Coupeville Sports

Kenzie Perry

They’re back, just not all of them.

After a break brought on by the high school season, the GU18 Whidbey Islanders select soccer team returned to the pitch Saturday in a game marred a bit by rust and missing players.

With goalkeeper Kenzie Perry controlling as much of the damage as possible, the Islanders fell 3-0 to the visiting Tracyton Pumas.

“While every player individually had moments of inspired and skilled play, as a whole there were too many uninspired moments and way too many mistakes,” said Islander coach Sean LeVine. “Defensively, where our team is historically pretty solid, we made too many errors that they capitalized on.”

The Islanders were playing without Ayla Muller (ACL surgery), Jacki Ginnings (concussion) and Bailee Olson (foot injury).

The absence of Muller, who is out for the season, meant Perry was in goal the entire game, instead of rotating out into the field. That limited Whidbey a bit.

“Kenzie was handcuffed to the goal for 90 minutes. She is a great keeper, but she is also a beast of a forward and it hurts us offensively to not have her on the field,” LeVine said. “However, she kept the score from being 0-6.”

Perry made 10 saves, while the three shots that found the back of the net came on “great shots.”

Also stepping up strongly were Becca Pabona, Selena Medina and Jacalyn Hefflefinger. With the missing players, Pabona was playing out of position at right defender, and sparkled as usual.

As did her two teammates.

“Selena combines skill and aggression and gave us our best chances offensively, while Jacalyn has a motor that never stops,” LeVine said. “Jac plays hard from whistle to whistle and is a good example for her teammates.”

The Islanders’ next match is 11 AM Jan. 5 at Ft. Nugent Park, then the squad kicks off State Cup tournament play after that.

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Jacalyn Hefflefinger and Spencer.

Hefflefinger has the brawn to back up her soccer skills.

The Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad, which brings together players from all three Island high schools, returns to action in December. This is one in a series of articles on the girls who proudly wear the jersey.

Soccer has taken Jacalyn Hefflefinger around the world.

The Oak Harbor High School junior first took to the pitch as a first-grader in Florida, and, after winding her way to Washington state three years later, she has taken her soccer skills overseas as well.

Trips to Austria, Germany and Spain with soccer teams broadened her horizons and honed her game (“They were such great experiences and definitely helped me with my soccer skills”).

Now, the academy and select team vet is bringing her talents to the Islanders on a full-time basis, after playing as a guest player with them during summer tournaments.

“I wanted to learn more about soccer and to become a better player so after high school season I went off Island and started playing at Northwest United. I played there year around and my coach, Darren Bell, taught me all I know,” Hefflefinger said. “He helped me become a better athlete and understand the game.

“This year, unfortunately, coach Darren couldn’t coach our team so I had to find somewhere else to play,” she added. “Thankfully coach Sean Levine offered to have me play with them and I couldn’t be happier. I love the group of girls I am playing with and the coaches are great!”

During her time on the pitch, Hefflefinger has bounced between positions (“I have played all over the field, minus goalie”) but has settled in at the outside mid position.

“It’s where I feel more comfortable,” Hefflefinger said. “The outside is kinda like a safety net to me; playing middle is just too much field!”

A hard charger on the field (“I love the challenge and how competitive everybody gets!”), she values the friendships she’s made (“Every soccer team I’ve played on, we were all a family, and that’s one of the main reasons I love playing.”)

A strong student with an interest in sports medicine (“I enjoy learning how to deal with injuries and all the different bones in the body”), Hefflefinger spends her free time watching “sad, romantic” movies, playing with her seven-month-old puppy Spencer and working with Big Brothers Big Sisters, where she helps her “little,” Gabby Bozovich.

More than anything else, her days as a soccer player have taught her to be strong and to overcome adversity.

Hefflefinger tore ligaments in her left ankle at a soccer camp in the summer before her sophomore year and had to wear a protective boot. When she came back midway through the season, she re-injured herself and missed the rest of the year.

But, with the help of her select coach, Darren Bell, she never let the injury put a stop to her fighting spirit.

“I was stressed out when I started playing again because I was scared of getting injured again and my left ankle was weak from not playing on it for so long,” Hefflefinger said. “He would call and ask me how I was doing and things I could do to help strengthen my ankle, which really helped me a lot.”

Now healthy and rampaging across the pitch, she lives by a simple, powerful motto.

“I never give up on the field; I always try to give my all!”

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Kenzie Perry

The Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad, which brings together players from all three Island high schools, returns to action in December. This is one in a series of articles on the girls who proudly wear the jersey.

Soccer is an unpredictable game, and Kenzie Perry likes that.

The Oak Harbor High School junior, a standout goalie both with her Wildcat squad and as the primary net-minder for the Islanders select squad, is an avid photo bomber.

And just like you never know where or when she’ll pop up in a photo, the same is true on the pitch. She often moves out of the net and plays in the field, and, when she does, she plays like a girl on fire.

“I enjoy the game. Simple as that,” Perry said. “There’s so many different outcomes and ways to play that it’s always fun and never gets boring.

“I like to think my strength is my presence on the field,” she added. “I don’t get much time on the field, so, when I do, I do everything in my power to get the ball.”

