A decade of champions: Soccer standouts
SANDPOINT — Five times the Sandpoint boys and girls soccer teams have won state titles in the same season. For a frame of reference, no other school in the state has ever done it once.
Fittingly, they did it first in the year 2000, and last in 2009. Today’s A Decade of Champions examines the second time the feat was accomplished, in the year Stanley Kubrick made famous: 2001.
n 2001 Sandpoint boys soccer
ROSTER: Charlie Kingsland, Justin Ziegler, Jordan Wahlin, Ryan Price, Luke Henry, Warren Heil, Jason Cates, Jared Heeney, Pat Hoffman, Luke Miller, Halvor Mikkelsen, Jonathan Davis, Lee France, Brent Carter, Louie Menghini, Lonnie Williams, Arien Reiner, Ty Thomas and Randy Thoreson.
How dominating was this team? A headline in the Daily Bee once read “Bulldogs allow a goal.”
Lest you think it was a bit of hyperbole, understand it was the first goal scored on the team in 16 games. As in 15 straight shutouts.
“It was inevitable,” head coach Randy Thoreson told the Bee after the game.
The team finished the season a perfect 19-0 and beat Vallivue 3-1 in the final. Luke Miller, Halvor Mikkelson and Charlie Kingsland each scored a goal and Brent Carter was solid in goal for the Bulldogs’ amazing 37th straight win.
Kingsland would go on to be named Most Valuable Player of the then North Idaho Soccer League, and Thoreson would call him the best player in the state.
Quote of the year: “Defense is our base,” said Kingsland, one of the top scorers in the state. “It’s like they are the brains, and we’re the limbs that score the points.”
n 2001 girls soccer
ROSTER: Rebecca Sturm, Abby Jensen, Kayla Ireland, Allison Gillis, Kirsten Sheffler, Heather Reifsnyder, Margo Lane, Kami Crnich, Jazmine Knaggs, Megan Yates, Callie Weiden, Erika Snedden, Kylie France, Morgan McKitrick, Sarah Snedden, Micah Thoreson, Angie Menghini and coach Adam Tajan.
Adam Tajan replaced Charlie Bell mid-season as head coach, and would go on to win the first of his four state titles as Bulldog coach.
The Bulldogs went 15-5-2 on the year, with a mostly young team. They beat Moscow 3-0 in the 4A final to repeat as state champions, with leading scorer Rebecca Sturm scoring two goals and Kami Crnich adding another. Heather Reifsnyder and Morgan McKitrick, like they had for most of the season, combined for the shutout in goal.
Kirsten Sheffler was named Homecoming Queen on a Friday night, then went on to score two goals the following Saturday.
Quote of the year: “We knew we’d be the team to beat, just because we won it last year,” said Tajan. “We had a lot of young girls and it was just a matter of them maturing quickly.”
See tomorrow’s Daily Bee as A Decade of Champion delves into 2002, a banner year.