Twin City Union Kicks Off Second Season in NWPL

Twin City Union has begun their second season in the Northwest Premier League with a new coach and fresh faces who will try and best last year’s team.

The biggest change for the semi-pro women’s soccer squad this season is head coach Kyle Jones. He takes over for Sophie Clough, who managed the team in its inaugural season but was unable to return this season.

Jones is Director of Development and a board member for the Thurston County Youth Soccer Association, as well as the head coach and director of Black Hills FC. He’s coached high school soccer at Kentlake and Capital, along with a two-year stint with St. Martin’s University as an assistant coach.

“It was an opportunity to work with some college players in a community that’s really growing,” Jones said. “It’s a neat opportunity for this community to get a semi-pro team like this. You’ve got the college and now they’re starting a youth team and there’s a lot of momentum heading in the right direction and I wanted to be a part of that going forward.”

Union has six familiar Lewis County players and the team features 11 members of Centralia College’s team, now in its second year. Rose Robbins, a Centralia graduate and current SMU player, played for Twin City Union last season.

“I feel like we’re doing a lot of adjusting with players coming in from college,” Robbins said. “We started off really strong, and got a tie on the road which was good for a long road trip. I think everyone coming in and putting work in at practice, we’re excited to get more into the season with all of our players here.”

Robbins has noticed that the level of competition in the league has risen from last season, but knows that Union has also improved.

“We’ve played Seattle. They’re obviously looking pretty good this year,” Robbins said. “We gave them a good battle and next time, I think it will be a different outcome for us. Some of the teams I think are more beatable for us this year, which I think will be really fun.”

Selesha Harrah, a Tumwater product who also plays for SMU, is another returning player. She feels the team is coming together well.

“I think we have a lot of improving to do, I think we’ve done well overall. We have a lot of new people coming in, we’re still getting used to playing with each other,” Harrah said.

The league has a different format than last season, with last season’s regular-season champ Spokane Shadow taking home the title with no playoffs. This season, six teams make the playoffs, with the top two seeds receiving a bye in the first round.

“The big thing is to get into that top six,” Jones said, “but make sure that each week we install something new and continue hitting our stride going into the playoffs.”

Union has already begun their season. After an opening-game 4-2 win against Yakima United, Union tied NCW Alliance before back-to-back losses to the Seattle Stars and Spokane Shadow.

“A strength of our team is the numbers coming back — getting higher competition and intensity at our practices and stuff, which is always nice and will make us better,” Robbins said. “We’ve been getting lots of goal-scoring opportunities in games, so I guess the thing we need to work on is making sure we put away those opportunities that we have, but it will come.”

Union is on the pitch Sunday against the South Sound Shock with a 5 p.m. opening kick. TCU currently sits in fifth place in the NWPL standings and has six games remaining to try and hold onto one of the six coveted playoff spots.

“We’re going to have to really go out and compete and be a very disciplined team,” Jones said. “This is going to be a very good team. … There’s going to be a high level, a great measuring point for us and where we’re at and the strides we’ve taken and what we need to do to take that next step. I feel confident it’s going to be a pretty competitive game.”