Coupeville Sports

Ayla Muller

Soccer stars (l to r) Micky LeVine, Muller, Julia Myers, Becca Pabona and Suzanne Kaltenbach.

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.

Ayla Muller is keeping a family tradition alive.

The Oak Harbor High School sophomore, who has battled through a knee injury which has limited her time on the field, follows in the footsteps of her mother when she steps on the soccer pitch.

“My mom use to play soccer and when I was little she was like the best player out there,” Muller said. “She’s always supporting me; she comes to every game and cheers for me.”

Muller picked up the game at an early age, first putting foot to ball when she was just four. After playing for a club team (KYX) in Florida, she joined the Islanders after her family moved to Whidbey.

Since joining Sean LeVine’s roster, Muller has been an indispensable jack of all trades, playing wherever she is needed at the moment.

“I play every position except defense!” she said.

The friendly, out-going booter, who picks market management as her favorite class at OHHS, works hard at fine-tuning her game, when her knee allows it.

“I’d like to work on calming down when I get the ball and skill work,” she said.

Muller’s love of soccer perfectly dovetails with her appreciation for family.

When not playing, she can often be found at the drive-in with one of her two families, the one that she lives with or the second one she has found on the playing field.

“I like the fact it’s a team sport,” Muller said. “I love having a family that will always be there for me.”

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   Part of the Whidbey Islanders GU18 squad mingles after Thursday’s Oak Harbor/Coupeville girls’ soccer match. (Sean LeVine photo)

Kenzie Perry blanked her teammates.

Split apart Thursday by the demands of the high school season, a huge chunk of the Whidbey Islanders GU18 soccer squad found themselves on opposite sides of the playing field in Oak Harbor.

In the end, the host, 3A Oak Harbor, led by goalie Perry and big scorers Vivien Valles and Jacalyn Hefflefinger, bounced 1A Coupeville 4-0 to raise its record to a perfect 2-0. The Wildcats effectively own the Island, having beaten 2A South Whidbey 1-0 earlier this season.

The Wolves, playing their first game under new coach Troy Cowan, were unable to get the ball past Perry, the mad photo bomber of the Islanders. The ‘Cats gave her a broad show of support, with four players, including two who are NOT Islanders (Faith Franssen and Jennifer Turnek) finding the back of the net.

Lauryn Plush added two assists to spark the Oak Harbor offense.

The Islanders, a select soccer team coached by Sean LeVine and Scott Rosenkranz which features players from all three Whidbey Island high schools, were well represented.

Jacki Ginnings, Erin Rosenkranz, Micky LeVine, Tori Wellman, Jennifer Spark and Julia Myers all suit up for CHS, while OHHS is repped by players such as Valles, Perry, Becca Pabona, Morgan Zylstra and former Wolf Paige Waterman.

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Ayla Muller (left) and Jen Spark celebrate their title. (Kali Barrio photos)

Kenzie Perry photo-bombs Sean LeVine’s halftime speech.

No time for losers, cause we are the champions … of the world.

Repeat champions and it feels so good.

Capping its summer tournament season, the Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad won two of three games over the weekend, successfully defending its title by winning the Marysville Strawberry Classic.

The Islanders thumped Marysville Los Zorros Locos 3-0, then won by the same score against the Snohomish Patriots. A hard-fought 2-1 loss to Tracyton Velocity prevented Whidbey from finishing the tourney with a flawless record, but its point total easily carried it to the title.

Highlights came from all directions, with Kendra Warwick knocking in three goals, Tori Wellman and Zoe Bassett notching their first goals as Islanders and goalie Kenzie Perry and her stout defense pulling off a shutout for 2.5 games.

The Islanders started off quickly and never looked back, with Micky LeVine, back on the pitch after a recent hospital visit, scoring in the first five minutes of the opening match. Taking a beautiful pass from Warwick, the speedy mighty mite drilled the ball into the back of the net and opened the floodgates.

Warwick blew the game open, drilling a second goal over the keeper’s head, off an assist from Perry, before Anni Field, a guest player from South Whidbey, juked a defender out of her shoes and bashed in the final score.

“This was a great game in which the girls showcased their ability to calmly possess the ball,” said Islanders coach Sean LeVine.

Game two was more of the same, as Wellman chipped a ball over the charging keeper for a score, before Warwick tacked on a pair of scores. Not only was she scoring from all directions, but Warwick spent the weekend bouncing between positions, playing wherever the team needed her.

With the tourney title already clinched before the final game Sunday, LeVine moved players around to give them a taste of other positions and pulled Perry from net in the second half.

Despite controlling the flow of the game, the Islanders fell victim to a pair of fluke goals, one aided by a highly questionable call.

Bassett bull-rushed the Tracyton defense for her team’s lone score, but a free kick set up by “a very, very, very bad call by the referee … one of several,” turned out to be the difference.

In the end it didn’t matter, however, as the Islanders picked up their medals and a few parting words from their coach. The team is off now until November, with North Puget Sound League play set to kick off in December.

Between now and then, the Islanders, who boast players from Oak Harbor, Coupeville and South Whidbey, will play with their high school teams.

Before they departed, LeVine hailed the play of his defense (Perry, Jen Spark, Jackie Ginnings, Paige Waterman, Becca Pabona and guest player Chelsea Atkinson). He was also grateful for three guest players, who helped fill in a couple of empty roster slots.

“A big thank you to our guest players, Jacalyn Hefflefinger, who more than held down the outside mid, Atkinson, who is an awesome defender and was pivotal to our success in the back, and Field, who was able to play well all over the field,” LeVine said.

