Marcus Larson/
News-Register

Just a few years ago, if Larry and Devri Doty wanted to catch their kids’ soccer games, that involved splitting schedules and long drives down I-5 to California. But this year, all three of their kids could be found on the Linfield campus and on the same pitch — making for much shorter road trips.

The Dotys’ son, Dominic, 25, just wrapped up his first year as head coach for the Linfield women’s soccer program. His sisters, twins Rennika and MacKenzie, 22, now both suit up for the Wildcats after MacKenzie transferred from the University of Oregon.

“It’s honestly been a true joy to have them back,” Larry said. “If someone would have said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a crystal ball and guess what’s going to happen in the future?’ you’d say, ‘No, I don’t think so!” But here they are. And I think it speaks highly of not only them and being McMinnville people and that their roots are dug deep here, but also it speaks highly of Linfield that they want to be here.”

Dom’s first taste of head coaching turned out to be a successful one. Under Doty’s leadership, Linfield finished 10-9-1 overall and 7-8-1 in conference play. The winning record was the program’s first in seven seasons and only the third in program history. The 10 wins made for the second-highest total in school history. MacKenzie earned all-conference honors after scoring 12 goals this year.

“They’re changing the culture of soccer here — the competitiveness of it, how they approach the game and how they approach their role on a Linfield soccer team,” Dom said of his 2009 squad. “I think in the past it wasn’t quite the competitive nature and the drive and the will wasn’t quite there ... But I think as a whole we’re changing the culture of it and changing the way we approach it.”

Rennika, who has been at Linfield the last three years, said this past season trumped all her previous campaigns.

“I’ve been here for three years and this was by far the best season, as a whole, we’ve had,” she said. “It’s just a motivator for next year for all the girls to come back and improve and have the same team, but hopefully a little bit stronger.”

Rennika also credited the addition of her sister to the roster as a great spark this season.

“For me, personally, it was a big motivator,” she said. “Physically she’s fast and she’s smart with the ball. She’s an all-around good soccer player and she’s just a great leader on the team. So I knew bringing her onto the team here at Linfield would be a great boost for our team and really raise the level of play of the team as a whole.”

And being back playing with her sister was great for MacKenzie she said, especially after being apart from her for some time.
“It was weird because we’d been apart for like three years not playing together. But the moment we stepped back on the field, it was just like old times,” MacKenzie said. “We spent 22 years playing soccer together. No one knows me better than my sister.”

While this season marked Dom’s first as head man for the women’s program, he already had his coaching feet wet. Dom returned to McMinnville in 2007 to be an assistant to dad Larry on the men’s basketball team. Larry Doty is entering his 23rd season as the Wildcats’ coach.

Dom became then took a step toward his expertise by also becoming an assistant for the men’s soccer program for the 2007 season. He did the same in 2008, but when then-women’s coach Yi Lin Liu left with six games left in the year, Dom stepped in as interim coach. So the move to head coach was just the natural progression.

“It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, really,” he said. “And on top of that, it was back in a place that I had been for away from for a while.”

And just as making a niche for himself at Linfield has been the natural fit, so has coaching his little sisters.

“It’s easy for me. It’s something that I enjoy,” he said. “I’ve coached them growing up my entire life and helping out with their team. So it’s something that I’m used to.”

Rennika echoed her brother’s sentiments.

“Both MacKenzie and I are used to him being a coach to us just growing up as an older brother and an athlete and a role model we looked up to.”

All four Dotys agree that Dom ,on the soccer field, doesn’t treat his sisters any differently than any other girl on his team.

“He’s hard on us,” MacKenzie said. “He treats us fairly, just like all the other girls. We’re not his sisters during soccer, we’re his players.”

After high school, Dom attended Santa Clara University to play soccer. But a torn hamstring his freshman year and knee surgery his sophomore year hampered playing time.

“My body wasn’t healthy, so I took a long time off and just didn’t get back into it,” Dom said.

He wasn’t the only Doty to get a taste of soccer life outside of McMinnville. MacKenzie and Rennika started out their careers at Chico State University. The twins played one season at Chico, but decided it wasn’t the right fit. Rennika returned home the following year to play for Linfield, while MacKenzie headed to the University of Oregon for two seasons before coming home this year.

“(Chico) just wasn’t the right fit for either MacKenzie or I,” Rennika said. “We got there and we had a good soccer season there, but we just knew it wasn’t a place where we wanted to be for four years.”

In high school, the McMinnville natives left their marks in the Mac High record books. Dom, a 2003 graduate, was a four time all-conference player and the Pacific Conference Player of the Year his senior season. By the time he finished his high school career, he held the school record for goals (50), assists (21), shots on goal (103) and goals in a single season (24).

MacKenzie made some Grizz records of her own, becoming Mac High’s all-time leading goal scorer. She also earned all-state and all-conference honors. And Renicka, a three-sport athlete for the Grizzlies, was a captain for three years and an all-conference and all-state selection as well.

Off the field, Larry has a proud father’s perspective on all his kids.

“(Dom’s) a compassionate person. He’s patient, which isn’t one of my great virtues ... I remember at a track meet in middle school here, I was talking one of his friends, a classmate. And she had made a comment to me about how she had never heard Dom say a negative thing about anybody. And that always stuck with me.

“The girls are still college students. They are very much sociable, both of them. Mac is pretty driven in the things that she does ... Ren is the same thing, very driven and serious about what she does. She is probably the most social of the three kids. She’s a little bit different that way.”

As far as what the future holds for the girls, Rennika is looking into event or wedding planning and possibly coaching, but at a much lower level than her dad and brother. MacKenzie, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with being a coach, but rather wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and get a real estate license.

And this coaching gig is, hopefully, the start of a long coaching career for Dom, he said.

“I think that’s where my joy lies, as far as getting up and going to work every day, is coaching.”

Future plans aside, what is evident in Linfield’s four Dotys is their fierce passion for their respective sports, their love of both the Linfield and McMinnville communities and the importance of family.

“My family being close by has been more than a blessing for me,” MacKenzie said. “Being in Eugene, it wasn’t too far at all. But I definitely lost that sense of family there. When I came home, I was definitely happy. I was ready to be home.”