How Achijah Berry ’10 Built a Championship Legacy at Seattle Academy

Written By: Gena Wynkoop, Editorial Content Manager

Achijah Berry ’10, Seattle Academy’s Middle School Dean of Student Life, has been to the Girls Varsity Soccer State Championships five times in various stages of her adolescent, adult, and professional life.

It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy when, as an eighth grader, she stood on the sidelines in University Place, Washington, and watched the SAAS Girls Varsity soccer team nab that state championship title for the first time in history.

“Fun fact! I was at that first state championship game in 2005,” Achijah smiles. “That very first year the girls team won state–I was in eighth grade, but my brother was a senior at SAAS. I remember we got to get out of school early and everything. It was a whole deal.”

That moment was when Achijah knew she wanted to be on that team. Witnessing that first historic win was a core memory and a theme that would continue throughout her high school career as a player, again as an Assistant Coach, and now, as the current Girls Varsity Soccer Head Coach.

The next year, Achijah walked in as a ninth grader onto the SAAS campus and made the Girls Varsity Soccer team. During her freshman and sophomore years, the girls team participated in some parts of the state championship. Still, it wasn’t until her junior and senior years that they actually won, back to back, that coveted state championship title. 

Sports just came naturally to Achijah. She served as a four year starter in soccer and played a crucial role in leading the girls' 4x400m team to a first-place finish as part of the second-place state track and field team in 2010. She was a three-sport athlete, winning championships in both track and field and also played in the state tournament for basketball.

When trying to pick a college, Achijah was a heavily recruited athlete in multiple sports but eventually chose the University of Oregon, where she was a four-year starter on the women’s soccer team. For the years she wasn’t a Cardinal, she played as a Duck and had an outstanding career; in her senior year, she stepped in as co-captain of the team and played the most minutes of any player, 1,739 minutes to be exact.

She graduated from the University of Oregon with a Family and Human Services degree and returned to Seattle and SAAS, where she was hired as the Middle School Dean of Student Life. She started coaching in the Middle School and would help in the Upper School.

“It wasn’t until 2019 that I started as an assistant coach for the Girls Varsity Soccer team with my good friend Brooks. We are family friends and went to school together, so coaching together was so much fun,” she said.

The two were able to pull out another state championship victory while Achijah was assisting Brooks, making this her third Seattle Academy championship win both as a player and as a coach–and maybe four if you count her being a part of the first win as an eager fan.

Brooks left as the Head Coach in 2021, but Achijah still helped out with the team when Craig Tomlinson stepped in as Head Coach and developed strong relationships with the girls on the current varsity team.

Over the last 30 years at SAAS, there were only three head coaches before Achijah: current Head of School, Rob Phillips, coached the team from 1993 to 2016, followed by, as mentioned above, alumnus (and Achijah’s family friend) Brooks Hopp ‘08 from 2017 to 2020, and then finally, Craig Tomlinson from 2021 to 2023, a 20-year faculty member and former Seattle Sounders player who also coached with Rob and Brooks. Brad Evans, another former Sounders player, joined to assist Craig in 2021. 

In a letter from the SAAS Athletics Department in June of 2023, it was announced to the community that Craig Tomlinson would be focusing on other SAAS projects, and Achijah Berry would be appointed as a co-Head Coach, along with Brad Evans. 

The letter added, “Over the years, this program has benefited from a high degree of continuity in the coaching staff, with Head and Assistant Coaches who integrated a deep commitment to the student-athletes, the SAAS academic program, and the sport itself.”

Achijah was excited, but she found herself feeling incredibly nervous and intimidated.

“It was such a strange experience for me because I haven’t really pictured myself as the Head Coach,” explained Achijah. “If you give me something to do, I will do it. As a player, I can be directed in one way or another, and I’ll do it.” 

“I can be the hype and bring the energy, but the idea of being the lead of everything was a bit intimidating! I am so much more of a doer, but over time, I enjoyed not being in the background. We had a great balance with the other coaches, and we would play off each other’s strengths and challenges, but yeah–I was definitely intimidated at first,” Achijah smiled.

Achijah grew quickly into the position, finding her groove with coaching and being that leader who gets a group of students to succeed. “I enjoyed teaching the kids in my own way. I kind of had to lean on my coaches a little bit and do things that I thought would work well while prioritizing connecting with the kids.”

If you are lucky enough to know Achijah, you know that prioritizing connection is what she’s all about–she walks the walk, bringing a genuine caring demeanor and positive and infectious energy wherever she goes. She also brings the history of formerly being in the girls' shoes (or should we say cleats?) to the table.

“[I felt a mix of pride and pressure]. Maybe it’s because I’m an alum, but I have so much history, love, and excitement for the program. Sometimes the tricky thing about working at SAAS and having attended SAAS is balancing what is happening before you and what the experience is for current students.”

