After decades of long odds, Campus girls soccer finally has its dream moment
There was a time, not all that long ago, when Avery Kassman’s job in goal for the Campus girls soccer team was less about chasing wins and more like just surviving.
As a freshman, Kassman remembers standing in front of a net that was under siege every night. During one game, her mother tried to keep count of how many shots were fired at her daughter. By the end, the tally had climbed past 60.
That was the version of Campus soccer Kassman inherited, a program that seemed miles away from trophies, celebrations and the kind of postseason moment the Colts finally made their own Thursday afternoon.
So when the final seconds ticked away at Wichita North and Campus finalized a stunning 2-0 road win over the No. 1 seed in the Class 6A West bracket to capture the program’s first regional championship in more than two decades, Kassman didn’t know how to process the moment.
“I’m trying not to cry right now because it’s so crazy,” Kassman said. “When I got here my freshman year, I was just trying my best to not get mercy-ruled every single game. So to go from that to this, it doesn’t feel real. I don’t think I could ever fully describe it. It honestly means the world to me.”
Campus entered the postseason with a 7-9 record, which already felt like a meaningful step forward for a program that has spent years trying to just inch closer to respectability.
Then came Tuesday when the Colts took the long road trip to Liberal and left with a 4-2 win.
“We didn’t want to drive eight hours just to lose,” junior centerback Hadley Walcher said.
That win gave Campus permission to think bigger. It sent the Colts to North for a regional championship game against a 12-win team that owned the top seed in the bracket.
For most of the afternoon, North looked the part.
The RedHawks controlled possession, pushed numbers forward and repeatedly placed Campus under pressure. There were stretches when the ball rarely left the Colts’ defensive third. There were moments when Campus coach Casey Reece could feel the nerves rising in his team.
This was new territory for the Colts. They were not accustomed to protecting a lead with a regional championship on the line. They were not accustomed to being the team trying to hold its nerve in the final hour of a season-defining upset.
“I’m trying to make rotations and give directions to the girls, but your brain wants to shut down at times because it is just so intense,” Reece said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been more stressed out during a game.”
Campus found its breakthrough about halfway through the first half after Reece made a tactical adjustment, moving sophomore Taityn Estell higher up the field to give the Colts a better outlet in the attack.
Sophomore Joslen Craig, the engine in the middle of the field for Campus, played a dangerous ball to Estell, who then found junior Amriel Whitney crashing into the box. Whitney finished the chance to give the Colts a 1-0 lead.
It was the kind of moment Campus has not always been able to create against top competition. This season, though, Reece had seen the signs. Even in losses to powerhouse teams like Eisenhower, Maize South and Maize, the Colts were no longer being completely overwhelmed from the opening whistle. They were competing deeper into games. They were absorbing pressure better. They were finding enough chances to convince themselves they were not as far away as the scoreboard sometimes suggested.
That belief became real at halftime Thursday.
North had created the better run of play, but Campus had the lead.
“It was such an extremely intense game, especially in the second half,” Kassman said. “But when we went into the half at 1-0, it was like, ‘Wow, we could really win this.’”
Then came the hardest part.
For much of the second half, Campus lived on the edge. North attacked aggressively, sending wave after wave toward Kassman. Reece estimated his senior goalkeeper made at least a dozen quality saves, not counting the times she sprinted off her line to snuff out breakaway chances before they could fully develop.
Kassman was everywhere: diving, smothering, punching, organizing, buying Campus one more breath at a time.
“You can’t begin to describe how big Avery Kassman was,” Reece said. “She was absolutely incredible. She’s always been a really good keeper, but she was on another level today.”
The back line in front of her had to be nearly as sharp. Walcher and sophomore Abigail Barger were busy all afternoon in central defense, throwing themselves into tackles, cutting off runs and preventing North from turning dangerous possession into clean finishes.
It was not perfect. Reece could see the nerves. Players lost composure at times. Touches got heavy. Clearances did not always go where they needed to go.
But Campus kept recovering. Every mistake seemed to be followed by someone sprinting back to fix it.
That, more than anything, is what made Reece proud.
The Colts are not a program stocked with club soccer players. Campus has a strong core of club players, but it has also relied on athletes who have developed inside the program, girls who started on junior varsity in the spring and gradually became varsity players who could be trusted in the biggest game of the season.
“We know we aren’t that traditional program,” Reece said. “We aren’t getting a dozen girls every year with that club experience.”
That has made belief just as important as tactics.
Because it wasn’t that long ago when Campus expected to lose when the postseason came around.
“It used to be every single time we would get to regionals, we already knew we were getting knocked out,” Kassman said. “It is what it is. But this year, it felt different.”
Reece said he has spent much of the season trying to convince his players that Campus did not have to accept a smaller ceiling just because of the program’s history. He kept pushing them in practice. He kept pointing to competitive stretches against quality opponents. He kept telling them the gap was not as wide as it once looked.
“We’re almost there,” Reece would tell his players. “Keep pushing. You are good enough. You are good enough to play in these games and win these games. You’ve just got to keep battling.”
On Thursday, they finally did.
With about 10 minutes left, Campus found the goal that allowed the Colts to exhale. Craig was involved again, setting up Estell for the finish that doubled the lead to 2-0 and gave Campus the cushion it had spent the entire second half desperately trying to protect.
Even then, it did not feel safe to Kassman.
“I kept looking at the clock and there was only five minutes left,” Kassman said. “Then it was four, then it was three, then the game was over. Honestly, it didn’t feel real.”
The victory secured Campus its first regional championship in 23 years, joining the only other girls soccer regional title teams from 2000 and 2003.
And they had done it with a roster that represents the slow-building growth of the program: Kassman and senior defender Addison Wood providing leadership, Craig creating so much of the attack, Walcher becoming a vocal presence on the back line, Barger rising to the moment and the Clearwater co-op helping add important pieces to the team’s depth.
“I’m so proud of these girls,” Walcher said. “Because we don’t have a team full of club players and we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. So it just shows the hard work we put into practice every day. We’ve come such a long way.”
Campus (9-9) will go back on the road Monday for the 6A state quarterfinals, where the Colts will try to extend a postseason run that already has changed the way their program will be viewed.
For Reece, that was the part that meant the most. For so many years, he has watched Campus players leave the field disappointed. He has watched them absorb lopsided losses. He has watched them wonder if a moment like Thursday could ever happen for them.
Now they know.
“We’ve been on the other side of that feeling so much, I wanted this so bad for these girls,” Reece said. “I wanted them to experience what winning like this felt like because they deserve it. So to finally see it happen, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
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