WSOC: TEAMMATES THEN, TEAMMATES NOW

By Rich Myhre // 8.29.18

By Washington Huskies

August 29^th, 2018

They met six years ago at a California summer soccer camp. Summer Yates was from the eastern Washington city of Pasco, Shae Holmes from outside of Denver in Highlands Ranch, Colo., and the two of them hit it off right from the start.

The early bond can perhaps be traced to a corny joke by Holmes. It was the kind of quip that for some reason leaves 12-year-old girls in stitches.

It went like this. Holmes asked her new friend Summer, “If your mom had three other kids, would they be Winter, Spring and Autumn? Because then your mom could just say, ‘OK, c’mon seasons, it’s time to go.’”

Yates’ reaction? “I was laughing so hard,” she said, laughing again at the memory.

From that bit of playful banter, a friendship was born. Given their ages and the geographic distance between them, it would not take real hold for a few more years. But they reconnected as members of the United States national-team pool, traveling together as teammates to soccer tournaments around the world, and then once more this fall as promising freshmen on the University of Washington women’s team.

In recent years, “Summer and Shae have spent a lot of time together playing in the national-team pool,” said UW head coach Lesle Gallimore. “They were in a lot of different camps together from U16 on up … and they’ve worked hard to become very talented youth players.”

Yates and Holmes are the only two players on this year’s UW roster with U.S. national-team experience, though sophomore Mireya Grey of Seattle has played for the Jamaican junior national team. A few other Washington players have also spent time in the national-team pool in recent years, including Jessica Udovich, and Shannon Simon and Kimby Keever from the 2017 squad.

Yates, who started playing soccer when she was 5, joined the national-team program the summer after her eighth-grade year. A U-14 player, she was invited to a pool camp that included about 50 girls.

“It was nerve-wracking at first because there were so many people there,” Yates said, “but obviously it was also super cool. It’s a big experience for any youth soccer player. Just being able to wear the (USA) crest is an honor.”

Holmes took up soccer when she was 4, and her initiation to the national-team program came at the beginning of 10th grade. There were about 25 girls at her first camp and it was, she said, “kind of eye-opening. My club team had been at a high level, but once I got to that camp it was like five times (higher). The speed of play was better, the competition was better, and everything was beyond my (expectations). It was all truly the best of the best.”

To help prepare young players for the challenges of international play, the United States Soccer Federation has a developmental program for U-14 players, national teams for boys and girls at U-15 and U-16, and then men’s and women’s teams for every year from U-17 to U-20. There are also U-23 national teams for both men and women.

The goal, of course, is to produce exceptional players who will later join the U.S. national teams that compete at the World Cup, the Olympic Games and other international tournaments and events. Most top American-born players got their starts in the national-team pool, which is also a fertile recruiting ground for college coaches.

For young players on the rise, it is a chance to get elite coaching and game experience while also traveling to tournaments around the world that generally last 12 to 14 days. Yates and Holmes played together at U-16 tournaments in Italy and the Netherlands, and U-18/19 tournaments in England, Australia and China.

Unfortunately, Holmes suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee last December that required surgery, and she has been sidelined since then. It left her unable to accompany Yates on subsequent overseas trips to Spain and Switzerland.

The opportunity to travel “is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Yates said. “My parents tell me it’s something they never had the chance to do (while still in school). It’s super fun, especially when you’re with a team of your best friends and you’re able to experience it together.”

Her favorite trip was to the Netherlands because “we got to travel around a lot more,” she said. “We were able to see more of the culture, and we also got to interact with the Netherlands national team a lot.”

Yates also enjoyed going to Australia, but recalls the best food being in Italy.

Holmes cites the Netherlands and Italy as being her two favorite trips. She enjoyed sightseeing in the Netherlands, with the team’s outings including a pro soccer game, but Italy was also very memorable because it was her first trip out of the United States.

Yet for all the many highlights of international travel and tournaments, there is probably nothing quite so meaningful as playing for a United States team while wearing a uniform of red, white and blue.

Donning an American uniform “is a big honor,” Yates said. “You have goose bumps just walking into the locker room, and then when you’re staring at your jersey.” The emotion before her first game was so profound, she added, “I was shaking almost.”

