, Jake Rosholt, Jake Bachman, Ryan Price, Warren Heil, Justin Roche, Louie Menghini, Brent Carter, John Davis, Jake Luikens, Luke Henry, Jared McCrum, Luke Miller, Chase Mikkelsen, Lonnie Williams, Andy Cottrell, Ryan Mahler, Lee France and coach Randy Thoreson.
As juggernauts go, this was a tough team to beat. Just how good were these Bulldogs? They posted shutouts against 16 of 19 opponents en route to an 18-0-1 record.
Oddly enough, the team was led by one of the greatest college wrestlers of all-time. Jake Rosholt, who would go on to an All-American career as a wrestler at Oklahoma State, was named the Most Valuable Player of the North Idaho League — a two sport star in the unlikely combo of soccer and wrestling.
The back four of Henry, Mahler, Mikkelsen and McCrum rarely allowed more than a couple shots on goal, usually stopped by goalies rotating goalies Luikens and Carter.
In the state championship, Bachman scored two goals and Roche added another in a 3-0 win over Vallivue, marking the first of seven state titles won by head coach Randy Thoreson this decade.
Quote of the year: “We’re going to play one game at a time and make people beat us,” Thoreson told the Bee after winning districts. “They’re going to have to play really good soccer to do that.”
n 2000 volleyball team
Roster: Laurie Shook, Ashley Hoogland, Beth Lane, Devon Natoni, Katie Rogers, Katie Shook, Amy Dyck, Rochelle Ruen, Katie Brown, Alissa Spade, Erika Parsons, Keely Kinzer, Allison Sletager, Annie Ruen, Aschley Scott, and head coach Jeff Hurst.
The most interesting thing about this team was that it featured two players who would go on to play in college at the University of Arizona in senior Rochelle Ruen and freshman Amy Dyck, who were named Border League MVP and Newcomer of the Year, respectively.
It was supposed to be a rebuilding year after a state championship in 1999, but the team finished 24-3 and swept league honors, with Kinzer and Hurst joining the aforementioned Bulldogs as Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.
The season was two years prior to the implementation of rally scoring (where a point is awarded after every serve) and teams played two out of three games to 15, where side-outs were abundant and only the serving team could score.
It was also prior to the 4A classification, and in the final of the 1A Division II championship match, the Bulldogs crushed Skyview 15-4 and 15-8. Ruen had nine kills, six assists, five aces and four digs, and Dyck added nine assists and five blocks in the win.
Quote of the year: “We were told at the beginning of the year that it was a rebuilding year,” said Kinzer, who along with Ruen were the only returning varsity players on the team. “We told ourselves it wasn’t going to be a rebuilding year, that we were going to pick up where we left off last year.”
See tomorrow’s Daily Bee as Decade of Champions segues into the year 2001.