TENINO — It’s become a tradition over the summer where the W.F. West and Tenino girls soccer programs will take in a competitive, 60-minute scrimmage in South Thurston County.
The obvious connections between the two sidelines – W.F. West’s Kevin Schultz, the former Tenino leader and Dave Montgomery, an assistant for the Beavers was an assistant for Schultz – creates a dynamic littered with energy.
Tuesday night was no different.
A different-looking Bearcats squad and a veteran Beavers bunch both left Tenino High School with plenty of positive takeaways after over an hour on the pitch. The lone tally was by W.F. West’s Izzy Teeter after the second half hydration break.
“For us, we’re starting to figure out who is going to fill in new roles and go into new places,” Schultz said. “The effort is there, the intensity is there. There is a buy-in in our program that when you get on the field, you’re going to work hard.”
Teeter has been a go-to goal scorer for the Bearcats this summer. She posted a hat trick in another scrimmage versus Toledo and tallied a goal at a tournament last weekend. The junior-to-be could have a larger slice of the pie this fall.
Striker Ashlen Gruginski is still recovering from an ACL injury suffered at the end of the 2025 season.
“We expect her to fall in that attack movement,” Schultz said of Teeter.
On Gruginski: “We’re gonna be smart about it; soccer is her future and it is a lot bigger than one season,” he said.
One of the areas Schultz was hopeful to see tangible improvements was in the last two minutes of the second half. W.F. West allowed goals in the end of games last weekend, but kept Tenino off the scoreboard despite several chances.
Returning two-time EvCo goalkeeper of the year Charlee Nelson poked a free kick from Tenino’s Kyla Watson out of the upper-right corner. It was one of several saves the senior-to-be finished with.
“She can show up and put forth that kind of performance and when we’re training in-season, she can pick it up another level,” Schultz said.
The Bearcats will be in a tournament in Yakima this weekend and then return to Tenino to end July at the Battle on the Blacktop. Plenty of opportunities will be available for the Bearcats and Schultz has been pleased with the depth at his disposal.
He’s had as many as 40 total kids come to summer practices.
“As many as 25-to-30 of them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were on a varsity field, they would help us,” he said.
For Tenino, 10 starters are back from the state qualifying team in Class 1A and first-year head coach Trevor Fetbrandt feels they have vastly improved from July of 2025 to now.
Experience, cohesiveness and keeping the same three coaches intact goes a long way.
“It is very apparent a lot of the focal points that we had last season have carried over and girls have retained that (info),” Fetbrandt said. “Super excited that we’re this early in the process and we’re already doing what we’re doing.
“It is very rare at this level to return as many players as we did.”
It’s been a wild calendar year for Fetbrandt. He was bound for the Air Force, the same military branch his dad served for two decades, but family duties called for him to stay in the area and remain a girls and boys assistant coach.
He was the co-head coach with Dave Montgomery last season. He’s now fully in charge of the program, but knows he’s not by himself.
“This is a glass half-full situation,” Fetbrandt said. “It is another opportunity to spend time with these amazing kids, an amazing program, and amazing support from the parents. We’ve all put so much in the program.”
Tenino had different formations in preparation for this weekend’s Kick in the Grass tournament in Tumwater. The Beavers will have 14U, 16U and 19U teams represented over the three days. The 16U and 19U groups made the finals last July.
Tuesday’s scrimmage, which was Tenino’s first competitive game of the summer, featured a second half of peppering the Bearcats with shots on goal and a first half clean sheet.
“We wanted to know that we could get in and out of different shapes and different structures,” Fetbrandt said. “We didn’t care how many chances we created in the final third. We wanted to know that we could string together passes.”
