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Fife girls all share long soccer history

By Rick Walter

Tacoma Weekly
rwalter@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: November 20, 2008

Bailey Nirider wasted no time getting her team off and running in the quarterfinals of the state 2A soccer championship. She broke through the defense of Burlington-Edison, took a long pass, and, with a header that was deflected into the goal by one of the defenders, gave her team, the Fife Trojans, a 1-0 lead. The lead would hold up for a victory and give the defending 2A state champions a game in the semifinals of this year’s tournament, which will be played on Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. against Archbishop Murphy.

“Getting off to a good start is something we always try to do, but especially in that [against Burlington-Edison] game because we knew with their defense we wouldn’t have that many chances,” the Fife senior forward said after the game.

The goal came at 37:12 of the first half, and the remaining roughly 72 minutes of the game featured a stubborn, exhausting performance by the Trojans, who have now gone nearly 1,000 minutes without giving up a score – the last one (and only one) coming on Sept. 26 against Bellarmine Prep.

The commitment to stop the opponent is the result of the team’s desire to get back to the finals of the state tournament and “prove” – a word you hear a lot from this team – that they deserve the mantel of the best 2A school in the state.

But there is something else motivating Nirider, whose effort caught up to her only when the game was finished and she could hardly walk off the field after the quarterfinal victory.

“We know that any game we play now might be our last together. We want to keep it going for as long as we can.”

There are 12 seniors on the Fife team, and most of them have been playing together since the sixth grade, going back to when they played at Surprise Lake Elementary School and Columbia Junior High. Nirider joined them when she was in the ninth grade.

“We are very close and we know how special this time is,” says Nirider.

Opponents have found out what coach Teri Shimoda knows about this group.

“They go for 80 minutes. There is never a lull, whether we score early or not. They are going to go hard the whole game and not let the other team back in it,” Shimoda said.

“The impressive thing about this group of seniors being together for so long is that along the way there have been other choices they could have made to put other things in front of soccer. But they’ve had an amazing commitment.”

Nirider’s running mates include last year’s 2A player of the year, Amanda Roselli, senior goalkeeper Ryann Waldman, Kaitlin McCaffery, Gena Gaylord, Colleen Phillips, Maloree Langdon, Jessica Colburn, Britteny Tanabe, Cassi Cain, Laurie Kilcup and Kaylee Kramer.

The Trojans will certainly be playing for a championship this weekend. But more than that, they will be playing a precious few more minutes with each other.

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