Area girls on club soccer team competing for national title

Four area girls are part of a girls club soccer team that accomplished something not achieved by the club before by advancing to the national tournament held this week in Commerce City, Colorado.

Representing the area on the team are Ana Bering and Miranda Tyler from Dike-New Hartford; Alex Yoder from Grundy Center and Jada Blohm from Gladbrook-Reinbeck. The team also includes players from Cedar Falls, Hudson, Jesup, Mason City, Spencer, Waterloo and Waverly.

“It’s amazing to think about all these communities coming together with a common goal,” said club head coach Kat Bering, who is also the head coach for Dike-New Hartford girls soccer, in a phone interview from Colorado. “I’ve coached a group of these girls off and on since they were four years old and they’ve grown up in front of my eyes where we’ve built up a group that can be dominant in this age group.”

Bering credited coach Micah McMorris for helping to coach the girls when Bering had to turn her attention to the Wolverine soccer team, and for helping rope in players from the Mason City and Spencer area to round out the club.

The Cedar Valley Soccer Club U-16/U-17 team went undefeated in the National Cup Midwest Regional Championship held in Chicago from June 17-20, defeating two clubs from Minneapolis, one from Indianapolis, one from Columbus, Ohio and a team from Kansas City in the championship.

The National Cup is the US Club Soccer organization’s championship competition, with the finals scheduled to begin today, July 14 and run through July 18 at the DICK’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, part of the Denver metro area and home to the Colorado Rapids men’s professional soccer team.

The CVSC team is one of eight teams in the nation vying for the title in their age group. Bering noted that the team’s success was remarkable since several girls are still U-16, but with four girls in the U-17 age bracket the team has largely been competing up against older competition.

The team arrived in Colorado on Tuesday, July 12 to begin training in the high altitude, something the girls have been preparing for on lower land back home.

“Once we were done with high school soccer we started training them with workouts to deplete their oxygen stores and make sure we get them fit,” Bering said. “These girls have just gone above and beyond doing a great job to get ready.”

CVSC will compete in Group B of the U-17 Premier Division, with group play consisting of three games in three days. At the end of Saturday, the winner of Group B will play the winner of Group A to determine the champion.

To help offset costs from the trip to Colorado, the team has set up a GoFundMe crowdsourcing fundraiser that can be found at gofund.me/309fb33d. The fundraiser has helped generate more than $2,000 toward its $7,000 goal.

“Winning regionals was an amazing feat for us,” Bering said. “We’re here at nationals now and we want to walk away national champions.”