Chat with champions: Family-first philosophy leads Columbia River boys soccer to another title

Some of the seniors from the Columbia River boys soccer team that won the state championship last week: Front row: Beckham Young, Eli Smith, JP Guzman, Wyatt Benner, and Ryland Perron. Back row: Evan Roscoe, Conner Orr, Tyler Brown, and Miles Mashek.

Coach Matt Newman has guided the Columbia River Rapids to two state championships in the past three years, and the players say that it is their personal connections with one another that sets them apart from other teams

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

So many teams in so many sports say they want to have a winning culture.

For Columbia River soccer, the winning is the byproduct of its culture, but there is more to Columbia River soccer than just victories.

“Filly talked about what’s your legacy and brought us together as a family,” senior Evan Roscoe said, referring to former coach Filomon Afenegus.

Matt Newman, a former assistant, took over the head coaching duties in 2023. Newman doubled-down on the family-first aspect of the program

“We’re still focusing on the soccer part, but also having all of us be connected as a family,” Roscoe said. “The connections I’ve made with people here are like no other. I love all these boys I’ve played with the last four years. It really does feel like a family to me. I really think that is the main reason we went all the way this year. We had all this passion.”

“We had a humongous bond,” Beckham Young said.

The Columbia River Rapids won the Class 2A state boys soccer championship last weekend. This week, Clark County Today talked to some of the senior leaders. This is their second state title, as they also won it all as sophomores in 2023.

That was Newman’s first season as head coach. He took over a thriving program, from a very popular head coach, and continued the character-first philosophy, knowing that unity would carry the Rapids from year to year.

Can’t argue with the results.

“My first year, these guys were all sophomores. They saw the seniors and juniors go through a pretty amazing season,” Newman recalled.

The Rapids fell short of their goals on the field in 2024, but remained united, determined for 2025.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys to put that on their shoulders as a senior class,” Newman said. “It’s a credit to their character and their will to push forward and find success for their program.”

The Rapids were the 3-seed going into the 2A state tournament. They won two home matches before heading to Federal Way for the final four. Columbia River needed overtime to get past No. 2 Sehome in the semifinals. In the championship match, the Rapids jumped out to a 2-0 lead at halftime.

There was no celebration just yet.

“It was more of talking about what we needed to do so we don’t let up the rest of the game,” recalled Roscoe of the halftime talk. “That helped us close the game out. We weren’t focused on winning. We were focusing on the next step of what we needed to do.”

Columbia River would score the next goal, too, for a huge 3-0 lead in the state championship match. North Kitsap got on the board, but River closed it out with another goal for a 4-1 victory.

“That was the greatest win ever,” JP Guzman said.

“It is an amazing feeling just knowing we are ending our high school careers on a high note, the highest note we could get. It was an unbelievable feeling. Just relief,” Eli Smith said.

“Just an enormous amount of pride, knowing we are all going to leave a legacy,” Smith added, referring to the two state championships in the past three seasons. “”That’s just a great feeling.”

About the only time Columbia River did not feel great this season was after the first match. The Rapids were stunned by league foe R.A. Long in the first contest.

Players got texts from others who were surprised at the result. You lost? Really?

“We weren’t super prepared,” Tyler Brown said. “That made us not want to lose again. It gave us motivation to keep going.”

Last season, the league was a breeze for the Rapids.

“This (loss) really helped us focus,” Young said.

“We never want to lose, but it was almost kind of like a good thing that we lost, knowing that not every game is going to be super easy,” Guzman said. “We’ve got to come out extra hard every game, every time. It was a good wake-up call for us.”

River would end up in a tie against non-league Class 4A opponent Camas, but River would never feel the sting of defeat again in 2025.

Win after win after win, until that final victory in Federal Way last weekend.

“We were all singing ‘We are the Champions,’” Guzman said of the bus ride home.

It took about three hours to get home, and it was a three-hour party.

“These guys,” Newman said. “It goes to show how much these guys care about each other and love each other. They were literally chanting until we got back into the team room that night. There was a lull for maybe five minutes. These guys were chanting and singing the entire ride home.”

It was, after all, their last journey together as a high school team.

Or rather, a high school family.

State champions

The 2025 Columbia River Rapids boys soccer team:

Aedan Pena; Eli Smith; Conner Orr, Beckham Young, Alexander Pont, Jaydon Muodzi, JP Guzman, Miles Mashek, Johnny Avalos, Mason Renner, Tyson Massengale, Wyatt Benner, Evan Roscoe, Ryland Perron, Gavin Sellers, James Ekeya, Christian Estrada, Elias Veljacic, Teagan Goaring, Tyler Brown, Lucas Johnson, Bryce Diaz