PREP SOCCER: Five Sandpoint girls receive All-IEL honors

In addition to winning the 4A state championship recently, five Sandpoint girls soccer players received Inland Empire League honors for their performances this season.

League MVP: Senior, Aliya Strock

It wasn’t long ago that I was approached by youth soccer players at War Memorial Field and they asked me if I knew Aliya Strock. “Yes, why?” I asked. 

“Because she is famous and we want to be like her,” they replied.

“Aliya has it all - athleticism, intrinsic motivation, skill, kindness, leadership, and nobody outworks her on the field,” head coach Conor Baranski said. “She was our captain, and our players would commonly say things like ‘I want to be like Aliya.’ There were games, specifically early in the season, when Aliya had to put the team on her back in order for us to succeed. One example was when we were down against Moscow. Lilliana (Brinkmeier) had just been sent to the hospital on a tough challenge and we were down, 2-0 with seven minutes left. Aliya scored her first ever headed goal. With two minutes left, after being absolutely everywhere on the field, she provided the assist to Marlee (McCrum) to give us the draw, which would be good enough for us to wrap up as the No. 1 team in our District. She's an incredible human being, and is so worthy of all the awards she's about to receive this postseason.” 

First Team: Sophomore, Cecilia Dignan

Cecilia was one of the key leaders on Sandpoint's defense this year. 

“To the casual observer, it may seem like Cecilia is either not working hard, or not doing anything out of the ordinary,” Baranski said. “However, to those of us who know soccer, she makes the difficult look effortless. She reads the game incredibly well, so she cuts out dangerous situations before they even happen. She's cool under pressure, so when she has the ball she has the composure to connect passes out of the back. In the state final, she and Maddie (Mitchell) were up against Sophie Schmautz, who had scored well over 30 goals this season (which equates to roughly two per game). Schmautz also happens to be blazing fast. While she did score on us once, Cecilia put in several flawlessly-timed tackles to frustrate one of the most dangerous attackers in the state, and she did that with her typically calm and collected defending.”

First Team: Junior, Lilliana Brinkmeier

Lilliana was key between the posts this year for Sandpoint.

“Simply put, Lilliana might be the best goalkeeper in the state of Idaho, at any classification,” Baranski said. “She's technically excellent, she's fearless, and she consistently makes big saves… we don't win many of our games this season without her in goal. For example, she made at least one one-on-one save against Pocatello in the state semifinal to keep us in the game when we were down, and then she kept us ahead after we gained the lead. In the state final, she made at least three saves that I don't think other keepers would have made. Specifically, with precisely 21 seconds left as we were up 2-1, Schmautz got free of our defenders. At full pace she was sprinting towards Lilliana, but Lilliana made a literal state title-winning save as the game wound down. I hope and expect many colleges, including Division 1 schools, start recruiting her.”

First Team: Sophomore, Ava Glahe

Ava had many crucial assists this season and was one of the Bulldogs’ primary corner kickers.

“Ava also reads the game incredibly well,” Baranski said. “By the end of the season, we were very tough to break down as a defensive unit. Ava also helps us on attack, as we ask our outside backs to push forward when we are attacking. With that, she and Mackenzie often get the most steps out of anyone on our team during our games, which is something we’re able to track. Not only that, Ava is one of our most technically-sound players, and we rely on her to serve most of our corners. Lastly, she showed tremendous grit and resilience in the state tournament. She was crying in pain during the final, but persevered in order for us to hold fast as a defensive unit.”

First Team: Junior, Marlee McCrum

Marlee, who played a big role in Sandpoint’s offense, had the game-winning goal in the 4A state championship this year.

“Marlee is such a wonderful story,” Baranski said. For her whole freshman year, and the vast majority of her sophomore year, she really struggled with confidence. This season as a junior, she became one of the focal points of our attack. She is an extremely talented dribbler and is capable of taking on multiple defenders at a time, oftentimes leaving several of them in her wake as she marauds forward. Furthermore, she was battling significant pain in both her knees for large parts of the season, but I basically had to force her to take days off because she never wanted to let her team down by not playing in any practice or game. I hope she uses her title-winning goal, which was so incredibly composed and clutch, as a further boost to her confidence, because she deserves to have it and use it to her advantage.”

Coach of the Year: Conor Baranski

Baranski coached the Bulldogs to an 11-5-3 record and another district title. Not only that, but Baranski led No. 4 seed Sandpoint to two consecutive upsets en route to the 4A state championship, the girls’ ninth state title in school history. This is the third year the Bulldogs have posted a winning record, their ninth winning season in the last 10 years.

Other: Baranski added that he also advocated for Maddie and Mackenzie Mitchell at the All-IEL meeting.

“Ava, Cecilia, Maddie, and Mackenzie proved throughout the entire state tournament that they are some of the best defenders in the state. They took on the two most potent attacks in 4A, and held each of them to just one goal. Cecilia and Ava got the nod in the IEL, and they totally deserve it, but our defense is a unit that works incredibly well together, so they all deserve credit.”

Baranski said the coolest thing about this teams’ success in the postseason is that they ALL came together to propel Sandpoint to another state title.

Sandpoint's Ava Glahe looks to throw the ball in bounds during a game held at War Memorial Field earlier this year. Glahe was one of two sophomores to be named to the All-IEL first team this season.