Hawks’ sweeper has team cleaning up on competition

Lakeland senior Camille Reynolds, one of the Hawks’ top players on a richly talented team, paused before talking about junior defender Bailey Thompson.

“She’s a pretty flawless player,” Reynolds said. “She really never makes any mistakes.”

Lakeland coach Mario Maddy believes this may be the best defensive team he’s had in 13 years.

“This is the fewest amount of goals we’ve given up,” said Maddy, whose team has allowed 19 in 16 matches. “And most of those goals came in our early matches. We’ve only allowed five in the last seven matches.”

The biggest reason why is Thompson, the Hawks’ sweeper and a three-year starter.

“She’s a pure soccer player,” Maddy said. “She’s one of the top players in the area regardless of classification.”

Thompson is a year-round player. She plays just soccer, and it’s a sport that knows no end.

The moment she’s done with the high school season, she’ll play in an indoor league in Spokane through the winter. As soon as the snow melts, it’s back outdoors for the club season.

“I used to play basketball when I was younger and I thought about playing it again in high school,” Thompson said. “But the more I thought about it the more I thought I should just stick with soccer. It’s what I do best.”

Maddy runs his defense through Thompson. As the sweeper, she doesn’t mark any specific player, but she makes sure her fellow defenders are marking the other teams’ forwards.

The way Thompson described it, there’s no room for error in her job.

“My primary role is to make sure that everybody is marked and nobody gets a shot off,” she said.

When it was pointed out that it’s not likely that a team could be held without a shot, she modified her response.

“We don’t want to allow any open uncontested shots,” she said.

Reynolds has great respect for Thompson.

“She always keeps her composure. She’s definitely our defensive leader,” Reynolds said. “She sprained her ankle a week ago and we thought we might not have her back. When you think about that it makes you concerned because she holds everything down in the back. If we didn’t have her back there it would be rough.”

Lakeland is 12-2-2 overall and 1-0-1 against Moscow, the team it must beat to earn a trip to state. That winner-to-state match will be played Oct. 16.

Thompson is confident that Lakeland could earn a state trophy if it qualifies for state.

“There’s no doubt we can get back to state and do well,” Thompson said. “As long as we put in the effort and we earn it we could do well. That’s the goal, but it’s one step at a time.”

In other words, Lakeland isn’t looking past the qualifying match against Moscow.

Thompson has had four assists this season. She’s only scored one goal in her career, but it’s one Maddy will always remember.

“She took it about 110 yards and dribbled through three players before she scored,” Maddy said.

How far Thompson possessed the ball may be a slight exaggeration, but Maddy’s point is well taken.

“She creates a lot of opportunities for her team,” Maddy said. “She’s all about the team and developing as a team. She causes a lot of disruption for the other teams. She communicates and reads the game well.”

Thompson’s improvement has been measurable since her freshman season. She plays for the Coeur d’Alene Sting club program, and playing with talent that’s as good or better than her has stretched her and made her better.

And it’s made Lakeland better, too.

Going into the season, Thompson wasn’t sure how well the Hawks would play defensively.

“I was really nervous,” Thompson said. “We’ve played really well overall. I’ve been really happy with how things have gone.”