There have been moments this year where coach Steve Zehrung can’t help but chuckle with admiration while watching his fellow Olympic League coaches get just the least bit frustrated by his newest crew of Buccaneers.
“It’s gone from having to hold back on scoring against Kingston to, you can see it on their faces, ‘What is going on? This is Kingston!’” Zehrung said.
Playing with urgency not seen in years, he feels his girls have earned plenty of respect this season. It’s the same program that after making back-to-back trips to state in 2012 and 2013 found itself caught in an endless downward spiral, not once finishing above fifth place in the league and taking last place five times, four coming in consecutive seasons from 2018 to their winless 2021 campaign.
Assistant coach Mike Fleck, whose daughter graduated in 2017, had a first-hand look at the downward-trending Bucs. “Go back a few years ago, they get scored on a couple times, and that’s it for them,” he said.
Zehrung added: “With Kingston, the culture just needed to be changed.” Recalling the state of the program when he took over in 2023: “We needed athletes, parents, to come out and be proud of (the program). We needed to get some ladies that were not in the program before that would have made a huge difference in the past three years. We needed to focus on the fundamentals.”
Put those aspirations together, and you have the elements of a rebuild that began to take shape last season. With a 4-11 record, Zehrung’s “scrappy” bunch, down at one point to just eight of its original varsity players, managed to fight its way through adversity and injury to a rare district playoff berth.
Back at full strength with leaders like seniors Tayen Munger, Katie Collins and Steve’s daughter Katie, the Buccaneers of 2024 have only gotten stronger. As of Oct. 14, they are in a close third place in the league right behind the formidable Bainbridge Spartans and North Kitsap Vikings, the latter of whom they nearly took to overtime in an early season contest.
“Afterwards, I just went, ‘Oh. This is real,’” Zehrung said after the NK match. “These girls can do it.”
It was the Bucs’ regular season sweep of Sequim that told Fleck the same thing, especially after Kingston came from behind 2-0 to win 3-2 in overtime Oct. 8. “For us to come back and battle through that is just a testament to the girls character.”
