Columbia River Cruises

Chieftains take the long road to reach soccer state semifinals

Everybody yell, “Road Trip!”

Go ahead. It’s fun. It never gets old.

Just ask the Columbia River Chieftains. The girls soccer program will hit the road one more time this weekend for the Class 3A state final four in Lakewood.

That’s a short trip for this team. The Chieftains have won four elimination matches in a row, all away from home, with the last three all more than 130 miles north of Vancouver.

They know their itinerary by heart.

They stop in La Center for a bathroom break. (Yes, yes, it’s only about 15 minutes on the road, but they stopped there for the first trip, won the match, so had to stop there again and again.) They eat at the same place off of Exit 111, even if they have to beg the manager to serve the lunch menu early. They rock to the same song, on the bus and again in the locker room.

Oh, and then they complete the most important task of the schedule.

“We’re not traveling all that way to lose,” Aimee Bolton said. “We’re traveling all that way to win.”

The Chieftains know how to do that now. After a rough start to the 3A Greater St. Helens League season, with three losses in the first round of play, the Chieftains called a team meeting. They have not lost since, going 8-0-1, including four victories in do-or-die clashes.

The third-place team from the 3A GSHL is now a state final four participant.

Of course, the league’s second-place team, Camas, is on the other side of the bracket in the semifinals. Clark County is two wins away from a Columbia River vs. Camas championship final.

Camas last made it to the semifinals in 2005 when the Papermakers won the state championship.

For Columbia River, this is the first trip to the semifinals since 1997. And it has been quite a wild trip.

After surviving the third-place match with a win over Prairie at Doc Harris Stadium in Camas, the Chieftains beat Enumclaw in Sumner, Holy Names in Seattle, and then Meadowdale in Edmonds. The team went north, came home, went more north, came home, then went a little farther north, before returning home again.

No charter bus, either. They went in style with the “yellow slug,” according to coach Colleen McKinney.

“We’re used to winning off the bus,” McKinney said. “Ask a coach, an athlete or a person around sports, you know once you get dialed in … it’s an advantage.”

In fact, the Chieftains agree that time on the bus helps because they spend three hours getting focused on the game.

Do not misinterpret focus for three hours of meditation, staring at film of opponents, and getting their “game faces” on.

The journey is not study hall quiet. Instead, the Chieftains get focused by having fun with the little things in travel life. Such as blasting the CD player. The song of choice for the Chieftains: “Party in the USA,” by Miley Cyrus.

“If we win the championship, we’re going to write a letter to her to thank her,” Mindii Hunsaker said.

They also might want to buy stock in Panera Bread, the team’s unofficial restaurant in Lacey, Exit 111 off of Interstate 5.

“We have to eat the same thing every day before we play,” Hunsaker said.

Even if it’s not on the menu yet. In the quarterfinals, the Chieftains had to be at Edmonds for a 2 p.m. game. When they arrived at Panera Bread, the cafe was not serving lunch yet.

That was when Teagan Ryan, one of the team’s three captains, pleaded with management.

“You’ve been a huge part of our winning, and we want you to continue to help us out,” she told Panera.

The manager smiled, and instructed his staff to open the lunch menu an hour early.

The Chieftains also are not alone in this journey. They are sharing the experience with a group of boys from the school who have been following them to every match.

“We have amazing fans. They wear costumes. They bang drums,” McKinney said.

Whoops, they bang drums when they smuggle them into the stadium. Technically, that’s a no-no in WIAA sports. So the drums probably will not fly anymore, but the support is appreciated.

“They call themselves ‘The 12th Girl,’ ” captain Hannah Kimsey said.

Sounds all fun and games for the Chieftains, but do not let the good times fool you. This squad was all serious business a few weeks ago. They were sitting at 2-3 in the league standings, a difficult position for a team with 11 seniors.

The captains called for a team meeting, and the players let out their frustrations.

“We were all really disappointed with ourselves,” Ryan said. “Why aren’t we scoring? Why are we giving up goals?”

“We knew we had to change something,” added Brittany Landon, another captain.

They also put together a motivational poster, with goals to achieve. The next match, it were as if a brand new team was playing. The Chieftains started marking off the goals as they achieved them, one by one.

“Everything started clicking on the field,” Kimsey said.

That, in turn, led to wins, then the playoffs, then this long, crazy fun road trip.

“It’s just been a really great experience for all of us,” Landon said.

It is not over yet. The Chieftains play at 2 p.m. Friday in the semifinals against West Valley of Yakima. After the match, they might watch the other semifinal, between Camas and Mercer Island.

And no matter what the results are Friday, the Chieftains get a new travel experience — an overnight stay at a hotel. The team also has plans to go to a movie Friday night.

The Chieftains understand that the matches are important, but so, too, is the journey.