— by Margie Doyle —
Orcas Girls Soccer Coach Chris Dougherty and 11 members of the team will travel to Vancouver, British Columbia this weekend to see the host team, Canada, face off against England in the quarterfinal knockout rounds of the quadrennial Women’s World Cup.
On Friday evening, the U.S. Team will play China in another quarterfinal match. The U.S. won the World Cup in 1999 in Los Angeles. Germany, which won the cup in 2003 and 2007, and Japan, the 2011 World Cup winner, are considered the most formidable challengers to U.S. victory in the games, which are being played in various cities across Canada.
Dougherty says that the trip will be life-changing for the 11 team members going along the trip, not to mention experiencing a world-class game played by women just a few years older than themselves. “They don’t even know what they’re going to be seeing,” he says.
Now in his second year as Coach of the high school women’s team, Dougherty has been Coach for the co-ed middle school team. There is a big age span among the girls of his team, and he says “the old girls help out the younger ones.”
Steve Miller of Camp Orkila will drive the group in a van to Canada, where they will stay at the Fraser Valley School gym in Surrey, B.C. Assistant Coach Stephanie Shaw (“who is excellent,” says Dougherty) and eight adult chaperones will accompany the girls and keep them “entertained and contained,” in their coach’s words.
He purchased 23 tickets in January for the team to go to the games. “The whole idea is for the team to get to know each other better. And they haven’t really experienced this quality level of play — confident, strong, amazing women athletes.
“It will be team-building and an inspirational opportunity.”
Great idea Chris. I’m jealous.
I think it is worthy of note that this group of girls, together with their families, worked together to raise all of the money to support this trip. This is a project they took on with eachother and for eachother as a team. Go Vikings and Go USA!