Local talent thriving on national stage for Central Washington Sounders

Tougher competition awaited the U14 Central Washington Sounders soccer team when it moved up from the National Premier Leagues to the Elite Academy League this season, but it didn’t stop them from winning a second straight national championship.

Four penalty kick saves by Salvador Prado helped CWS survive shootouts against teams from California and Michigan while earning the Granger goalkeeper the tournament’s Golden Gloves award. Sean De Wet, Joel Rivera and Isaias Gutierrez joined Perez on the All-XI Team thanks to their contributions in a semifinal win over New York-based Just Play SC and a final triumph over California’s Steel United.

“It was good to see all the different talents around the country and see how it applies to our leagues and how far we can go,” De Wet said. “

The success of those soon-to-be freshmen coached by Herman Gutierrez represents the latest high point on an impressive trajectory for CWS, a club founded in 2012. Coaching director Marty Lackey said quality coaches, a strong reputation and good connections create the foundation needed for players to draw attention from top programs while developing their game here.

A record 27 Sounders — 15 girls and 12 boys — signed to play college soccer next fall, and all of them except three girls competed for Yakima Valley high schools. Lackey said the club also saw an all-time high of 600 players try out this season from U9 to U19 age groups.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of retaining the majority of the quality players in the Valley and honestly, you obviously don’t get them all or you don’t keep them all,” Lackey said. “But I think because of our reputation now, I can sincerely say if you talk to anybody from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, on the boys side of the club, we’re probably one of the top five clubs to play at.”

Other options sometimes prove more enticing for players like De Wet, who’s leaving before his freshman season at West Valley to go train at FC Barcelona’s Residency Academy in Arizona and pursue a pro career. Yakima’s newer Sozo FC developed some of the area’s most accomplished recent boys soccer graduates, including University of Washington signee Kevin Hernandez from Sunnyside, Davis’ CBBN defensive player of the year and CBC commit Jorge Ibarra, and Sunnyside defender Sebastian Magana, soon to be a member of the international Odisea FC Academy in Spain.

But when it comes to team success over the last decade, especially on the boys’ side, few teams on the east side of the Cascades can compete with CWS.

Open to all

Club soccer in the United States offers a variety of different paths, most of which draw criticism for a pay-to-play system that critics say keeps some of the country’s best young players from developing to their full potential.

Lackey said CWS tries to find ways for everyone to play at an affordable cost, starting with the skills-based, noncompetitive junior academy for ages 5-7. Lower-level teams play in the Washington Premier League, with less travel for U9 and U10 teams in a league that Lackey said stretches from Wenatchee to Walla Walla.

Cost sometimes becomes prohibitive for elite tournaments, when Lackey said Sounders teams may need to bring guest players to fill out their roster. Other times the club can raise funds to help players pay their way.

Financial concerns were part of the reason Lackey said the Souders chose to put their top boys teams in the U13-U19 age groups in the EAL rather than the Elite Club National League, a more established and generally more highly regarded league featuring only westside teams in its nine-team Northwest Division this past season.

All six of the Sounders’ top teams — there is no U18 division — finished at least fourth out of nine teams, with four qualifying for EAL nationals. Gutierrez said his team’s won three of the last five state cups and he believes it could compete with anyone in Washington.

The top CWS girls teams play in the national Development Player League, and Lackey acknowledged most of them would struggle against ECNL opponents. However, there have been some notable exceptions, such as the team Lackey coached featuring Gonzaga alum Isabelle Moultray, Eastern Washington’s Grace Terrill and other 2020 graduates, which won three Washington State Cup titles.

Moultray recalled her parents originally expressed skepticism towards club soccer before she accepted an invitation to join CWS as a guest player in fifth grade. That led to a permanent spot on the team and she ended up playing throughout her high school career alongside several friends from Selah.

Sunnyside graduate Jose Marquez, the oldest of six siblings, recalled how coach Jamil Anabtawi and other area players often gave him rides to practices when he joined the team the summer after his freshman year in 2014. Marquez said Anabtawi would regularly transport players between Sunnyside and Yakima, as well as take them to games when needed.

“I think up until then, the only real experiences that I’d had were around the Valley,” said Marquez, the girls soccer coach at Sunnyside and an assistant on the boys staff. “For me, they really got my education and everything going.”

Marquez said Anabtawi also waived coaching fees, sponsored several players when the team traveled to nationals and helped with math homework, skills Marquez uses today as a high school math teacher. CWS also connected Marquez to Saint Martin’s, where the first-generation college student started all four seasons and earned All-GNAC Honorable Mention recognition twice.

After an initial early commitment to Eastern Washington, Moultray’s play for CWS drew attention from a regional Elite Player Development team in Spokane. That led her to Gonzaga, where she played for four seasons before electing to use her COVID year this fall as a grad transfer at Eastern.

Finding balance

CWS expects a significant time commitment from its top players, sometimes making it hard to balance academics or other extracurricular activities.

Gutierrez holds practices four days a week virtually year-round, apart from the weeks including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Rivera joins three other regular players from Sunnyside to make the drive to Yakima, which is split evenly between parents.

They’ll finally take a long break from club soccer next spring when the high school season begins. But Lackey said before that it’s fairly uncommon on the boys side for players to compete in any other sports, so coaches don’t need to worry too much about managing schedules.

It’s a little different for girls, Lackey said, especially during basketball season, when the club teams generally play few games anyway. They’re able to create some flexibility in their schedules for athletes like Moultray, who played basketball and also competed in track and field for Selah.

She appreciated how a lighter schedule for CWS allowed her to do more than ECNL teams that are required to go to more tournaments. Although Moultray remembered losing badly to some of those clubs in middle school, she said CWS stayed together and developed well enough to knock off some of those same teams at tournaments once they’d reached high school.

Gutierrez starts talking to his players about potential college scholarships when they reach seventh grade, emphasizing the importance of making good grades. He believes all of them could play at the next level if they stay committed, and Lackey said the club prefers to push kids towards college rather than a much less likely shot at a long pro career straight out of high school.

CWS and other area clubs still face some disadvantages compared to westside clubs, notably a much smaller pool of potential players. Despite that relative lack of depth, they’re able to frequently field competitive top teams thanks to what both Lackey and Moultray referred to as a strong soccer culture in the Yakima Valley.

“I think it does keep people there,” Moultray said from Cheney, where she’s attending summer classes. “People don’t want to drive to the westside twice a week or three times a week to practice, so I think it’s a blessing to have a great team right in our backyard.”