Missouri Valley has become the latest Western Iowa Conference school to add high school soccer to its athletic menu.

It will become the fifth WIC school to offer soccer this spring, following A-H-S-T, Tri-Center, Riverside and Underwood. A-H-S-T has a boys team, while its girls have a cooperative program with Harlan Community.

Victor Contreraz has been named the Missouri Valley boys coach, while a girls coach has yet to be selected.

At a Missouri Valley school board meeting last spring, 57 community members showed up in support of adding soccer. The board passed the motion 3-2. Soccer will become the third spring sport offered by the school, joining golf and track and field.

Missouri Valley youth have been active in the American Youth Soccer Organization for about 20 years, playing neighboring towns in the spring.

The 46-year-old Contreraz, a 1983 Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson graduate, said the youth participation numbers made the move to the varsity level feasible. Now the challenge is to get the program on its feet and competitive as quickly as possible.

"I preach to them that they should play the same up by 20 or down by 20,'' he said. "Give us a full effort and enjoy themselves. But be as competitive as possible.''

Contreraz, a former assistant at Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln in Council Bluffs, has been active in Missouri Valley's AYSO program. He took three teams to the recent Iowa Games in hopes of getting his players acclimated to a higher level of competition.

A long-term goal, he said, is getting some of his players the chance to earn scholarship money at the college level.

Contrarez said the new soccer programs won't be receiving any funding from the school district or any outside entity. Therefore, a non-profit organization has been established which will seek donations for uniforms, field upkeep and other expenses.

To date, seven regular-season games have been scheduled for the girls and eight for the boys.

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