What’s recently happened?
On July 18 at the University of Notre Dame, professional soccer returned to South Bend. Atlante Fútbol Club (Atlante FC) is a professional soccer club based in Mexico City, Mexico. Founded in 1916, Atlante FC were original members of the Mexican Primera División when it began in 1943.
Northern Indiana FC (NIFC) is a club founded by several college coaches from the local area who help college players develop throughout the summer. One of the experienced coaches on staff was Thiago Pinto, who has been the head coach of the Bethel University (BU) Men's Soccer program for the past 15 years, last year’s National Champions of NAIA Division 1.
This was the team’s second national championship in the school’s soccer history and first NAIA championship. NIFC’s Head Coach Mamba Chisoni, part of the coaching staff at BU who won the NAIA National Championship, has taken the position of head coach at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne.
Coach Vern Gingerich was the goalkeeper coach at NIFC. He has been the goalkeeper coach at BU for the last two years and Notre Dame’s goalkeeper coach for the previous 10 years. Vern was a NCAA National Champion with Notre Dame in 2013, and a NAIA National Champion with BU in 2022.
They were set to host one of the oldest and most successful pro teams, Atlante FC, at Notre Dame Alumni Stadium.
There was a lot of preparation and a lot of people who worked hard to bring this match together. This match had the community come together to organize and welcome a professional club from out of the country. The community was united and focused on the same good cause.
Rafael Nuñez, who was at the game, loved to see the community thriving together while watching the game.
“I like to see the kids play and have a good time, enjoying family, and all together. I like to see everybody focused on enjoying the game and not thinking about their differences but instead just all being a family. That is good,” Nuñez said.
This international match was not just any soccer game. This match had a community focus. One dollar from each ticket sale went to the support of the local youth at the La Casa de Amistad’s summer camps.
The game was a success. In the end, Altante FC won with a final score of 3-0. More than 2,300 fans attended and, together, the community raised more than $1,000 for La Casa de Amistad.
Could the amount of positive response from the event be a sign that there is hope for soccer in Northern Indiana, and that soccer is gaining popularity and appreciation?
This event was special not only for the coaches and players that took part in the match, but this event will always be remembered by the community who enjoyed quality time with family and friends and experienced the joy in participating in the sport regardless of role.
What’s coming up?
Boys Soccer at Penn High School has been preparing for the fall soccer season. The team has been working hard this summer with workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning, and evening sessions on the field on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays, they do fitness on the field in the morning.
After ending a great season with a 2-3 loss at Semi-State against Noblesville High School, who ended up winning State, the boys hope to bounce back and deliver another entertaining and memorable season.
Senior Center Back Carter Utz believes that the team's long, successful run last season will help them in this new season.
“I think that this season, we come with more experience and a better understanding of what the next level is like in terms of competing for a state title. We saw how we competed against a high-caliber program like Noblesville last year, and this team comes into the season with the expectation that we can get back to and hopefully farther than that point in the season,” Utz said.
Since the end of last season there have been many changes going on within the team.
This past year, there were 16 seniors graduating. This season, the team is much younger with many new players joining.
New players don’t know exactly what to expect going into tryouts; it can even be a little scary not knowing anyone and being new to the school. This means that the more experienced players have a greater responsibility to guide new players and be ready to lead by example. The younger ones watch what the older players are doing and they copy, whether it is good or bad.
The older ones are the ones who get to set the tone of how practices are going to be, and they make sure everyone is always working with a positive attitude and never negatively putting one down.
Another change is that, this season, the Boys Soccer home field will be made of turf and not natural grass. There have been many different opinions on the new field. Many people like the turf with no mud or holes. Others dislike the turf because it changes the speed of the game, making it faster and harder to control the ball.
Senior Player Michael Greenlee believes that, with the new turf field, the team will have much success.
“This year, we will be playing on the new turf field. Historically, we have played pretty well on turf. Last year, we won our sectionals on the turf field at John Adams High School, so hopefully we will be able to have similar results this year on our new field,” he said.
Greenlee thinks that playing on turf will facilitate the game's flow and the team's ability to control the ball.
“We will be able to remove the inconsistent bounces and ball path offered by the old grass field, so with more predictability and consistency, the team will hopefully be able to play to a higher level and have successful results,” he said.
The Boys Soccer team is excited to start the season on the new field. While there have been several changes from last year, if they remain together and work as a team, they will be able to succeed.
Community member spotlight:
Willian dos Santos is from Brazil and played soccer for four years at Bethel University (BU). He is now a Notre Dame ESTEEM graduate student. Dos Santos grew up playing soccer and got an opportunity to come to the U.S. to play at the collegiate level.
Dos Santos wanted to come, but he knew that there would be challenges in coming to a new country, learning the language, and experiencing a new culture. He was not afraid of coming, but he was anxious of what was to come.
Dos Santos first prayed about the opportunity and realized that this was what God wanted for him. Even though he had no idea what the next years would look like, he knew that God was on his side and had great plans for him ahead.
During his four years at BU, dos Santos met many different people and had the opportunity to captain the soccer team for three years. He also had the chance to go to Indonesia for a mission trip with the entire soccer team.
Dos Santos' time at BU was special in many ways, and taught him life lessons.
“At Bethel, I had so many mentors that taught me what servant leadership was. Having the opportunity to captain the team for three years taught me a lot about people and about important values that I carry with me to this day. The importance of being selfless and putting others first is what I took the most from my collegiate experience,” dos Santos said.
His freshman trip to Indonesia was a remarkable experience that helped shape the way he sees the sport and life.
“Indonesia was an eye-opener,” he said. “It completely changed the way I viewed soccer, not as the end goal but as a means to an end. Soccer gave me an opportunity to connect with and impact people all across the globe.”
Dos Santos trusted God, learned a new language, and created many lifelong relationships. He is now using soccer as a ministry and teaching many young kids to play the beautiful game, and teaching and sharing his life testimony.