Clear Creek Amana Middle School’s new soccer program scores

TIFFIN — Clear Creek Amana Middle School student Amira Ibrahim likes to stay active, joining her school’s basketball, swimming and volleyball teams.

But it wasn’t until the middle school added girls’ and boys’ soccer to the athletic program for the first time this spring that Amira, 14, an eighth-grader, found her “favorite sport.”

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“The coaches are great, playing outside is great, especially in the rain, especially when you have great teammates to be around. When you really love the sport, you love everything that comes with it,” Amira said.

There has been a “clamoring” for several years to add a soccer program to Clear Creek Amana’s Middle School’s already robust athletic offerings, said Regan Stone, the middle school’s associate principal and activities director. A survey found that at least 50 students would be interested in going out for the sport if it was offered.

“We also found we were getting responses from kids from different backgrounds and cultures who maybe weren’t interested in our current sports offerings, but they were interested in soccer,” Stone said.

Over 250 million people play soccer in more than 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport. The sport is watched by about 3.5 billion people, according to Statista, a global research and analysis company.

There are 50 boys and 30 girls out for soccer at the middle school in its first season, Stone said. “It justifies our decision to add it, and shows that we needed it,” he said.

The Clear Creek Amana Community School District is in the Wamac conference, competing against Benton, Center Point-Urbana, Grinnell, Independence, Marion Independent, Mount Vernon, Solon, Vinton-Shellsburg, West Delaware, Williamsburg and South Tama schools.

The middle school has “more kids than any other school” in the conference out for all sports, Stone said. For example, in fall 2023, there were about 100 kids out for football, 100 kids out for volleyball and 35 kids for cross-country. “That’s 235 students out of our 700,” he said.

The school also sees high student participation in programs like band and choir, the school play and after-school clubs, Stone said.

“Our kids want to be really active and engaged,” he said.

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Engaging students in team sports helps them create lasting friendships, develop communication skills, feel a sense of community and learn responsibility, Stone said. It can be challenging, however, to find coaches for some of these programs.

While Clear Creek Amana Middle School has not been short any coaches this year, Stone recalls some years when it did have trouble filling positions after a coach resigned for another opportunity.

Some of the middle school coaches teach or are on staff at the middle, high school or elementary schools in the district, but people do not have to already be on the staff in the district to coach, he said.

Authorization is required to coach middle and high school athletics in Iowa, according to the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners. Coaches must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or equivalent, have concussion training certificate, CPR training and a 55-hour workshop certificate from an approved provider or college coursework.

The course — which must be paid for by the applicant — includes structure and function of the human body, prevention and care of athletic injuries, human growth and development and ethics of coaching. Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College offers the course for $395.

Stone has coached high school football and track and middle school basketball and baseball during his teaching career. Now, he’s coaching his own children’s youth teams.

“It’s one of my favorite parts of my day,” Stone said. “I forgot how much I missed coaching until I started coaching my kids youth teams. It’s the ‘light goes on’ moment. Having my own kids be a part of it makes it even more rewarding.”

Students can begin playing school-sanctioned sports in seventh grade in accordance with the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union.

In middle school, coaches do their best to give every student a chance to play competitively. With larger teams, students are broken out into an “A” team and a “B” team during games. If there are students who still don’t get the chance to play competitively, they scrimmage each other, Stone said.

“Anyone whose been there to see it will tell you it’s the best part of the night. Our ”A“ and ”B“ kids stick around, and cheer like crazy and go nuts. It’s the wildest part of the night,” he said.

Megan Johnson, one of the middle school girls’ soccer coaches, is a fourth-grade teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School. She has enjoying getting to know the soccer players, seeing their personalities shine and watching their skills improve.

“It is a really good group. They’ve all been good role models, showing up, working hard — they’ve learned a lot. We’ve grown a lot. Not all of them knew each other before going into this sport,” Johnson said.

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Declan Broeg, one of the middle school boys’ soccer coaches, is a seventh-grade math teacher, said being a middle school coach is about teaching students how to work well with others and processing “a loss or goal going through their hands.”

“I’m not just coaching them to be a successful soccer player,” Broeg said.

Elizabeth Randall, 13, an eighth-grader at Clear Creek Amana Middle School, said the program is helping her build friendships, teaching her how to work with other players and preparing her for a more competitive environment in high school.

Ella Otto, 12, a seventh-grader who has never played soccer before this year, said she joined to spend time with her friends. She likes being able to “be aggressive” out on the field, and said being in a sport helps her stay focused in school.

On the boys’ soccer team, Yol Tetevl, 13, a seventh-grader who has been playing soccer most of his life, said it’s fun getting to help his peers who haven’t played soccer before.

“When they get better, the team succeeds,” he said.

Yol plays defensive midfielder. “I’m in the middle of the field, so I get to pass a lot, and I have some scoring opportunities. I do assists, helping other people make goals, and I like that, too,” he said.

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