The way Amanda Anderson sees it, the problem with getting a full 11-on-11 women’s soccer team going on the Olympic Peninsula has always been a numbers game.
The five-on-five leagues are fun but incomplete, while the coed leagues, while providing full-field competition are “great — but as a women you’re out-sized,” she said.
Thanks to an unlikely advocate, the local women’s soccer movement has plenty of numbers and enough interest to form a full team.
The Northern Peninsula Football Club (NPFC) kicked off its first practices and games in April.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Amanda Anderson participates in a drill at a North Peninsula Football Club practice in Port Angeles on May 7.
“This team is about creating a place for women to shine, women to belong, women to be free of life demands for a few hours and just have fun,” said Jessica Haugen, who spearheaded the team’s formation after finding the sport just a couple of years ago.
“It’s a place where a bunch of women who love soccer can be both silly and serious, improve upon their soccer skills and build something great together,” she said.
NPFC’s women’s team, the Blaze, has a roster of varying ages — women in the 20s through their 50s — and in experience under the team motto: “Our fuel, our fire.”
“This has been delightful … [and] this has been delightful,” said Anderson, assistant athletic director at Peninsula College, who played in cooed leagues and some tournaments but longed for a true 11-on-11 team.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / North Peninsula Football Club coach Juan Carlos Cisneros explains a drill to Christina Dalton and NPFC players at a practice in Port Angeles on May 7.
“Credit to Jess to get these women together,” Anderson said of Haugen. “She brought all that energy.”
Startup from Sequim
Haugen, 44, said she was attracted to soccer a couple of years ago after seeing how much fun her children were having.
When she got an invitation to a Sequim-based pick-up group, she was a little hesitant being one of the only females on the pitch, besides SHS standout Olive Bridge.
“I was so intimidated, and felt so out of place,” Haugen said, “but they welcomed me with open arms and helped me to learn the game.”
Juan Gonzales, Javier Gomez and Pablo Salazar gave her opportunities to play on the city league teams in Port Angeles, and Haugen kept up her skills when she could.
The North Peninsula Football Club women’s team’s motto, pictured on the back of Sequim High grad Olivia Hare, is emblazoned on the back of practice jerseys.
“I was practicing in my living room and set little goals for myself to learn ball skills, but progress was slow, and I was jealous of all the kids who had regular practices and coaches,” she said.
“I wanted a team, and I wanted a coach. It was a dream that seemed kind of outlandish, but it turns out the community was ripe for this.”
Juan Carlos Cisneros-Lopez, who had been coaching the NPFC men’s team, was also seeking to start a women’s side.
“We put our heads together and talked with the women soccer veterans in the community, and what was once a dream became a reality,” Haugen said.
Cisneros-Lopez said it was always in the works to have a women’s side with NPFC, but it took Haugen’s drive to get it going.
Taryn Asmus participates in a scrimmage at a North Peninsula Football Club practice in Port Angeles on May 7. Asmus scored a hat trick in the NPFC’s 3-0 win over a Bremerton squad on May 5.
“[This team is] a voice for women; they can be better players, challenge themselves, they can be themselves,” he said at a recent practice. “There are so many positives that come [from this].”
Haugen said her story shows that it’s never too late for someone to pursue their passions.
“I used to think that if you didn’t start playing soccer as a kid, then you couldn’t be a soccer player,” he said. “No, I’m not going to be the best, but the joy that playing soccer brings me is something I wouldn’t want to miss out on. I like to tell the kids that I coach that I didn’t start playing soccer until I was 44, so that they know, that it’s never too late to follow their dreams.
“I am incredibly grateful to be a part of creating something great,” she added. “It brings me so much joy to spotlight and hold up the incredible soccer-loving women in our community.”
NPFC players will put their skills to the test in a match-up with prep soccer players from Sequim and Port Angeles in a friendly set for 6 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at Peninsula College.
The prep team will include players from seniors to incoming freshmen (current eight-graders) Anderson said, with a trio of Peninsula College freshmen lending a hand to coach the younger squad.
“I see it as community building; we want people to come together,” Anderson said.
“I hope this is something we can do for years to come.”
Practice makes better
While Haugen did some heavy lifting to get NPFC off the ground, she’s quick to note that a community of supporters backed the effort.
Sequim Gazette photos by Michael Dashiell Jessica Haugen battles teammate Aimee Dennis for possession in a scrimmage at a North Peninsula Football Club practice in Port Angeles on May 7.
“Michael and Molly McAleer didn’t think twice about sponsoring us,” she said, “[and] Sequim Junior Soccer was willing to house our team if NPFC could not.
Peninsula College’s athletic department provided the team with consultation, field space and some expertise from Kanyon Anderson — the head coach of PC’s perennially nationally-ranked Pirates — at a couple of practices.
