Vancouver girls soccer teams have new home-field advantage

There was a common theme among the girls soccer teams at Columbia River, Fort Vancouver and Hudson’s Bay this past week.

They were home.

“Kiggins is fine, but this is ours,” Columbia River senior Julia Skimas said after the Chieftains played their home opener against Skyview on Tuesday. “It’s better to get to play right on campus, where we can get some good crowds to support us. It definitely felt louder here than at Kiggins.”

In previous seasons, girls soccer teams from River, Bay, Fort and Skyview played home soccer matches at Kiggins Bowl. But this summer, all four Vancouver Public Schools campuses had new turf fields installed, which will be used by soccer teams and sub-varsity football teams as home fields.

Columbia River played their first match on their new field on Tuesday, hosting Skyview. A good crowd was on hand to watch the Storm post a 1-0 win. All went well at River, except for the lights going off briefly at halftime.

Previously, only the football teams played games on the grass field at Chieftain Stadium. On Friday, the varsity football team played its first game on the turf field at River.

In addition to the new fields, scoreboards were installed, as well as new lighting at Fort, Bay and Skyview, allowing for night matches.

“The field is really nice to play on,” Bay senior goalkeeper Olivia Hewett said. “And we get to practice on it, too.”

At Fort Vancouver, the Trappers christened their new field with a 6-4 win over Stevenson, the first win for the Trappers in five seasons. Junior Jocelyn Ray scored five goals.

“I think it’s really great getting to play where we go to school,” Ray said. “And having everyone come and support us, it’s really great.”

Fort’s first-year coach Edward Esparza said the new field will boost his efforts to build the Trapper program.

“One of our themes this season has been team, school, community,” Esparza said. “And having a field like this helps us build a community around this team, by bringing people onto campus to watch the games. We even had the guys from the football team come over after practice to support the girls.”

Hudson’s Bay had to play its first home match of the season — a 7-0 win over Seton Catholic — on the grass field at Memory/Mill Plain Park, across Mill Plain Boulevard from the Bay campus because the new turf field wasn’t quite ready. Bay’s turf field was the last to be installed.

But the Eagles did play on the turf field Saturday against Woodland.

“We tried to get it ready, and there were a lot of pieces to consider,” Bay athletic director Patrice Woods said. “But we weren’t able to get our goals assembled in time. We did that yesterday, so we could play here today. The one thing I’m bummed we couldn’t get done is set up our concession stand. But that was good news for the ice cream man. He’s been driving by here a couple of times as we were playing.”

The crowd for Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Woodland was smaller than it might be on a school day. But Bay’s new field made the setting more intimate, as compared to what would have been a mostly empty Kiggins Bowl.

“I like that we can get more support here than at Kiggins,” Hewett said. “And it’s more condensed so it looks like we have more people, even if we don’t. And it’s louder. It’s more of a community event.”

Skyview will be the last VPS girls soccer team host its first game on the new turf field on Thursday when the Storm host Kelso at 7 p.m.

“Playing on campus causes a little more work (for administrators), making sure everything is in place,” Woods said. “My head has been swimming with things that need to be done getting ready for this game. But in the end, it’s well worth it.”

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com.