t SK girls team’s Sodorff stepping down for move
to California
It wasn’t so long ago that South Kitsap High School had just one coach guiding its soccer teams.
Now the Wolves have two, and they’re looking to fill both positions.
Girls coach Scott Sodorff announced his resignation last week after two years.
Sodorff, who had a 19-10-4 record, and his wife, Jamie, decided to move back to California.
The Sodorffs welcomed their first child, Isabella, on May 26.
Sodorff’s departure follows that of Eric Bergeson, the Wolves’ boys coach, who resigned in June.
Bergeson was also the girls soccer coach prior to Sodorff’s arrival.
“I loved being at South and loved teaching there,” Sodorff said. “It’s very hard to step away.”
Sodorff taught social studies at South, while his wife was a science instructor at John Sedgwick Junior High.
She’s originally from Southern California and the couple agreed to move back there if one of them landed a teaching position.
She recently was hired by a school in Orange County.
The move is difficult for Sodorff, 34, who appreciated that South athletic director Ed Santos hired him for the position.
“I came here only with coaching experience at the middle school level and Ed gave me an opportunity,” he said.
Sodorff, a Pullman native who earned degrees in criminal justice and political science at Washington State University, said he still is looking for a teaching job and hopes to coach soccer again.
He believes that whoever takes over the program, which has advanced to the Class 4A state tournament five times this decade, will be in a good position.
South had an 11-5-1 record last year and was one win away from advancing to state.
“It was a very bittersweet thing (to resign),” he said. “I felt like we really were transitioning to my program. I think whoever gets it will be stepping into a good thing.”
That decision should come soon with practice starting later this month.
The Wolves open the season with a nonleague match on Sept. 8 against Olympic. Santos said he would like to make a hire in the next couple of weeks.
“I think the girls soccer job is a big job,” he said. “We have a long history of success, and we have an obligation to the program to find the best person possible.”
Santos said he isn’t averse to having one coach guiding both programs again, but wants to focus on hiring a girls coach first because the season is fast approaching.
