Trout Lake/Horizon hybrid team in year two

TROUT LAKE — A changing athletic landscape has given the Trout Lake/Horizon Christian boys soccer team a shot at the postseason.

In 2019, Trout Lake, Lyle, Bickleton, Klickitat, and Glenwood high schools requested a switch from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) to the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA). That opened the door for athletic programs to play at a more appropriate level based on their enrollment.

More recently, OSAA approved new state tournament allocations for schools in smaller classifications (3A, 2A, 1A), and the Trout Lake/Horizon Christian head soccer Coach Timmy Waller has eyes on qualification. Waller has coached boys soccer in Trout Lake for more than a decade and last year his program welcomed athletes from Horizon Christian School in Hood River.

“Horizon’s historically been one of our rivals ... It was always really positive, a good local rivalry, and we beat them some, they beat us some,” Waller said.

Prior to the 2024 season, the Horizon Christian fielded a co-ed team, but interest has since dwindled which prompted a request with the OSAA to combine with Trout Lake (the lone 1A Gorge school).

Waller is joined by assistant coaches Mikael Donaldson and Erick Haynie, who have helped transport the Horizon Christian players to and from practice and games each day.

The Trout Lake/Horizon Christian team this year is off to a positive start with two wins (5-2 over Riverdale and 4-0 over Amity) and two ties in six competitions. One of those draws came in a dramatic 12-goal shootout against Damascus Christian on Sept. 21 that Waller described as one of the “greatest games I’ve ever coached.”

On Sept. 24, they opened their league schedule against North Clackamas Christian, but suffered a 4-1 loss to the No. 7-ranked Saints.

With league games upcoming, the next two weeks are the most important stretch of their season. The team will rely on their sole senior and four-year starter, Jonathan Orellano. Offensively, they will lean on Horizon Christian junior Charlie Haynie to score goals and junior captain Finn Carlin to control the midfield. Waller stressed that if the team wants to achieve their goal of earning a postseason berth, they will need top performances from some of the underclassmen — that includes six freshmen.

Training session with NU

Going into their second season with a hybrid team, Waller said this past offseason was vital to the team’s future success. During his own playing career at Cedarville University, Waller saw firsthand how outside perspectives could broaden a team’s understanding of the game. In August, that outside perspective came from the Northwest University men’s soccer head Coach Gary McIntosh, who has coached at NU for nearly 20 years.

For one week every year, McIntosh and the Eagles travel to Camp Jonah for a training camp that serves as an opportunity for coaches and players to establish a shared vision for the upcoming season.

“It’s really just a time to get away from campus and for us to have team bonding activities ... and have a little bit of training at the same time,” McIntosh said.

Their training camp coincided with the Mustang’s preseason drills and for one day, the Eagles met local players and put them through a series of drills with a Q&A session at the end. “(The high school players) probably get tired of hearing it from me after a while, but for them to be able to hear similar things from (the NU coaches) ... it confirmed what we’re trying to do,” Waller said.