The conversation with Kayse Smack starts off about soccer, and there’s certainly lots to talk about with her regarding her involvement in the sport.
The Tumwater High School senior was the 2A Evergreen Conference defensive player of the year and an all-state selection in 2015, and enters the new season as one of the state’s best.
She discusses her determination to lead the Thunderbirds to the state playoffs, her desire to help her younger teammates adjust to the higher level of varsity play and her reputation as an aggressive, physical player.
Somewhere during the chat, though, the narrative shifts. The topic remains about the sport, but it becomes obvious her passion is not fueled solely by goals and wins.
“The soccer field is my home. This is where I come to be me. Soccer is just a secondary aspect of it. This is my family. That’s what is important about this,” Smack said. “My teammates are my best friends, my sisters. If you don’t feel that way about the sport you play, it’s not that it isn’t the sport for you, it’s because, I feel, you’re not putting your whole heart into it.”
Smack didn’t always harbor this view about soccer – winning and the quality of her play trumped everything else when she entered Tumwater High School.
“It was always just a sport for me. I didn’t get the family aspect of it at all before. Soccer was all I cared about,” Smack said, “but over the years it started to turn into so much more than that. It’s just me and my mom so this is my second family. If I’m having a bad day, I want to be practicing. I want to be out here with my team. It’s just a lot of friendship and support.”
Smack’s second family consists of 10 fellow seniors on the varsity squad, who have set the expectations for their final year very high, although definitely achievable.
Make the state playoffs tops all.
The last time the T-Birds advanced to the state playoffs was 2012 – a year before this group arrived on the scene. It’s been even longer since the last Tumwater state playoff victory, which occurred 23 years ago when the T-Birds were in the 4A classification.
Smack wants to change all that.
“We have a lot of expectations. We want to play together, be together and bring it out on the field. We all want to go to state. For me that’s a big deal,” Smack said. “I want to leave a legacy behind. I want this to be the year we do all this stuff and have the next group (of seniors) come in and improve on what we did, and then have the teams that follow just keep building on that.”
The T-Birds have done nothing to sway from the lofty pre-season goals as they have opened the year with a pair of impressive non-conference victories.
“She’s really grown as a player and as a person. She’s always had a great skill set coming in and it was really about helping her mature and become more of a leader,” Tumwater coach Brett Bartlett said. “You want a kid that has the talent and has some drive and some motivation to be that person that others look to. That’s the idea we are trying to foster around here – that it’s not just about me. It’s about, how can I help grow everybody in the program?”
Despite the abundance of upperclassmen on the roster, Smack has been teamed with freshman Hallie Bergford on the backline.
It’s a scenario similar to Smack’s rookie campaign when she played with Jamie Cruz, who took the younger Smack under her watch. It was during her freshman season where it become more than just soccer for Smack.
“You grow really close to the girl next to you. I know how helpful Jamie was to me as a freshman,” Smack said. “I remember my first game. I’m out on the field and all I am thinking is, ‘What am I doing here? I don’t know how to play soccer?’ Being under the lights playing high school varsity is a lot different than club soccer when you’re playing at 9:00 a.m., but Jamie was there to help me get through that and improve. Now I want to be in that role and help others on this team.”
It’s a role Bartlett says is perfect for her.
“She’s learned how to talk to them and how to lead them. We have a leader in each of the lines and she’s the leader of the defense and she has a young group around her,” Bartlett said. “We have underclassmen who are newer to the program. They are young players who are going to be great for us, but they need that upperclassman to guide them and Kayse’s become that person.”
