Past and present of Olympia girls soccer team go toe-to-toe in first alumni game

OLYMPIA — In the inaugural Olympia High School girls soccer alumni game at Ingersoll Stadium Thursday night, the new-look Bears held their own against a squad of legendary Bears, many of which played collegiate soccer.

It appeared early that the chiseled veterans on the alumni team would run away from the upstart Bears, who were missing several players due to club priorities and tournaments. The alumni team, donning white practice shirts, jumped out to a 3-0 start in the first half behind a goal from 2025 graduate AJ Engelken and a brace from 2024 graduate Bella Larson.

But the young Bears fought back in the second half, as junior Mika Meconi netted a pair of goals to spark some momentum in an eventual 3-2 loss to the alumni.

“Some of them are incoming freshmen, so it was a really good experience for them,” Olympia head coach Tamara Liska said of her team. “A lot of these gals [alumni] have played at the college level, so I think it was a really great experience for them to see the pace and the speed and to feel a little bit of the bumps that come along with it.”

Fourteen Olympia alumni returned to the pitch at Ingersoll Stadium, many of whom played under Liska in her 10-year tenure. At least six former Bears played collegiately.

Some, including 2021 graduate and former four-time All-South Puget Sound League First Teamer Landrey McCann, hadn’t stepped foot on the Ingersoll pitch since their final game in an Olympia uniform.

McCann played four years at Olympia and competed at Seattle Pacific University for four years. Her final memories at Ingersoll Stadium were stained by the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, which cancelled her senior night festivities and forced parents to watch games from behind a fence, but she looks back on her dominant tenure as a Bear with fondness.

“This is my first time playing a game at Ingersoll since graduation. It was really cool to see the community together because the last time I played was during COVID,” McCann said. “Having community members in the stands and getting to meet other girls that were playing was really awesome.”

McCann even had the chance to team up with lifelong friend Maddie Johnson, a 2013 graduate, for the first time as McCann didn’t start playing at Olympia until 2017.

Larson, currently playing soccer at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, proved to Liska that she’s still as dangerous of a scorer as she was a couple of years ago. She made both look easy, particularly a header off of a corner kick in the first half.

“She did the same thing she used to do when she played here. She was a magnet with her head,” Liska said of Larson.

“Nothing better than scoring a goal and being with your friends out on the field and celebrating,” Larson added. “Olympia’s been a great community. They’re so supportive. They show out for every game.”

The idea for an alumni game sprouted in part from the mind of Haelynn Kim, a 2023 Olympia graduate and current UCLA student. Kim has volunteered with the Olympia girls soccer program in each of the last three summers. The coaches reached out to a bunch of former players and put a sign-up sheet on social media to reach even more alumni.

Additionally, the event worked as one last opportunity on the pitch for the 2026 team before fall practice starts Aug. 24.

“I think it would be a fun yearly thing in the summer. If we plan ahead and are able to share it a little bit earlier, then hopefully we can get a good turnout,” Liska said of the alumni game. “Any time we can get the community involved and overlap those generations, it’s a pretty cool thing.”

The Bears saw eight seniors graduate from their 2025 team that finished 10-8-1 and fell one game shy of state. Olympia kicks off the season on the road against Camas Thursday, Sept. 3, and its season opener is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 8 against crosstown rival Capital.