"Orca soccer building unity, success" -- Aug. 31, 2005

C. JENNINGS BREAKEY FOR THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

As Whatcom Community College soccer coach Brian Iblings watched his players grind through fitness testing earlier this season, he liked what he saw.

"That's when I knew we had something special here," Iblings, 24, said. "That's the challenge: to get this group of guys from all over the world and all over the state to come together and gel."

"I don't see one superstar on our team," he said. "What I see is a group of 22, hardnosed individuals."

The Orcas (1-1) will play at 4 p.m. today at Wenatchee.

In its first season, WCC has 11 Whatcom County high school graduates on its roster, including Northwest League standouts Kalen Hemlock of Ferndale and Gianni Tsoulouhas of Squalicum.

"The guys that we've selected definitely exhibit the qualities that we want to have Whatcom perceived as throughout the region," Iblings said. "Man for man, each guy on the squad wants to put the team first."

The team has worked to build trust. Tsoulouhas said the team has many get-togethers.
"Even though we've only been together for a (few weeks)," Tsoulouhas said, "it's like we're family."

Everyone's working toward the next level, 2004 Lynden grad Joe Grogan said.
"With the guys we've got," he said, "you can only expect the best."

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This article was cut by almost 250 words, so it gets a little choppy towards the end. Getting published in the Herald, I'm finding, is harder than many papers -- they have very limited space. But it's a good lesson to learn, and I'll remember to condense much more in the future.