`Washington Boys' Are Soccer Stars At Santa Clara

In the town of Santa Clara, Calif., they are known as the ``Washington Boys,'' eight players from the Evergreen State, six of them from the Eastside. Collectively, they represent half of a national-championship team, one that hasn't lost in two seasons.

In Seattle the Washington Boys are known as the ones who got away. Ron Carter, University of Washington soccer coach, tried to recruit all of the ``Santa Clara boys,'' as he calls them, but the three S's won out.

Sun, surf and scholarship.

``As much as Seattle is a beautiful place to live, kids want the experience of going away from home, maybe moving to a sunny environment,'' Santa Clara soccer Coach Steve Sampson said. ``They all want to return, which speaks well for the area (Seattle).''

Then Sampson provides the clincher:

``Before this year, Washington didn't have a lot of money to offer them. That certainly didn't help their cause.''

The Washingtonians - Chris Bauer (Mercer Island), Paul Holocher (Inglemoor), Bruce Broughton (Redmond), Brandon Schmidt (Sammamish), Jeremy Smith (Woodinville), Tim Rogers (Woodinville resident who attended Seattle Prep), Shawn Alire (South Kitsap) and Chris Stiles (Mead outside Spokane) - took the money and ran to California, where they have helped make school history.

All but Smith were part of last year's team, which tied Virginia in the NCAA final and was named co-national champion. It was the first national title, in any sport, for Santa Clara. The Broncos finished as the only unbeaten team in the country at 20-0-3.

This season the ex-KingCo brethren are helping the team's quest for an even loftier goal - to win the NCAA championship outright.

``We didn't feel completely happy at all,'' said Holocher. ``We want to win it this time. That's the ultimate challenge, because everybody is going to play their best game against us.''

Santa Clara is unbeaten this season with a 4-0-3 record and is ranked No. 1 in the country. Five of the Washington Boys start. Bauer, a junior, is considered one of the top goalkeepers on the West Coast with a 0.42 goals-against average. He has four shutouts and 15 saves in seven games. Holocher, a junior, is the team's leading scorer with four goals and one assist. Broughton, a senior, has three assists. Smith, a freshman, has one goal. Rogers, a sophomore, and Schmidt, a junior, have one assist each. Alire, a sophomore, is the only one who doesn't get much playing time. He has one shot on goal in 27 minutes.

``You could almost start a KingCo team with all the local players they have on that team,'' Mercer Island Coach Gordy Osborne said.

Bauer said all the Washington players were leaning toward other schools before deciding on Santa Clara.

If Washington ``had been more aggressive in recruiting us . . .

who knows, we may be all playing there,'' Bauer said.

The prospect of playing for the Huskies has crossed the minds of both Bauer and Holocher. But they are plenty happy with Santa Clara and its coaches. ``It's really fun,'' Holocher said. ``Lots of times at practice, we split into two teams. It's the Washington boys against the California boys and everyone else. It's kind of a joke around here.''

It's sort of a joke around Seattle, too, one that Carter hopes will change. Until this year, the Huskies were not able to compete for the affections of local players because the established soccer programs out of state offered so much more scholarship money.

``In the future, a lot more players will stay in the state,'' said Rolf Norton, Bauer's former teammate at Mercer Island, who now plays for Washington. ``This year, I think we kept six of the top 10 recruits in the state.''