Soccer Fever Returns To Miami Dade College
As practice starts on a recent sunny afternoon at Kendall Campus’ open fields, a ball is kicked back and forth. An assortment of drills are ongoing as players from the Miami Dade College Soccer Club shuffle back and forth during warm ups.
After 20 years of soccer not being organized at MDC, students attending Kendall Campus want to reestablish the team. But the club isn’t recognized as part of the MDC athletic program.
That isn’t stopping these soccer enthusiasts. Twenty two students from ten different nationalities got together to start the soccer club at the start of the spring semester. They practice three times a week and play games against each other.
“I want for the future generations of Miami [Dade College students] to be able to play the sport they love,” said Adrian Garcia, a defenseman on the club. “That is the one purpose of this team.”
The College once had its own competitive soccer team. The men’s team won two national championships in 1979 and 1983 before the athletic teams from Kendall, North and Wolfson campuses’ merged.
Twelve years later, the team was disbanded because of budgetary issues.
To raise money for the club, members have setup tables outside of the Koffeehouse to sell cookies. During the past three months, the team has raised about $1,500 for expenses which include traveling, uniforms and soccer gear.
The players said they play for the love of the game, camaraderie and exercise. They do not have athletic scholarships.
“This school is a huge influence to the whole city,” said coach and defenseman Rafael Arias. “To be founders of the official [club] after over 30 years of no soccer [championship], will surely make a great impact for the future kids who want to play soccer.”
Their hopes of growing into an official team are slim with only three junior colleges in the state of Florida offering soccer as a competitive sport. According to the National Junior College Athletic Association those teams are ASA Academy, Broward College and Eastern Florida State College.
“Junior college games are obviously harder to find since it is only ASA [Academy] and Eastern Florida [State College],” said Broward College men’s soccer head coach Munga Eketebi. “We have to get with Georgia’s teams in order to get more Junior College games.”
The soccer club knows they face an uphill battle to bring soccer back to MDC as a team sport. Other soccer clubs at MDC have not been successful in bringing back soccer as a team sport but that won’t stop them.
“This started as an infant idea,” Arias said. “We are just three months deep and we are still looking for consistency.”
