Cedar Rapids Inferno: Kenan Malicevic’s local soccer passion project continues its mission

Amateur and semi-pro soccer in the U.S. can be precarious enough by nature.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Local businesses didn’t have much sponsorship money available. The Midwest Premier League canceled what was to be its inaugural season.

“It cost us a lot,” said Kenan Malicevic, Cedar Rapids Inferno founder, owner, coach and player.

“We’re a nonprofit,” he said. “I have a couple friends who donate us some money from time to time and that’s how we survive. No one gets paid. I don’t make anything off of it.”

But three years after that canceled season, the Inferno are still playing, still having fun — and winning.

The Inferno (4-2-1) enter the weekend second in the MWPL’s Gateway Division and fresh off a 1-0 victory over division leader Ajax St. Louis last Saturday.

“This is by far one of the best teams we’ve ever had,” Malicevic said.

Malicevic came to Cedar Rapids from Bosnia in the mid-2000s and played high school soccer for Cedar Rapids Washington and Cedar Valley Christian. He played in college at Drake and even played professionally in Poland and Bosnia for a few years before returning to Cedar Rapids, where he’s an insurance broker. He loves the game and started the Inferno in 2018 to honor the memory of his best friend, Musaab.

The club kicked off in the United Premier Soccer League, a sprawling organization of hundreds of clubs around the country. Some of those team leaders wanted more of a local focus, Malicevic included, and started the MWPL in 2020. The league now has 35 teams in four divisions.

“So far, so good,” Malicevic said.

The initial 2019 roster was built when 60 players showed up to tryouts that Malicevic worked to spread the word about. Now those players do a lot of natural marketing, telling their college teammates about a local place to play competitively in the summer.

Western Illinois sophomore-to-be Gabe Chapa, who Malicevic coached at Linn-Mar, is the team’s leading scorer this season.

The Inferno aren’t alone in town anymore. They face the Iowa Raptors — a club with multiple teams in multiple leagues — Saturday (7 p.m.) at Prairie High School and next Saturday at Mount Mercy. The Raptors’ MWPL team is third in the Gateway and both teams have 13 points through seven games played.

“We’d be lying if we said we don’t want to beat those guys and vice versa,” Malicevic said.

In between is an Inferno home game at 5 p.m. Sunday at Mount Mercy against Southeast Soccer Academy of Burlington.

As you can see, Malicevic’s summer weekends are booked, and he likes it that way.

“It is 100 percent my passion and the love and the memory of my friend,” he said.

Comments: nathan.ford@thegazette.com