Nine Chiefs given all-Big 9 honors

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake dominated the Columbia Basin Big 9 postseason awards with seven players selected to the All-Big 9 first team, head coach Ric Char winning Coach of the Year and junior forward Alysha Overland winning Player of the Year.

"It was the most recognized team for sure that we've had," Char said. "I've never had more than six before so to have nine was nice, really nice."

Char led the Chiefs to an undefeated record in league play at 10-0 and a record of 13-5 overall.

"It's a great honor to be Coach of the Year, but I can't take all the credit," he said. "The coaching staff that we have contributes for that, all the things that they do behind the scenes to allow me to coach. They fill in a ton of gaps I wouldn't normally be able to do. Humbled by it for sure, just extremely proud that we get to receive recognition like that after all the hard work, but hats off goes to the coaching staff to make this possible, for sure."

Moses Lake clinched the regular season Big 9 championship Oct. 22 against Wenatchee after a 1-0 win. The Chiefs followed up with their third win over the Panthers Nov. 9 to clinch the district championship.

Alysha had a historic season for the Chiefs, breaking the school's single-season scoring record with 25 goals.

"It's always tough when you reach that pinnacle early to top that off next year," Char said. "I'm sure she's got sights to beat her own record for next year and she keeps plugging away and working extremely hard so she has earned everything that she has received this year in terms of recognition and awards, so super proud of her."

Moses Lake first team selections included Alysha, junior midfielders McKenna Walker, Stephanie Overland, Elizabeth McGraw and senior Caylah Lunning. Also, defenders senior Krystal Fick and sophomore Jessica Loera.

According to Char, Lunning is continuing her soccer career at Eastern Washington University next year.

Senior midfielder Megan Roughan and junior goalkeeper Jeanette Alvardo were given honorable mention.

Moses Lake was eliminated from the 4A state tournament in the first round by Union, but should return a strong team next season after only losing three seniors.

"The potential is there and the seniors are going to be missed greatly for sure," Char said. "They provided a bunch of stability and leadership for us this season. It was a good balance between the upperclassmen and the underclassmen so with the junior class having been around... a bunch of them have been on varsity for the last three years so they'll be four year letter winners on varsity. I'm hoping that they'll provide the good leadership that any successful program needs to be successful."