“But walking out to the field was probably my most nerve-wracking moment. And then hearing the national anthem. You have to make yourself calm down and think about your game and think about who you’re representing.”

Holmes had her initial international game in Italy, “and my first moment with the uniform - the full-on red, white and blue - was kind of jaw-dropping,” she said. “I think I took the most pictures I’ve ever taken in my life. I was (thinking), ‘Wow, it’s truly an honor and a privilege to be able to do this.’ Not everyone gets to experience it and I kind of just wanted to take it all in.

“When I put the uniform on, it mentally settled my mind because then I could just go out and play the sport I love while representing my country,” Holmes said. “And then when the (national) anthem plays and you have your hand over your heart, I think that’s a moment, especially in my first game, when I was looking around and thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening.’ I definitely teared up because you’ve worked so hard to get to that point, and it was like a dream fulfilled. It was definitely amazing.”

The transition to college soccer began earlier this summer when Yates and Holmes arrived in Seattle. Though certainly different from their national-team experiences, becoming a Husky is no less significant, they agree.

“When I was 11,” Yates said, “I wrote down some goals in a little book with my dad, and this was one of my goals. I literally wrote down, ‘I want to play soccer at the University of Washington.’ So for me to finally be here and playing, it’s a dream come true.

“This is such a fun team to be on, and so far I love everything about it,” she said. “All the girls are really competitive, but it’s also a great family atmosphere.”

Though Holmes has done more watching than practicing in recent weeks due to her ongoing recovery, she believes the jump from high school soccer to college is not unlike going from club soccer to the national-team pool.

“Washington is such a big name and it’s one of the schools that has so much history behind it, so the competition here is just as high as the U.S (youth teams),” Holmes said. “If you think about it, the Pac-12 has many of the same players you play with at the U.S. level, so to me it’s just as big of a deal.

“I always watched college soccer growing up and it was always my dream to play Division 1,” she went on. “So now that it’s finally happening for me, it’s just as big of an emotional piece; goose bumps everywhere, (the thrill of) wearing the jersey and playing that first game, as it was for me with any U.S. team.”

Yates, a 5-foot-4 forward, immediately found a place in Washington’s starting lineup this season.

What stands out, Gallimore said, “is her technical ability with ball. Summer is crafty, skilled and perceptive. She has a calmness to her at a young age, and that’s going to serve her well. She’s very calming on the ball, and that’s something in the midfield where you want players leading the game. She can slow it down when we need to and she can speed it up when we need to. She has a lot of ability to make an impact on the game.”

Holmes, meanwhile, will be eased back into action in the coming weeks. A 5-8 defender, she will likely become a fixture on Washington’s back line.

“I’ve seen Shae play quite a bit over the years, and she has great strength, great size and good speed,” Gallimore said. “She’s also a leader and a good voice on the field. She reads the game very well, and she’s a pretty good player with the ball. On both sides of the ball, she’s going help us have a solid back line and then be a threat to attack.”

Though Yates and Holmes have already accomplished much in soccer, going forward “it’s what they do here (at Washington) that’s going to matter,” Gallimore added. As players in a top college program, “they know they’re going to have to keep earning it every day and keep looking at how they’re going to get better.

“But what I’m truly impressed with is that they both really value the team and they value people. They’re likeable kids that people like to play next to. So from a leadership standpoint and an ability standpoint and then with both of them being competitors, I think the combination of those three things will be worth their weight in gold for us if they can keep being the players I think they are.”

The Huskies began this season without nine seniors from a year ago, and recently welcomed 11 incoming freshmen. Given the team’s many new faces, “we’re going to be a work in progress,” admitted Gallimore, whose squad went 9-8-3 a year ago, including a 2-6-3 mark in Pac-12 games. “But I’m a believer that we’re going to keep getting better every day and that we’re going to come at you with great effort every time.”

She foresees a team with “a lot of different parts. We can be versatile, we can show people different looks, and we can have threats in different places on the field. We’re not going to rely on just a couple of players to score for us or to play defense for us. I think we’re going to have enough solid parts that we can keep you from scoring in a lot of different places, and then we’ll also be able to score in a lot of different places.”