Soccer fans, your time has come!

Saturday afternoon, soccer comes to the high school varsity sports scene in the form of a co-op team of athletes from Thompson Falls and Plains. 

The new team, a product of a Montana High School Association and local school districts’ ruling that includes soccer as a varsity sport, takes to the pitch Saturday in Thompson Falls. 

The girls team takes to Previs Field at 2 p.m., taking on Lone Peak High (Big Sky, MT) to kick off the new season for the “new” sport.  That game will be followed by a boys’ match between the same schools at 4 p.m. 

And both co-op teams will be piloted by longtime soccer supporters, including Nick Lawyer, a Plains physician assistant who has been a mainstay of the local soccer community.  Lawyer will coach the girls team this year. 

In the 4 p.m. game, Michael Scharfe, will lead the boys onto the pitch for the first time. Scharfe got involved in soccer because his kids played the sport, and he has been involved ever since. 

Both teams had a good, combined turnout, with Scharfe expecting as many as 22 boys and Lawyer expecting up to 20 girls. 

Scharfe’s team features four seniors who have played on local teams in this area for several years. 

Zac Palacios, Will Grenda, Owen Doyle and Jonny Felix high the group of experienced and talented players on the squad, along with junior Andrew Wrobleski. 

Those five will hope to fill the void left by two players who graduated this past Spring and moved on, Lucas Allday and Cody Hafner. 

Five of the boys' players at this point are from Plains and the rest are Thompson Falls students. 

Scharfe said he believes team morale will play a vital role in their success in their varsity debut season. 

“We have a strong team morale,” he said. “We would like to see the team improve in their technical and tactical aspects of the game.  We have a fairly young team that is going to be learning to play at consistent varsity level.”

That prospect has Scharfe and others “excited” about the upcoming season. 

“This is our first high school soccer season and there is a lot of excitement around the program,” Scharfe said. “There is also a lot of community support for this.” 

Scharfe said the conference has several good teams, including the defending state champion Whitefish. 

Lawyer’s girls team also has a solid turnout going with some experienced players coming out to play varsity soccer. 

“The girls are really excited about this opportunity,” Lawyer said. “We have some good players and are eager to watch this team grow.”

Lawyer, who played a major role in the rapid increase in interest in soccer locally for several years, said the 16 players he currently has are split pretty evenly between the two schools. 

No roster was immediately available, but the line-up no doubt will be populated by players who have participated in the local soccer association’s highly successful program.

    Players for the new co-op girls' soccer team loosen up with a passing drill during practice this past week in Thompson Falls. The boys and girls teams open their first varsity season this Saturday in Thompson Falls. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)
  

    Members of the Thompson Falls-Plains co-op soccer team take to the field last week in preparation of their varsity debut this Saturday at 2 p.m. In Thompson Falls vs Lone Peak. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)