Some of the faces that are roaming the sideline at Rochester High School were on the court and field for the royal blue and yellow.
And they were more than comfortable playing in Class 1A.
“Not totally a fresh start, but we are leaning that way,” Warriors first-year volleyball coach Courtney Baird said. “I’m hoping for more even competition, games will be competitive and the girls will be ready to show up and play.”
That’s the general consensus feeling from Rochester coaches as it is preparing to return to the Evergreen League and renew a rivalry with Tenino plus face other good programs such as Montesano and Elma.
It will be the first time in nearly a decade the Warriors will be in 1A after spending the last two handful of years playing in the Evergreen Conference in 2A. Their adjusted enrollment number for the 2024-28 period is 426.07 students, one of the highest in 1A.
“I think it is a good move for us,” Rochester soccer coach Matt Ashton said. “To come out of the larger 2A (EvCo), different sports competed differently. In the long run, this will be very good for all of our sports.”
When Baird was a prep, most of her playing career was in 1A. Her senior year, Rochester was in a 1A/2A hybrid league before fully moving up a classification.
Her volleyball group returning is senior-laden and could compete for a district berth. Other sports such as softball, who qualified for state in the spring, could be viewed as one of the favorites to make a deep postseason run.
Baird, also an assistant for softball, expressed that her girls have “nothing to lose.”
“It’ll be good not knowing much about anyone else. We’ve always done so much better going against teams we don’t know very well, for whatever reason,” Baird added. “We need to go down and set the tone. I can’t imagine anyone in 1A is expecting anything from us.”
One of the factors that Ashton and Baird feel could be beneficial is increased numbers for each sport. On various occasions in several sports, the Warriors were out-matched by Tumwater, W.F. West and sometimes Aberdeen.
It turns kids away, which sucks,” Baird admitted. “It should hopefully pull those stragglers into that sport. You’ll see your numbers start to rise, maybe not the first year.”
For girls soccer this fall, Rochester will be on the younger side. The boys bunch in the spring were on the doorstep of a district tournament berth.
“I think we can do something special this year,” Ashton stated about his girls team.
Tenino and Rochester usually will play each other in the non-league, but the rivalry will be heightened playing league games for the next four years. The two schools are separated by just 11 miles.
“Hopefully when we come here, we can pack the stands and they can do the same when they come to us,” Ashton said.