“I had to pick and choose times to reference certain things and not make everything about when I was playing back in the day and when Rob was the coach. I kind of found myself doing that at the beginning of the season but realized that it didn’t really matter and that I needed to focus on this group,” she said.

So that’s what she did, especially since she had a nice rapport with girls, knowing some of them as early as the sixth grade, the beginning of their SAAS chapter.

“It was nice to come on this year and have some pre-existing friendships with the girls,” said Achijah. “Some I’ve known since their sixth-grade year, but it was nice to spend time with them and get to see them as a team. The most important part for me was, how will they come together as teammates and people, and what will they do with this skill and talent?”

Achijah wanted to emphasize that those relationships with teammates extend beyond the playing field and high school. They need to be nurtured to create a connection on the field.

“There’s so much more that goes with making sure you’re connecting with your teammates like these are the people you’re with every day for three months. You guys don’t have to be best friends. It’s just that you can’t do all these great, big things without some sort of connection.”

“Yes, we are doing cool things and winning games, but there’s so much more here. You’ll see these people at lunch or spend time with them outside the field. These are some of the people you will stay in contact with for the rest of your lives. I tried encouraging them to make the most of the moment and not take things for granted,” explained Achijah.

She made a deliberate effort to customize various elements for the girls, establishing trust and continually nurturing that connection so they felt confident entrusting her to lead them to success.

“In sports, it’s just like school, we can’t really ask the students to do hard things that are uncomfortable and scary if they don’t feel safe. You have to make sure that they feel like you’re on their team and that you believe in them. You have to be there for them to put it all out there and kind of establish some trust first before you can go a little harder on them.”

“It was a balance of calling out little positive reinforcements in practice and games, and sometimes you just have to stop everything and raise your voice a little bit and look around and be like, “What’s going on? We’re getting ready for this game, and no one’s talking to each other, why are you so quiet?’”

“Sometimes you have to put into perspective that you can have all the ingredients in the pot, but you have to do things to doctor it up and make the meal that you need. You can’t snap your finger when the game starts, and the whistle blows, and you’re ready to go. That’s why we have a warmup, you can’t lollygag through practice and then expect when the game comes that you’ll be ready to go.”

Achijah knew she had all of the proverbial ingredients in the pot: an excellent Girls Varsity team, great coaches and help, and the right synergy to clinch that state championship spot. She could see it and knew the girls were hungry to get there. They just kept doing what they needed to do: they showed up, and they kept winning.

“I always have the outlook that teams can do well and go far,” said Achijah. The team did both of those things; they did the best and went the farthest, winning the WIAA State Championship and beating out Klahowya in a 2-1 victory on November 19th, 2023. That marked the sixth win in SAAS girls soccer history, and Achijah's fourth win not as a player or Assistant Coach but as the Head Coach.

 

 

 

 

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The state final occurred at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma, Washington, a place where Achijah had been before. “It was majorly nostalgic. I was joking with Hillary O’Dougherty that I had been to that stadium before with Rob and Erin Aitchison, a fellow SAAS alum and current Associate Athletic Director, for track state championships, and the week leading up to it, I was like, ‘This is a sign… I’ve won a state championship here before,’” laughed Achijah.

“At the state championship, I had my coaches in the bleachers watching the game. It was a cool moment, having Erin, Rob, my teachers, and my friends watching–it was a full circle moment.”

“Erin was the first person I saw after the big win, and I just ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug just thinking about all of the moments. There’s just so many things! So many memories from sports, you just…hold them somewhere,” Achijah said, pointing to her heart.

 

 

 

 

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She continued, “With Erin and Rob, they were my coaches all four years with track and soccer. Just pivotal people during that time for me. So it’s a cool moment that they were both there, and being able to share that with them as a coach myself and a player is pretty cool.”

Now, being on the other side of the season that seemed a bit intimidating at first, Achijah has more perspective on the pressure she felt during the season.

“I was feeling the pressure, you know, as an alum and as the Head Coach. Like, what’s going to happen, and how will people react if it’s a disappointment? But working here and being with the kids, it’s not really about the wins and losses, it's like being in the classroom–seeing all this growth and development from kids is a rewarding feeling.”

“All of the things we did leading up to that big moment, all of that hard work, the rainy days, the cold days, the days you have a lot of stuff to do after practice, [it paid off],” she said. 

Achijah has played a key role in securing over half of Seattle Academy's soccer state championship wins, leaving a unique and special legacy. However, when all is said and done, her true aim is to foster an environment where folks can come together, emphasizing community and building meaningful relationships.

“At the end of the day, I wanted to focus on building friendships and connections and make sure that regardless of the result of the state championship, playing soccer was a place they wanted to be because of the people they were with,” Achijah said. “I think by the end of the season, it’s something that all the girls took with them regardless of all the big wins.”