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More rings than Brady and Manning

With four high school wrestling state titles and one softball state title from Puyallup High School, freshman soccer midfielder Jordyn Bartelson said the sport was her last big championship to win on a team.

Jordyn grew up wrestling because her dad, Bryan Bartelson, was a high school wrestling coach, and coached her throughout junior high and high school.

“I’ve been Jordyn’s coach her whole life,” Bryan said. “I used to carry her around in a basket at the wrestling matches at the high school. Her and her baby sister were our little cheerleaders that ran around the high school teams.”

“She’s in a lot of individual battles where she’s overcoming some odds where someone might be faster or stronger, and she’s able to overcome and make a play. That’s inspiring to her teammates around her, and then they step up and make plays, and that can be contagious.”

Travis Connell, head coach

As a freshman in high school, she didn’t have any expectations going into state because she placed second in regionals and sub-regionals, but she was able to finish strong to win her first state title. Jordyn’s victory in the state finals came against the girl who had beaten her the previous weekends at regionals and sub-regionals.

“I ended up pinning her in the finals,” Jordyn said. “After that, I took it year by year and it all fell into place. In my senior year I was finally like, ‘I can do this.’”

Jordyn went on to win regionals, sub-regionals and state her final three years of wrestling.

“Wrestling was probably some of the greatest memories I had throughout my athletic career, because I got to share that with my sister, my dad and my younger brother,” Jordyn said. “It was a family thing we all got to do together.”

On top of wrestling, Jordyn also grew up playing soccer, and in 2011, she started playing for Washington Premier on the Elite Clubs National League team, where she won two national championships.

During her sophomore year of high school, she and her sister were also part of a state-title-winning softball team.

“I had to balance working out at wrestling practice, going straight to club soccer on top of trying to cut weight and putting in extra runs,” Jordyn said. “It was a lot to balance. For three months out of the year I was on the grind. It was nice to know all my hard work paid off.”

Jordyn is one of the most determined athletes you will ever meet, Bryan said.

“She is the type of athlete that will raise the elevation of a team,” Bryan said. “She demands her teammates perform and work as hard as she does, and will raise the level of the intensity and caliber of a room or a field.”

While at Western she wants to study business, with the hopes of one day becoming a marketing manager for a sports team, Jordyn said.

Puyallup High School soccer head coach Matt White couldn’t help but laugh at a memory he had of Jordyn when their team played Skyline High School, which he said has one of the top soccer programs in the state. White said Skyline was being very physical against Jordyn every time she had the ball, but she was still able to get a shot at goal.

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Jordyn Bartelson at Harrington Field Monday, April 24. // Photo by Jonathan Pendleton

“Jordyn got tired of it,” White said. “She was running down the field, dribbling the ball and she had two players clinging onto her and she was dragging them. She still didn’t give up the ball [and] made the correct pass. It was amazing to see an athlete continue to take the abuse, but do her job and not be persuaded by what was going on around her.”

Jordyn went to state every year for high school soccer, but never won a state title. White said Jordyn was a massive part of Puyallup’s success.

“Puyallup is a football school,” White said. “[There’s] all these guys who have gone onto major professional careers in football. I would argue that Jordyn is arguably the best athlete, male or female, to come out of Puyallup High School.”

Now, as a national champion at Western, Jordyn said pursuing soccer at the college level was a good choice, because she has been able to grow as an athlete, student and individual.

“I’ve always been so divided between all my sports, [and] coming here I got to focus on just playing soccer,” Jordyn said. “I think it’s a cool opportunity, because I can see how much I can grow as a soccer player.”

The Western women’s head soccer coach Travis Connell said Jordyn understands the importance of preparation with her experience of championships, and he expects her to be able to perform in big games.

“[She’s] someone who understands how [winning] works, and has been in the big moments, [and] isn’t going to be rattled by the big moments,” Connell said.

Connell said Jordyn is an inspirational component to their game and her teammates.

“She’s in a lot of individual battles where she’s overcoming some odds where someone might be faster or stronger, and she’s able to overcome and make a play,” Connell said. “That’s inspiring to her teammates around her, and then they step up and make plays, and that can be contagious.”

Connell said he is seeing quite a bit of growth in her game during the offseason.

“She’s someone who’s not going to be content, so she’s going to keep getting better throughout her career,” Connell said.

Jordyn continues to go back home to help her sister, who won her first wrestling state title this past year, with wrestling practice because her sister is going to be wrestling for Simon Fraser University next year. 

She scored a total of four goals in her first season with Western, including one during nationals in the semifinals against Kutztown University.

Jordyn has a total of eight state and national championship titles to her name, all before the age of 20. Being only a freshman, she still has some time to add more hardware to her athletic resume.


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