Val Seid named KingCo 'Coach of the Year'

By Dean Wong

Despite a season-ending playoff loss on Oct. 28, the future of the Ballard Beavers holds great promise with a talented roster and the KingCo 4A League's top coach, Val Seid.

Seid was voted the Coach of the Year by his fellow coaches. In his first year as head coach, Seid led the Beavers to their first playoff appearance since the school joined KingCo in 2004.

Ballard finished the regular season with 6-4-0 league record.

"It feels good the coaches felt like I deserved it," said Seid. "It's nice to see. I would not have gotten it unless the team played well. It was a big reflection on how well they did."

With their strong finish, Ballard earned the right to meet Redmond in the first round playoff action.

Although the final score was Redmond 1-0, the Mustang's only point came three minutes into the game. From that point Ballard played Redmond even.

Redmond was 6-2-2. Ballard was optimistic heading into the game. The Mustang's only two losses were handed to them by the Beavers.

"They played tough, minus the first three minutes of the game. We were in the game; it was just unfortunate we could not get that ball in the goal in the second half. We made some adjustments and had more of an attack," said Seid.

Now Ballard looks towards the future and Seid, in his first year as the varsity girl's coach, has talent to work with.

"We have a great future. We have eight to 10 juniors coming back. We have two really strong freshmen and I understand we are having some more (players) coming in," said Seid.

"As long as they keep believing in themselves they will do good," he said.

Freshman Sara Ives has been an outstanding addition to the team. She was named the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Player of the Week in September after scoring four goals in one game.

Then she scored three more goals in the next game and made Sports Illustrated magazine's "Faces In The Crowd," featuring high school athletes. The three goals gave her seven in two games and then she scored the next time out to give her eight goals in three games.

As the season was winding down, Seid challenged his players to win four out of their last six games to secure a KingCo spot.

The players met that goal with wins over Redmond (1-0), Juanita (2-0), Bothell (3-2) and a critical game with Roosevelt (1-0), knocking the Roughriders out of the post season picture.

"We're right on track. The girls have come together with a focus on what they need to do to win games," said Seid.

Forward/midfielders, Mikaela Winter (junior) and Emily Larsen, (junior) and Stephanie Nelson (senior), along with Ives have scored points and provided assists during the games leading to the playoff game.

Goalkeeper Britta Humes, a junior, defended the goal with three shutouts to help her team go to the playoffs.

Winter scored the only goal with an assist by Nelson in the Redmond game on Oct. 12.

Ives scored a goal in the Juanita game with an assist from Winter. Winter then scored Ballard's second point with an assist from Ives.

Winter scored on an assist from Emily Larsen in the Bothell win. Ives scored twice, once on an assist from Winter and once on a penalty kick.

It was Winter again in the Roosevelt game, scoring the only goal to put away Ballard's cross-town rival. Larsen assisted her.

Ballard finished the regular season with an 8-7-1 overall record, not including the playoff game.

Dean Wong can be reached at dino@robinsonnews.com