Black Hills girls soccer finding unity under new regime

Brandy Smith, Taelor Folley and Grae Hill have all won awards from the Black Hills High School girls soccer team this season.

None of them play for the Wolves but, as part of a community-based outlook being fostered by first-year coach James Corbin, the Burlington-Edison, Yelm and North Thurston players were voted postgame sportsmanship awards by Black Hills.

“It’s a cool thing,” said Black Hills senior scoring leader Joslin Lindsay, who has added four goals to the 32 she tallied a year ago as the Wolves have gotten off to a 2-1 start. “Yelm was kind of a rough game and people were getting snappy, but being conscious of sportsmanship made us realize we’re getting to play soccer, a game we all love.”

Senior center back Delaney Trotter agreed.

“It creates friendships,” she said. “It makes you think, ‘If the other team was giving this award, I’d want to get it.’ So you play with that in mind.”

Corbin, who has coached for more than 30 years at the club and high school level, including stops at Timberline, North Thurston and River Ridge, has approached his latest position with goals of creating program-wide unity and bonds between upper class players and girls on the JV and C teams.

“We try to keep in context — these are high school girls growing up and trying to leave a legacy,” he said. “We want to have mentorships from the older girls to the younger girls and teach life lessons.”

Trotter pointed to activities off the field, starting with “speed dating”-like icebreakers during the long lunch breaks during summer two-a-days, that have brought the team closer together.

But, make no mistake, all the admirable intangibles have not distracted an experienced Black Hills squad, which returns six all-2A Evergreen Conference players, from its on-field goals.

No Wolves girls soccer team has advanced past the first round of the state tournament, and the loss to Shorecrest to end last season still stings. Corbin and Lindsay both said going deeper into the postseason is a primary goal.

“Having been here as a freshman/sophomore/junior and not gotten past the first round, it would be very cool to be a part of the first Black Hills team that did,” Lindsay said.

Trotter takes it one step further:

“We want to win state,” she said with conviction.

The Wolves’ ability to evolve will determine how close they come to reaching their goals.

“It’s been challenging for the girls,” Corbin said. “It’s a whole different philosophy, but they’ve been excited to make changes and they’re working well and we’re seeing positive results.”

One of the more critical changes is to draw some of the defensive pressure away from Lindsay, who became a clear target with her prolific scoring a year ago.

“We want to spread the defense by playing the ball to the outside more often,” Corbin said. “That not only gives Joslin a chance to have more opportunities, but creates chances for other girls.”

Although Lindsay has still been able to score in every game, Trotter, a returning first-team all-EvCo choice and second-teamers Jaylen Corbin (the coach’s daughter) and Sydney Lowe have also found the net for the Wolves thus far.

“It’s going really well,” Trotter said. “It’s so much more team-oriented. You know if you make a mistake, the girl next to you will have your back. The chemistry has been so much better.”

Lindsay agreed.

“I like scoring goals,” she admitted. “But there’s less pressure on me this way. We all have different playing styles but we’re starting to figure out who does what well and how we can work best together.”

Beyond the front line, Corbin said first-team all-EvCo defender Sam Lindsay, second team all-EvCo pick Jewel Bender and Janae Grimm have been early standouts. All-EvCo goalkeeper Jordan Westby has also improved, thanks in part to tutoring from Black Hills’ new goalkeeping coach Hannah Barlow, the former Olympia and Saint Martin’s University standout.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Black Hills girls soccer finding unity under new regime."