Sisters Glenna and Charlotte Soliday lead Davenport cross country, girls soccer to state in same season

Sisters Glenna and Charlotte Soliday have had little time for themselves this fall. The Davenport High School athletes have participated in two sports – soccer and cross country.

It’s part and parcel of growing up in a small Eastern Washington community. High schools aren’t flush with athletes to fill teams.

Last weekend capped the busiest point of the fall for the pair . They led the Davenport soccer team to a 1-0 win over Tonasket to earn a bye in the first round of the State 2B/1B tournament. As soon as the match concluded, the sisters got in a car with their parents, Monty and Stacia Soliday, and drove to Pasco to join their team for the state cross country meet on Saturday.

Charlotte took 12th and Glenna was farther back in 40th, exactly in the middle of the pack of finishers.

“State cross country was the last of her (Glenna’s) life, she says,” Stacia said. “It was pretty tough. And she’s been doing driver’s ed for six weeks. She was pretty tired.”

Glenna agreed to do cross country so the Gorillas would have five participants – the number needed to field a team. She put her teammates ahead of herself.

Davenport placed fifth, finishing 18 points out of a state trophy. There were eight teams in the meet.

“I did cross country in middle school, but this will be my only year in high school,” Glenna said. “It was pretty tough since I’m not physically built for long distance.”

She captured a state title last spring in the 300 hurdles.

Glenna was particularly sore during the state cross country race because she was beat up the day before in soccer.

“I was marked the whole time. It was physical,” Glenna said.

The Soliday sisters turn their focus to finishing the soccer season strongly. Davenport (16-1) is seeded third in the State 2B/1B field and plays its opening match Saturday against No. 6 Cle Elum at Freeman High School at 4 p.m. Cle Elum earned the berth against Davenport by beating Adna 3-1 on Tuesday.

Glenna, a sophomore, has been the team’s leading scorer and Charlotte, an eighth-grader, is the next-highest scorer. Glenna has 34 goals with 14 assists, and Charlotte has 18 goals and nine assists.

Last week was a particularly grueling week for Glenna as she also had driver’s ed classes three nights. She had a two-hour class following soccer practice Tuesday capped by a test before returning a reporter’s call for an interview.

She’s happier now, though, because she’s playing the sport she loves most. She plays for the Spokane Sounders club team and hopes to continue playing in college.

“I think we can do pretty well if we do what we’ve practiced and performed well,” Glenna said.

She was a team manager in 2019 when her older sister, Darby, played on the Davenport team that won state.

What has made this season more enjoyable for Glenna is she’s shared it with her younger sister.

“We’ve had a lot of fun playing together,” Glenna said.

The name Soliday should be familiar for those who follow B athletics in the region. Monty Soliday was a standout three-sport athlete at Reardan; Stacia (Marriott) Soliday was a standout basketball player back in the day at Davenport. She played on back-to-back state championship teams with Jen Stinson (now Greeny, the head volleyball coach at Washington State). The Davenport teams were a combined 59-1 during their state title years.

Dad coaches the sisters in soccer and track and mom coaches them in basketball.

The sisters, who get nothing less than A’s, are held to a high standard in the classroom and in athletics.

“They’re a little tougher on us because they know we can handle it,” Glenna said.

Glenna will be Davenport’s starting point guard in basketball. Charlotte, who enjoys basketball most of her sports, will see time off the bench but also play junior varsity with some of her eighth-grade friends.

The sisters will be four-sport athletes this year. Glenna admits their responsibilities can get demanding at times.

“You pay attention in class, learn everything you can and do the best you can and try to get enough sleep,” Glenna said. “You make the best use of your time. You do homework on the bus when you can.”

“A couple of weeks ago I thought Glenna had reached her wit’s end with everything that was going on,” Stacia said.

The Solidays live in Harrington, 14 miles from Davenport. Monty, a physical therapist in Airway Heights, leaves the house at 5:30 a.m. each day so he can see his first patient at 6:45 and leave the office by 2:30 p.m. to go to practice or matches.

Stacia’s schedule while coaching basketball can get busy, too. She’s a nurse practitioner and drives to Spokane daily. Preseason practices begin Monday.

“We chuckled about it this fall that we had to win our soccer matches in regulation because we had a few girls who had to get to their online driver’s ed classes,” Monty said. “With everything that goes in a small community, you have to communicate well with the other coaches.”

Monty said it was a respite this week for his daughters to be down to one sport.

“It was nice for the coach, too,” he said.

The key to Davenport’s success on the pitch has been the play of the Solidays.

“It’s fun to see them play together because they know where each other will be,” Monty said.

Charlotte said she plans to do soccer and cross country again next fall.

“If we need Glenna to have a team in cross country, I know she’d help us out,” Charlotte said. “She did this fall and I know she didn’t want to. But she did it for the team.”

It’s the way of life in small-town high school athletics. The Solidays are the perfect example.