Dani Oster

The day after closing out her high school career with a goal in the Class 4A state tournament consolation game – in fact, the game-winning goal in Jackson’s 1-0 victory over Lake Stevens – Dani Oster was back on the field, playing for one of her two club teams.

That was a Sunday. On Monday, the 17-year-old Oster gave herself a day of rest. By Tuesday, it was again time to go to work.

“A one-day break,” she recalled with a laugh, “and then I was back at it.”

Chris Goodenow/The Enterprise

Jackson High School’s Dani Oster had 20 goals and 17 assists in 22 games this fall.

There is, you see, no offseason for someone as driven to excel as Oster. Even though she is not turning out for a winter sport at Jackson, she will play and practice with her two outside soccer teams while also undertaking a rigorous strength and conditioning program. Together, they usually keep her doing something soccer-related seven days a week.

It is that type of dedication that helped the 17-year-old Oster earn a partial scholarship to the University of Oregon, where she will be part of what appears to be an up-and-coming Ducks program. It’s also the same dedication that has made her The Herald’s 2005 All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

Oster has been a big part of Jackson soccer for the past four years, and she is a big reason the Timberwolves were good enough to snag the third-place state trophy this season. As the team’s center midfielder, she was in the middle of almost everything Jackson did offensively, scoring 20 goals and collecting 17 assists in the team’s 22 games.

“She had more assists this year and that was one of her goals,” said T-wolves coach Mike Bartley. “She had a lot of goals last year, but not as many assists. This year she wanted to be a better teammate and set people up more, and I thought she accomplished that quite well.”

Bartley has coached a number of top players in recent years, both at Jackson and in his previous coaching job at Meadowdale High School, and Oster, he said, “is one of the best players I’ve ever had, as far as being hard-working at what she does. She cares a lot about the game and she tries to play it the right way. She is always thinking (soccer), always training, and she tries to push other people to work hard with her.”

A year ago Jackson finished fourth at state, “and our goal at the beginning of this year was to do better than we did last year,” Oster said. “But because we had so many new players, that was kind of iffy. We were hoping to get back to state, which we did. And then we got third, so we accomplished our goal.”

“She wanted to get back (to state) really bad,” Bartley said, “and she got the whole team to believe in themselves. I think that’s a big part of who Dani is and what she means to Jackson soccer. I mean, her drive and motivation were huge.”

While the T-wolves went into the final-four weekend at state with their eyes on a bigger prize, a 1-0 loss to Tahoma in the semifinals dropped Jackson into the consolation game.

“At first we were disappointed because (a championship) was totally within our (reach),” Oster said. “And it was a very even game against Tahoma. But now we just realize that out of (all the) 4A teams (in Washington), third place is pretty good.”

All-Area Soccer Coach of the Year: It was a season in which “so many roadblocks were thrown in our way,” according to Lake Stevens girls soccer coach Diane Mattingly, but it was also a year in which the Vikings reached unprecedented heights, including the first Western Conference North Division soccer championship in school history, a Northwest District title, and a fourth-place finish at the state tournament.

None of it seemed possible back in the early fall, at least to a good many folks outside the program. In most preseason predictions, the Vikings were generally expected to be back among the Wesco also-rans.

Instead, Lake Stevens finished with a 13-3 league record – which included one loss because of a forfeit – a 16-5 overall mark, and a trip to the state semifinals, where the absence of two starters (one-game suspensions) left the team short-handed in a 1-0 loss to Richland.

Still, her players “did the best they could with what they had,” said Mattingly, who was part of three NAIA national championships at Pacific Lutheran University in the late 1980s and early ’90s. “You can’t take anything away from the fact that they had such a great season. It was a great run. And when we look back, fourth in state is going to look pretty good.”

2005 All-Area Soccer Team

The Herald’s All-Area girls soccer teams as selected by the sports staff using first-hand observations and recommendations from area coaches:

First team

ForwardKristi KingmaSophomoreJackson

ForwardAshley CorreaFreshmanMeadowdale

ForwardKelli StewartSophomoreKamiak

ForwardJamie CoeSeniorCedarcrest

MidfielderTaylor CochranJuniorLake Stevens

MidfielderDani OsterSeniorJackson

MidfielderLily AlbinJuniorShorewood

MidfielderKatie WatsonSeniorSouth Whidbey

DefenderAmanda SanguinetSeniorMeadowdale