Assembling the championship puzzle

Cheney High School boys soccer head coach Mark Kiver sees this year’s team as a puzzle — the 500 or 1,000 piece variety.

Open the box and dump the pieces out. Turn them over. Begin putting small sections together — a corner here, a portion of the bottom there, maybe a group that looks like it could be that barn in the box cover picture.

“You know where they go, but you can’t put the whole thing together yet,” Kiver said.

That’s his 2015 Blackhawks. A lot of good pieces to choose from, but how they fit together will be a work in progress Kiver and his assistant coaches will have to figure out.

Some of those pieces are known. Cheney returns seven seniors from last year’s 15-2-2 team that won its third straight Great Northern League title, but fell short of defending its 2013 2A state title with a stunning opening round state playoff loss to Othello.

First-team All-GNL defender Cruz Galm leads this returning class, and figures to be an anchor on the Blackhawks back line. Senior Spencer Yeager joins Cruz as a starter in the backfield, as will freshman Adam Deutsch, a player Kiver said can play anywhere and exemplifies the team’s blue-collar work ethic.

Tad Tinker returns and will start at midfield defense. Sophomore Kelby Holland also starts in the midfield, with senior Oliver Smith in at midfield/forward along with junior transfer student from Barcelona, Spain, William Bassedas.

Senior Avery Dehner returns after missing last year with injuries and will be called upon to be one of Cheney’s attackers up front. Freshman Austin Wallace should see most of the minutes at goalkeeper, being asked to develop into the position under fire.

Rounding out the squad are Trevor Walker, Noah Prophet, Andrew Tenney, Gabe Hemenway, Trevor Babcock, Blake Smith, Matthew Dupler, Caleb Prophet and Alex Torres. Overall, it’s a mixture of veteran starters, role players called into starting roles and varsity inexperience that Kiver thinks gives Cheney a deeper, more group-oriented and potentially more versatile team than last year’s model.

“I’ve got guys who, for the most part, can all play at the varsity level,” he said. “I think we’re going to play tough as a team.”

What the Blackhawks will need to find out is who will emerge as scorers. Cheney lost attacking power through the graduation of GNL scoring leader Ian Schimandle, and first-team all-league players Micah Weller and Trevan Estrellado.

Kiver said the Blackhawks do need to get better at generating attacks and creating scoring opportunities with the ball close to the net. But instead of relying on one or two players to produce, Kiver believes this year’s team will do it via committee.

“I don’t see anyone stepping into those shoes, and it’s not fair to the players,” he said. “There are things the current players do that those guys last year didn’t.”

Like their female counterparts last fall, the Blackhawk boys will become intimately familiar with their GNL foes through a 12-game schedule that has each team playing the others three times. Cheney also takes on three Greater Spokane League teams, and gets an almost mid-season peek at the Central Washington Athletic Conference competition by hosting Ephrata in another non-league friendly.

The Blackhawks enter 2015 not only looking for a fourth straight league title, but owners of a 41-game GNL regular season winning streak. That may be something difficult to defend, given the frequency of league games and a challenge from an experienced Pullman team that also lost in the first round of last year’s state tournament.

While all of those accomplishments would be great to continue, Kiver hopes he’s piecing together a bigger picture.

“We just need to be peaking at the end of April and May,” he said. “That’s what we’re going for.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].

2015 Cheney Boys Varsity Soccer Roster

0 Trevor Walker 12 GK

1 Austin Wallace 9 GK

2 Tad Tinker 12 MF

3 Noah Prophet 10 FWD/MF

4 Andrew Tenney 12 DEF

5 Gabe Hemenway 9 MID

6 Oliver Smith 12 MID/FWD

7 Spencer Yeager 12 DEF/MID

8 Cruz Galm 12 DEF

9 Avery Dehner 12 FWD

10 Kelby Holland 10 MID

11 Trevor Babcock 10 DEF

12 Blake Smith 10 DEF/MID

13 Matthew Dupler 11 DEF/MID

14 Caleb Prophet 12 DEF/MID

15 Alex Torres 9 FWD/MF

18 Adam Deutsch 9 DEF/FWD

19 William Bassedas 11 MID/FWD

Head Coach: Mark Kiver

Assistant coaches: Matt Pollock, Nels Radtke, Jesse Retan and Ryan Baldwin

Managers: Sarah Pierson and Paige Lewis