Fall clubs help soccer players stay sharp

The CFHS soccer season may still be half a year away, but some of the players are starting to get prepared now. Many of the players on all three of the CFHS teams, freshman-sophomore, junior varsity and varsity, play club or recreational soccer, which is sponsored by the Cedar Valley Youth Soccer Association (CVYSA). The recreational league had six games per season, and there are currently four teams in the Under-19 league: two Independence teams and two Cedar Falls teams.

The club team, on the other hand, which is also known as CV (Cedar Valley) Select, has around eight league games and participates in one to two tournaments per season. They play against teams from all over Iowa and the midwest. The league games are sponsored by the Iowa Premier Soccer League (IPSL).

Sophomore Chris Keys, who played a mix of fresh-soph and varsity soccer for CFHS last year, also plays for the CV Select club team as a forward.

“Playing soccer in the fall helps to keep me in shape for the high school season. I can get touches on the ball in a real game scenario, and it really helps to prepare for CF soccer,” Keys said. “It’s fun because I get to play on the same team as people from different schools in club, but for CFHS, I would have to play against them.”

Junior Mariam Bartlett plays for the CF women’s team as a forward and also plays for FC Midwest, which is another club team in the Cedar Valley.

“With fall soccer, you can play in a lot of tournaments, and that helps us to develop into better players,” Bartlett said. “During practice, we get extra touches in to help us in games and tournaments for club and high school.”

Fall soccer is a less competitive environment with less games, but there are still tournaments and trophies to be won. It can be used to fine tune skills or to try new things to be as prepared as you can be for the high school season.

Fall soccer is not the only time to prepare for soccer, as there are a variety of opportunities to play indoors during the winter as well. Iowa Soccer sponsors one league, UNI has another league called “Just for Kicks” and Cedar Falls High School has an open gym a couple of nights a week in the winter. Anyone can participate in the open gym.

Taking all of these opportunities into consideration, there are plenty of ways to prepare for the CFHS soccer season.