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Metro student has goal in sight to bring fourth soccer team to campus
Louis Contreras hopes to have co-ed squad completed by summer
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo by William Blackburn • wblackb2@mscd.edu Hamaza Ouzzi, a CCD student, juggles a soccer ball while recuiting new players May 1.

Soccer is known as the world’s sport, spanning the globe from Africa, to Europe, to Asia, to South America, all the way to our own backyards in the U.S.

Auraria already has a two-time Division II Championship women’s soccer team, an always competitive men’s team and a women’s soccer club team.

Now another soccer team is in the works at Auraria as Louie Contreras, a Metro student, is attempting to form a co-ed club soccer team. Contreras said there is a great demand for an additional team to be formed that expands to every school on campus, not just for Metro students.

“A lot of students were coming up to me and requesting if there is a professional team on campus that is a tri-institutional team,” said Contreras, who works at the campus Recreational Center.

Many students who wanted to play soccer were either of foreign descent and couldn’t fulfill the commitment to the other soccer teams, or were students from CCD or UCDHSC who couldn’t join the other soccer teams because they were not Metro students, Contreras explained.

“So I just decided to make a soccer club that would benefit that means,” he said. “And also not just for them, but pretty much all students who are at a beginner level, who are interested in soccer to possibly (reach) an advanced level.”

Contreras has been working on this project since the beginning of the semester and said he has hopes of having this year-round club sport on the field by this summer.

“Right now, I’m working on the scholarships,” Contreras said. “I’ve got the constitution and everything we need done for the paperwork. It’s just a matter of meeting with Peter Julian, who is the director of club sports, and getting it approved.”

Julian said it is a good idea to get this kind of soccer team built, so those who don’t qualify for the other teams, or who aren’t Metro students, can still enjoy the game.

And although there is a ton of work and obstacles to get a club sport developed, Julian said it is very feasible that Contreras can get it done and teach valuable lessons to those students who get involved.

“We want students to take ownership of it,” Julian said about the development of club sports. “It will help build organizational skills.”

The club will not only benefit those who want to play soccer, but also those students who want to try their hand at coaching or refereeing.

If a student has a license to referee or is going to school in hopes of becoming a coach for a sport team, then the club could help him or her develop those skills. The Colorado Rush, which is a nonprofit soccer club, has offered to provide coaches to teach and help out the new soccer team, according to Contreras.

“So as long as they have licenses, it’s another way of building better résumés,” Contreras said. “It’s also building a career for not only the coaches at (Colorado) Rush, students or anybody else, but we are also hiring referees for that matter, too. They can get their certification and not only to teach them how to be coaches, but can also become certified refs.”

The cost to participate in the league is $10 a semester for Auraria students, and $20 for nonstudents. Contreras said he has about 60 people already interested in the league, with a majority of those participants considered advanced-level players.

“These players are unable to get on (the varsity teams), and they usually travel to outside sources to play,” Contreras said. “They’re still really good players and are definitely interested in playing and keeping their skills up and just enjoying the fun game.

“ That is the benefit of this club, is to teach anyone to get experienced with soccer, to actually practice and possibly get a chance to play on a championship team,” Contreras added.