Trailblazers finding their niche with freshmen-laden team
Clarence Karteh is entering uncharted territory in his seventh season at the helm of the Centralia College women's soccer program.
Over 70% of his roster — 24 out of 34 players — is made up of freshmen.
In order for Karteh's Trailblazers to earn their first playoff berth in the program's history that dates back to 2016, he and his coaching staff are instilling a new philosophy.
Ubuntu, an ancient African word that roughly translates to "I am because we are," spread across the back of every Centralia College player's warmup shirts before their Saturday scrimmages against Pacific Northwest Christian College and Clackamas Community College.
In the first week of training for the 2025 campaign, Karteh and his staff have focused on the values of teamwork and how unity overpowers individualism in soccer. With such a young roster, they've also been locked in on the fundamentals and adjusting to the junior college level.
"It's a new team. We're really trying to find our niche in terms of how we want to play and our style of play," Karteh said. "Our identity is we want to be the best possession team. We want to be able to maintain possession, and when we don't have possession, we want to press."
The Trailblazers defeated Pacific Northwest Christian College 2-0 Saturday afternoon in the opener before falling 2-1 to Clackamas in the nightcap, with the latter contest featuring three 30-minute periods. Karteh was impressed with his team's defensive effort even in losing fashion to Clackamas.
"Even though the result did not go our way, I'm pleased with the performance. Defensively, we were strong. I felt like we moved the ball really well," he said.
Nearly two-thirds of the Blazers' goal production from a season ago is gone, although leading scorer and Timberline High School graduate Maylania Mikaele is back after netting eight goals last fall. Celestine Allsup, a central midfielder and right wing and fellow Timberline grad, is set for a more significant workload as a sophomore, while Felicity Phillips is one of the top defenders for Centralia College.
Karteh expects Allison Woods, Kate Wisnewski and Azlyn Olofson to contribute in their debut season. Bailey Evans also scored a goal in her first college scrimmage. Overall, the unprecedented freshmen group has impressed the coaching staff in the first week of training.
"They've bought in. They're eager to learn from our coaching staff, who are doing a really good job of trying to break down the game for them," Karteh said. "Every day in training, they're asking questions in terms of our system and our style. I'm really pleased that they want to learn and they want to compete."
Karteh believes the program is heading in the right direction after going 9-6-1 in 2024 for its second nine-win season in three years. But the postseason has been elusive, and the Blazers have their eyes on a top-three slot in the Northwest Athletic Conference in order to get there.
"I think we have a really good shot this year if we can get everything together and working at the right time," Karteh said. "The ultimate goal for us is to really do well in our conference and compete for a top-three spot. One of the things our program hasn't done yet is make it to the playoffs, and our goal this year is to try to push for that. But we don't want to look too much ahead. We just want to take it game by game and see where we land."
Centralia College will open the season at home against Everett Community College on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m.