The New Hometown Heroes

Photos by Billie Winter

It’s June 18, 7:30 on a Wednesday evening at Interbay Stadium, a hideaway athletic venue adjacent to the railyard and a smidge north of the Interbay driving range. More than 1,400 sports fans have flocked to the stadium to support their hometown heroes—who are playing for both the home and away teams.

Fans watched Salmon Bay FC host the West Seattle Rhodies in a decisive cross-town rivalry game. And after 23 minutes of play, UW women’s soccer veteran and West Seattle Rhodies forward Hailey Still scored the first goal. With a running windup into the penalty box, Still shot the ball into the lower-right side of the goal—just beyond the reach of Salmon Bay FC goalkeeper and Ballard High School alum Elena Milam.

A goal halfway into the first half isn’t exactly a nail in the coffin: For the losing side, it can be an early setback that lights a fire under players’ asses to come back and beat their opponent. But for Salmon Bay, the home team, it was the first time they’d ever allowed a goal in franchise history.

Granted: Salmon Bay FC isn’t very old. This was its sixth-ever game in history. Hard-launched to the public in October 2024, Salmon Bay is one of 27 brand-new teams playing in USL W, a burgeoning pre-professional women’s soccer league now featuring 93 clubs spanning the continental US. The franchise helps address a “missing middle” in athletics, particularly in women’s sports, by incubating talent between college soccer and professional leagues through high-caliber games and training over the summer. Partially owned by Rough & Tumble’s Jen Barnes, as well as Seattle Reign players Lu Barnes, Jess Fishlock, and Olivia Van Der Jagt, Salmon Bay is the sibling team to Ballard FC, the men’s club that’s enjoyed a die-hard following since its kickoff in 2022. Both teams are buoyed by fierce neighborhood-level pride, top-tier talent, and silly rituals.

Ballard FC has frequently gone far into the postseason—including a 2023 league title, as well as a spot in the 2025 championship finals—proving to locals that superlative talent lives just down the road. Salmon Bay is here to further prove that point, and aspires to go consistently far into the postseason, eventually securing a championship title of its own. “Everything really relies on these next two weeks,” the team’s vice president, Tiffany Mallick, told me on the sidelines three minutes before the Rhodies’ goal in June. Salmon Bay had been neck-and-neck all season with division leader FC Olympia, which had won its first seven games. (Its defense allowed some goals.) Only one team per division makes it to the playoffs, a postseason structure Mallick considers a “discrepancy,” since the men’s summer league, USL 2, admits two teams per division.

“Showing up and having to perform at 100 percent every single game is a lot to ask for in a small window of time during the summer, so allowing some grace with that would help,” she said, adding the team will “probably have more conversations postseason” with the league to see if that structure might change.

Before Wednesday, Salmon Bay trailed Olympia FC in the USL W standings due to a single tied match—its season-opening away game against the West Seattle Rhodies, which ended in a 0-0 draw.

But things are far from a draw off the field. The home team’s fan base and energy blow those of opposing teams “out of the water,” according to Salmon Bay defender Ella Hatteberg. “It’s been the best that summer could have gone, and it’s been so much fun, and the intensity is so good,” she said. Midfielder Fiona Doherty, who grew up in Sunset Hill and plays professionally in Greece during the regular season, noted that all of their home games had been “full, sold-out matches.” She said Salmon Bay has helped bring “really accessible viewing of good soccer” to Ballard, which can be inspiring for kids, helps make locals “amped” about the team, and can generate good exposure for her teammates.

Several Salmon Bay players said the team benefits from its relationship to Ballard FC, as the men’s team’s success in building a fan base has helped them do the same—assisted by a parent organization well-versed in involving community and getting people to show up.

Some team rituals spill from Ballard FC into Salmon Bay FC, like free Dick’s burgers thrown into the stands when the home team scores a goal. But Salmon Bay’s energy is distinct, not derivative. Sam Zisette, founder of Ballard FC and Salmon Bay FC, and president of their ownership group, observed that a subset of ticketholders tend to sit criss-cross-applesauce next to the goals at Salmon Bay games, bringing a gentle vibe to the stadium’s beer garden. More families attend Salmon Bay games than Ballard FC games; Zisette said he’s heard “over and over and over again” that parents see the team as setting an example for their daughters.

At the same time, Mallick, the vice president, said she hopes rowdier fans will show up for Salmon Bay too, bringing more of the high-octane energy she’s seen at Ballard FC matches. Notably absent at the Salmon Bay game I attended, for instance, were the “Bushkeepers,” a horde of Ballard FC supporters who hang out in the bramble on the south-side hillock outside official stadium grounds; they’ve been known to beat big drums and get loud.

But Salmon Bay FC players are building a flourishing team culture on top of a thoughtful foundation set by the parent organization, and are doing it quite compellingly. Take the team’s special-edition jerseys, which they wore at the rivalry game: a funky floral and fungal kit designed by local artist Sarah Robbins. Salmon Bay’s players took it upon themselves to mark the occasion by showing up in floral outfits to the pre-game. That included some groovy, flowy flower-power-esque pieces in addition to more crafty and whimsical getups that transformed human heads into golden-hued daffodils. See the montage here. Even the team’s chant to break the huddle feels organic and on-brand: a simple “Bay!” does the job.

The consistently celebratory and inventive air at Interbay Stadium is only compelling, however, because of the impressive athletics on display. And, at that Wednesday game, the rivalry felt real (not an artificially manufactured rivalry merely weeks old), no doubt aided by the fact that the Salmon Bay and Rhodies head coaches are spouses (ooh!), and that the opposing team’s roster featured plenty of familiar faces, creating a who’s-who of UW soccer stars competing on both sides. The home team found firmer footing following halftime and made some impressive attempts on goal, with Maia Tabion’s stubborn drive particularly on display. But ultimately to no avail this time around: The Rhodies defeated Salmon Bay 1 – 0, the latter’s first-ever loss.

It was a nail-biter, portending, possibly, future rivalry-laden nail-biters. Scuttlebutt says Salmon Bay had been planning a cheeky boat-paddling pantomime like the one the Rhodies pulled off at the game, which might justify some revenge pantomiming next year. The rest of the season was a nail-biter, too: Salmon Bay shook off the loss to beat division-leading Olympia FC on the 21st, thanks to a banging header from Sadie Sider-Echenberg placed deftly in the right spot by defender Ella Hattenberg, which briefly brought playoff contention back into the picture. Salmon Bay ultimately placed second in the division: just barely behind Olympia FC—which lost in the postseason to Utah United, this year’s USL W champions—and narrowly ahead of the Rhodies. It only allowed two goals over the entire season, making its defense the best in the entire USL W league. The home team won its last game 8 – 0; hopefully a cathartic blowout.

Be a GCal stakhanovite and block out your calendar now for next year’s season. It’s worth the hype and wait. Breaking with Seattle tradition, franchise ownership won’t break your heart. The spirits are high and flowing: There’s a tequila zone. You can order a hot dog with lingonberry jam on it. How Svensk. Reuben’s sells special-edition tallboys. You can even bushkeep in the bramble. Or go do the same for the Rhodies, for Maple Valley’s Bigfoot FC, and other local squads. Witness the next generation of hometown stars in wholesome environs before they enter the Lumen Field limelight in a few years. Bay!