Interbay Stadium is a place behold to Mother Earth. If you go there for a game, you’ll find a beer garden that feels like an actual garden. You’ll likely see a soccer ball fly into the leaves of a looming pine tree, or kids rolling through the dirt and playing with big sticks, just a few steps away from courtside.

The Bushkeepers, a ragtag community of dedicated fans, can be spotted in the distance as they view matches nearby. They’ve been drinking beers and sounding the vuvuzela for the last five years as they’ve watched the men’s team, Ballard FC, grow into a dominant force. The Bushkeepers been equally as quick to adopt Salmon Bay as their own.

“It’s been wild seeing a women’s team getting this kind of support,” Sarah, a veteran Bushkeeper, told the SGN. “You could see their nerves initially, but then they started crushing it! I hope our turnout’s been a part of what’s motivating them.”

Since its first game, Salmon Bay FC has been getting morale boosters: they’ve settled into their home stadium at Interbay and have packed the stands with fans.

In its first home game against Spokane Shadow FC, forward Samiah Snell scored the team’s first goal in a dominant, 4-0 sweep. Snell was the first to raise a pink oar into the air — a new tradition like the Mariners’ trident or the Huskies’ helmet car.
As fans were eagerly developing new chants like “Let’s go, Coho!,” coach Malia Arrant was also crafting the team’s identity from the sideline. The match against Spokane was an exhibition game, which wouldn’t count toward the season’s standings. This meant Arrant was free to experiment with different lineups, seeing who works best with whom, without ever straying from the team’s strategic north star: persistent offense.

“Malia is definitely an offensive-minded coach, and she brings a whole-team approach,” forward Hailee Bergford told the SGN. “So, everybody’s on the attack. Everybody’s a part of it. Everybody’s contributing to that final goal in the net.”

Arrant has constructed a team that keeps the ball close to the opponent’s net. The team’s ball security is top-notch, and in the rare instances where they lose control, they know how to steal the ball quickly, before their opponent can build momentum.

It’s a strategy that places the whole game in a pressure chamber, and one defensive slipup can result in a loss. Salmon Bay’s coaching staff has made the bet that their opponents will slip up first, and so far, it’s paid off. It won its first divisional match against the Tacoma Galaxy on May 30 1-0 thanks to a lucky penalty kick by Bergford.

The following matchup against Bigfoot FC on June 1 was a 6-0 blowout in which, despite having veteran playmakers like forward Ameera Hussen and defender Alicia Barker on the bench, Salmon Bay controlled most aspects of the game.
Salmon Bay’s next few matches include a home game against Lane United FC on June 14 and another against the West Seattle Rhodies on June 18.
But the biggest one to watch out for is against the extraordinarily talented FC Olympia, which has been undefeated for the last two seasons and counting. Regardless, fans and Bushkeepers will be watching on June 22, at Interbay Stadium, to see if Salmon Bay FC has what it takes to break Olympia’s winning streak.