5 questions heading into the Central Oregon high school soccer season

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2025

In the blink of an eye, July flew by and a brand-new high school sports season is a month away.

In just a few weeks, schools and teams will begin holding practices and preparing for games starting as early as Aug. 28.

In preparation for the upcoming year, The Bulletin will ask five big-picture questions for each sport that we will be keeping an eye on throughout the course of the year.

First up is five questions heading into the Central Oregon soccer season:

1. Can Bend High girls repeat last year’s magic?

Bend High poses for the second-place trophy after the Class 5A girls soccer state championship match on Nov. 16, 2024, at Hillsboro Stadium. (Bulletin file photo)

Last fall, the Lava Bears made the jump of all jumps when they went from missing the playoffs in 2023 to reaching the Class 5A title game in 2024.

Despite bringing home a second-place trophy (Bend lost to Wilsonville 4-1 at Hillsboro Stadium last November), the Lava Bears finished tied for third in the Intermountain Conference standings behind Summit and Caldera. After starting the season off with eight wins in their first nine matches, the Lava Bears faded a bit down the stretch, ending their final six regular season games with a 2-3-1 record.

Once the postseason arrived, Bend harnessed some magic, beating La Salle Prep in extra time then upsetting No. 2 North Eugene on the road in penalty kicks. In the semifinals, the Lava Bears beat in-town rival Caldera with a late goal to reach the program’s first state title match since 2014.

Of the 11 players who started in the title match for Bend, 10 return. All six of the substitutes from the title match return as well, including incoming juniors Shea Manfredi and Piper Abrams, and sophomore goalkeeper Brooklyn Mettler, who were all first-team all-state players a year ago.

2. How does Crook County fit back into the IMC?

Crook County’s Harrison Housley (8) dribbles around an Estacada defender during a boys soccer game on Oct. 17, 2024, at Crook County High School. (Bulletin file photo)

This question applies to both the boys and girls teams. The past two years has brought a quality of soccer rarely seen in Prineville.

Last year, the boys team won the Tri-Valley Conference (the program’s first league title), won 13 matches (the most since 2006) and advanced all the way to the Class 4A semifinals (the farthest any team in program history has gone). The 13 wins were as many as the Cowboys had between the 2018 and 2023 seasons.

While the girls team, under coach Mary Buell, did not win a league title or make a deep playoff run, the growth of the program has been stark. Over the past two seasons, the Cowgirls won a combined 17 matches, as many as they won from 2007 to 2022.

Now the Cowboys and the Cowgirls – along with all of the Crook County sports teams – will move up from 4A to 5A and compete in the Intermountain Conference. Crook County competed in the IMC from 2018-2022, and the two teams went a combined 4-54-4 during the four-year stretch. And at that time, the Bend schools were not part of the IMC.

With perennial title-contending teams in the IMC, can the Crook County soccer programs maintain their momentum with the increased competition?

3.  Will Summit continue its run? 

It is hard to see a reason why it wouldn’t.

Since 2018, the Summit boys team has played in five state championship matches, winning titles in 2021 and 2023. Outside of the 2022 season, when Summit reached the 5A semifinals, the Storm has made it to the final match each season over the last seven years.

It hasn’t seemed to matter which classification the Storm are playing in (they played in three 6A title matches and two 5A title matches) or who is coaching (Ron Kidder, Joe LoCascio and current coach Tom Bunnell have guided Summit to title matches). Few teams have been able to replenish the talent on the field year after year like the Storm. After all, they have gone 101-10-9 since 2018 and have only lost one league match during the stretch.

The Storm have not lost a league match since 2019 and will have to replace three all-state players from last year’s state runner-up team. But four starters (including first-team IMC player Quentin Swanston) and four bench players who saw action in the title match return.

4. Can Redmond have repeat winning seasons?

Redmond’s Gavin Stott, from left, battles teammate Spencer Yuma for control of the ball during a scrimmage at Redmond boys soccer team practice in 2024 at Redmond High School. (Bulletin file photo)

Redmond boys soccer was one of the surprise stories, not just in soccer, but in all of Central Oregon sports last fall. Under first-year coach T.J. Thrasher, the Panthers flipped the script when they went from a winless team in IMC play in 2023 to winning seven matches and a second-place finish in 2024. It was one of the best seasons in decades for the Panthers.

A program that for nearly two decades had more seasons end without a victory (three) than winning seasons (one), the Panthers clinched their first playoff berth since 2011.

But can Redmond keep it going? Of the seven all-IMC players from a year ago, four of them return, including Co-Player of the Year Carter Heikkila.

If the Panthers finish with a winning record, they will have accomplished something that hasn’t been done in nearly 20 years.

5. Will this be the year that an IMC boys team besides Summit advances in the postseason? 

Central Oregon boys soccer teams, outside of Summit, are in a playoff drought.

It has been seven years since the IMC has had a boys soccer team other than Summit (and now Crook County for that matter) advance past the first round of the playoffs. The last non-Summit team to advance was the 2018 Ridgeview team that reached the second round.