Perry has been chasing a soccer ball for most of her life, first playing in a rec league as a third grader. Three years later she made the jump to select soccer and continues to improve by leaps and bounds.

Not that there’s not a lot of hard work involved. She puts in the time behind the scenes so she can dazzle when the spotlight comes on.

“I’d like to work on my foot skills so when I get my time on the field I can really wow the other team!,” Perry exclaimed.

Away from soccer, she enjoys her science classes (“I’ve always liked science, at least when I understand it!”) and spending time with her many teammates, who she’s drawn quite close to over the years.

“I really think my team has been my inspiration,” Perry said. “Soccer has always been a big part of my life and having not only teammates but great friends right by my side playing with me has really impacted me.

“From getting coffee to random trips to the beach, we are usually together,” she added. “I don’t know where I’d be without them!”

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Morgan Zylstra

The early days of a soccer ace.

The Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad, which brings together players from all three Island high schools, returns to action in December. This is one in a series of articles on the girls who proudly wear the jersey.

Morgan Zylstra is never far from her camera.

A committed shutterbug (“I like to take pictures of everything and anything”), the Oak Harbor High School junior is taking photography classes through Skagit Valley College as a Running Start student.

While she’s a strong student across the board, artistic endeavors such as photography draw Zylstra’s interest far more readily than basic classes do.

“I will most likely have my camera on me at all times,” Zylstra said. “I guess I could say my favorite subject would be career and tech electives. I don’t struggle with the other subjects, it’s just that they’re not my favorite.”

On the soccer field, she uses her height to her advantage, but is intent on increasing her skill set.

“My strengths would be not only my height, but my strong shot,” Zylstra said. “I’m not the fastest, but when I want to be fast I can be pretty fast.

Zylstra first found the beautiful game as a young girl (“I started a little late, at the age of six or seven. I can’t remember, it was so long ago”) and has played consistently over the past decade.

She bounced from rec soccer to academy play, before winding up splitting duty between the Wildcats during the high school season and the Islanders the rest of the time.

“Now that I have found my home with the Islanders, I couldn’t be happier,” Zylstra said. “What I love about soccer is that when you’re on the right team, you not only play the sport, but also receive a second family.”

That feeling carries over off the field, as well, where she spends a fair amount of time with her teammates.

While she has a large support group (“I would have to say that my parents, my team, and my church family are a big part of who I am today”) it’s the Islanders she dances with as they use the music of 2 Chainz and others to get in the mood for kickin’ butt on the soccer pitch.

“I enjoy my soccer team and we like to hang out together off the field as well as on the field,” Zylstra said. “I think that is very important for a team to do well in their games. Before games we always blast songs to get pumped.”

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Becca Pabona

A soccer life.

The Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad, which brings together players from all three Island high schools, returns to action in December. This is one in a series of articles on the girls who proudly wear the jersey.

Becca Pabona is a two-way threat.

The Oak Harbor High School junior is a standout on the soccer field, both for the Wildcats, where she was a Second-Team All-Wesco pick as a defender this year, and for her select team, the GU18 Whidbey Islanders.

But get her off the field and she’ll impress you equally with her academic skills (“I really enjoy chemistry”) and her chops on the flute, which she plays in an all-ages choir (“We do performances and stuff; it’s cool”).

Plus she has excellent taste in movies, favoring ’80s classics like “The Breakfast Club,” which shows wisdom beyond her years.

On the pitch, she’s always rough and ready and rarely, if ever, backs down from a play.

“I like to think that I play pretty feisty,” Pabona said with a laugh. “And I feel like I have good ‘soccer smarts.’ Like I just see the field and anticipate how things should be.”

She’s now addicted to the game, though she had to be talked into trying it at first.

“I started playing in third grade because my mom encouraged me to and at first I didn’t want to but I’m so happy she made me,” Pabona said. “I really enjoy playing with all different kinds of people and meeting and making new friends. And for me playing soccer just makes me happy and for me it’s a stress reliever.

“I just love the game.”

Like many of her teammates, Pabona has worked her way up, starting with rec teams, then advancing to academy squads. Playing for one of those, the “Breakers,” in sixth grade, she helped lead them to an unbeaten season.

Since joining the Islanders she has expanded her on-field responsibilities, alternating between her traditional defender post and running the show from midfield.

Regardless of where she lines up, Pabona is always looking to tweak her game and take it up a notch or two.

“I’d like to work on being more confident when it comes to challenging the ball, and especially balls in the air,” she said. “Even though I usually feel confident enough to do a couple tricks, I’d like to expand on the tricks I’m able to do successfully and confidently.”

Success, both on and off the field, is due to her hard work and natural skill, but having a strong support group has greatly benefited her growth.

“My parents have been great role models for me and allowed me to be fairly independent and learn things on my own, but I learned everything through them,” Pabona said.

Her time working with Islander coaches Sean LeVine and Scott Rosenkranz has helped her to make great leaps in her game, as well.

“I’ve learned so much not only about soccer but about being a good person and life in general from all my coaches I’ve had,” Pabona said. “They don’t only want us to be great soccer players but great people too.”

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