In addition, thanks to partnerships with the cities of Sequim and Port Angeles, NPFC has set practices in two communities each week: Tuesdays at the new turf field at Monroe Playfield in Port Angeles, and Thursdays at the Albert Haller Playfields on the north end of Sequim’s Carrie Blake Community Park.
“I find it so heart-warming how the local soccer community has embraced and supported this women’s team,” Haugen said. “Girls graduating from high school now have a place locally to play [and] moms, who haven’t touched a ball in years, now have a place to play.”
NPFC player Vianey Cadenas is a 2014 Sequim High grad who was getting in any soccer she could since graduation, from coed leagues to pick-up and indoor games.
The past six years, she’s been an assistant with the Sequim High girls program, one that’s taken big leaps in the past decade and perennially contends for state tourney berths.
“I see how much the program has improved,” Cadenas said. “I love being that support for them.”
Sequim Gazette photos by Michael Dashiell Vianey Cadenas, a 2014 Sequim High graduate, participates in a drill at a North Peninsula Football Club practice in Port Angeles on May 7. “I’m so happy and proud being around a bunch of incredibly strong and knowledgeable soccer women and learning from some of the best in the community. I’m excited to see what’s to come and to continue to grow as a team.”
Cadenas and Anderson are two of several NPFC players with coaching experience, from youth levels up to college, a background that has helped early on.
“It helps to have different voices and ideas,” Anderson said. “We all bring different things to the table.”
Cisneros said his players can kind of coach themselves on the pitch
“I told them I want them to self-regulate; they’ve done that themselves,” he said. “They’ve really embraced this formula of a team.”
Early-season split
NPFC’s Blaze played their inaugural game on the road against the Bainbridge Island women (BIW) led by Linda Yasutake.
In the first of three 20-minute periods, BIW came up with two goals — one a quick deflection off an NPFC defender, the other coming on a corner kick by a BIW player putting high pressure on the defensive line.
“We played like a team who has never played full-sided together before,” NPFC’s Kate Hall said in a recap of the match on the NPFC website.
“I did not see one panicked play from [BIW] all game. They knew where their teammates were at all times. Their slashing runs were giving us a fair amount of grief and their passing was on point.”
NPFC shored up some things and played solid in periods two and three but couldn’t find the net, falling by that same 2-0 score.
“We had a couple of nice crosses and more than a few beautiful breakaways, but without much support up top, and with a very good stand-in goalie, we couldn’t convert,” Haugen noted in her match recap.
Cadenas called the first game a “challenge.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Amanda Anderson participates in a drill at a North Peninsula Football Club practice in Port Angeles on May 7.
“I like to say we have all the puzzle pieces, we just have to find the right spots for them,” she said.
“You could see our inexperience in not playing together,” Cisneros-Lopez said. “It was a great experience to get that game out of the way.”
The pieces fit together much better, teammates said at their second game at Bremerton a week later.
Taryn Asmus recorded a hat trick and the defense stepped up for a 3-0 victory and a first Blaze victory on May 5.
Asmus’ first goal came from a corner kick she played quickly with Claire Foden, who heeled it back to Asmus for a back post score. The second also came off a set piece, a free kick from the left side, as Cadenas kicked it to the back post with Asmus there to tap it in. With Bremerton pushing high, Asmus exploited space behind the back line and slotted a through ball into the left bottom corner.
Asmus’ hat trick got plenty of support, Haugen noted, with a strong effort from the midfield that she noted consistently won 50-50 balls and maintained control of the ball under pressure. Cadenas, Kelsey Kuhn, Lisa Hansen and Sammy Gonzalez deftly moved the ball forward while Lisa and Kelli Mishko played some through balls to center open spaces in Bremerton’s defensive line.
“Our keeper, Kelsey Chapman, was and is just a beast in the box,” Haugen noted. “The bare ground around the goal didn’t deter her from making several diving saves. She was fearless with challenging the attackers.”
NPFC’s coach was pleased with the effort and result.
“[It was] night and day in our performance: attacking, defending at the right moments,” Cisneros-Lopez said. “It was fun to watch.”
The Blaze are back on the pitch May 18 against the combined high school squad, and then hosts Bremerton at the Haller Playfields at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 1. The squad also has a tentative rematch with the Bainbridge women at 6 p.m. on June 8 and another home game against the St. Paul 2007 girls at 7 p.m. on June 20, with both at the Haller fields.
For more about the Northern Peninsula Football Club, see northernpeninsulafc.com.
NPFL women match
Northern Peninsula Football Club women versus combined high school team (Sequim Port Angeles)
When: 6 p.m. Saturday, May 18
Where: Peninsula College field, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles
More info: northernpeninsulafc.com
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / North Peninsula Football Club coach Juan Carlos Cisneros speaks with Lupita Pérez at a practice in Port Angeles on May 7.