“I’m happy we helped our players improve and I hope they will be big contributors on their high school teams,” he added. “I will miss them for a few months, but I will be their biggest fan in the stands at as many high school games as possible!”

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Tori Wellman and dad Josh.

Tori Wellman wants to go out strong.

The Coupeville High School senior attacks play on the soccer pitch with great passion (“I just love the sport. I’m comfortable wherever the coach puts me and I’m not afraid to take out a girl every once in awhile”) and she’d like to cap her career as a Wolf booter in style.

“My goal this year is to give it all I have,” Wellman said. “This is my last year and I want to give a good example to the underclassmen because I know I looked up to the older girls I was playing with.

“Oh, and, of course, I want us to win, but also have fun,” she added. “That’s the reason these girls started playing in the first place.”

An athlete from an early age — she tried t-ball, basketball, cheer, BMX racing and horse riding — Wellman found her love early, when she first stepped onto the soccer field at six.

“I enjoy the fact that soccer has really motivated me to get out there and do something,” she said. “I just love the sport … I’m not really sure how to describe why.”

While the high school season is still weeks away from getting started, Wellman is playing with the Whidbey Islanders GU18 select squad, a team that boasts players from all three Whidbey Island high schools.

“I’ve been playing for (Islanders coach) Sean (LeVine) off and on throughout the years, and it’s no surprise to me that he is still a great coach,” Wellman said. “I would say playing in select has really helped me improve with the ball and getting comfortable playing all around the field, plus it’s nice that when high school season comes around I won’t be dying on the field from not being in shape.

“But really playing for the Islanders has been such a great experience so far, my only regret is not playing it before this year.”

The extra playing time is helping her fine-tune her already impressive skill-set, while keeping her sharp no matter where she lines up on the field.

“This season I want to focus on the little things like ball control and what not, which is why I was interested in select,” Wellman said. “It is a great way to get in shape and improve on any skills that needed to be worked on.

“I play anywhere. I grew up playing defense but I’ve been moved around a lot,” she added. “I’ve been playing mostly striker for Sean this season. I’m interested where (new CHS coach) Troy (Cowan) will be putting me.”

A big animal lover (“I would probably have 50 dogs if my parents would let me get more”) who hails “Shrek” as her favorite film (“I can still probably repeat every line”), Wellman has also recently picked up baking as a hobby.

“I haven’t burnt the house down yet, so I suppose that’s going well,” she said with a laugh.

As she finds her way in life, both on the soccer pitch and off, Wellman has been blessed to have a number of strong, positive role models.

From her coaches to teachers such as Tom Black and Ken Stange (“They gave me confidence that despite my struggles I can go out and do anything I dream of, and have also showed me to be happy with who I am”) and boyfriend Joey Edwards (“My boyfriend helps a lot when I don’t have any motivation to do anything”), she has a solid support group.

One man though, stands above them all.

“There’s a lot of people that have influenced my life in so many ways. So the answer to this is a little hard,” Wellman said. “I know my dad is my biggest influence. He has seen me at my best and my worst and has continued to support me in everything I do, even when he has the world on his shoulders.

“He’s a great man and I have always looked up to him.”

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Islanders goalie Kenzie Perry (in yellow) is a little excited. (Kali Barrio photos)

Whidbey strong.

And then the tourney was over and it was time for a nap on the ride home.

Through heat, through missing players, against top-level competition, the Whidbey Islanders GU18 soccer squad refused to break.

Playing at the Crossfore Select Tournament in Redmond over the weekend, the Islanders, sparked by a younger player on loan, became the only silver team to beat a gold-level squad. And they did it with style.

Facing the North Kitsap Blast Sunday, Islander goalie Kenzie Perry was flawless, deflecting shot after shot during a first half barrage. Whidbey almost won the game in regulation, when Paige Waterman sent a ball just a millimeter over the crossbar on a header.

Once in a shootout, it was all Whidbey as Jennifer Spark, Kendra Warwick, Perry and Lydia Peplinski (a guest player from the U15 Whidbey Islanders) all converted, handing their squad a hard-fought and much-deserved 1-0 victory to cap the tourney.

The win capped a run in which the Islanders went 1-1-2. After a draw Friday, they somehow pulled out a 0-0 draw with Fuerza FC High Performance early Saturday morning, despite playing “the roughest-looking first half of soccer I’ve seen them play yet,” according to coach Sean LeVine.

The only bump in the road came in the afternoon game Saturday, when the Islanders fell 3-0 to high-powered FME Fusion. That game was scoreless until the final seconds of the first half, but then a rival player broke out for a hat trick to send her team to the championship game.

LeVine was pleased with his team’s resilience, however, as they continually bounced back against bigger, older squads.

Losing Ayla Muller to an injury in game two didn’t help, as that left the already-depleted Islanders with just one reserve and forced Perry to stay in goal for the entire tourney.

“It was a tough tournament,” LeVine said. “The teams we faced were not as tough as we saw in our last tourney, but it was hot and we were missing several players.”

Numerous players stepped up big-time, headlined by the irrepressible Perry, who commands the field (while keeping one eye out for cameras) while in goal.

“Kenzie stepped up in a big way. Other notable players were Micky LeVine, whose last two games were some of her best soccer we’ve seen yet,” LeVine said. “Jacki Ginnings, who saved our butts probably 50 times this weekend as she flew around the field tackling the ball. Emily Miesle was in Beast Mode almost all weekend and people held their breath every time she touched the ball.

“Kendra was the team leader and was always at the center of the action providing pressure relief for her teammates, directing traffic, and always looking for that killer pass,” he added. “A big thank you to Lydia for filling in for our missing players. She was a huge contributor this weekend and we would not have done near as well without her.”

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