(Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette) Houghton High School Soccer Club members Madison Mattila, Brogan Storer and Ray Shaw discus the club’s first year during the Houghton-Portage Township Schools meeting Monday.

HOUGHTON — The first season of the Houghton High School Soccer Club is setting it up for more success in the future, club members said during Monday’s Houghton-Portage Township Schools Board meeting.

“It really represents Houghton taking a leadership position in athletics in the region,” said club volunteer David Flaspohler, who noted Hancock is also starting a team. “I think this is meeting a need among youth for healthy athletics in the area.”

There is a high appetite for the sport locally, Flaspohler said. Last year, 665 students played in the Country Country Soccer Association.

Brogan Storer, a sophomore at Houghton High School, said having a club had been a goal of his for a couple of years now.

“Soccer’s played around the world,” he said. “It can really teach people who play it hard work, teamwork, and just grit overall, which I think is great to bring to our school.”

Of 31 students in the club, 17 were not involved in another sport, said sophomore Ray Shaw.

“By making this team, we opened up sports to a lot of kids that normally participate in school sports,” he said.

Madison Mattila, a junior, was one of four girls on the team. It was a great opportunity for the students to play against higher competition. It has also created a pathway for top athletes to make it to college teams, since there were no teams before college scouts could have watched, she said.

“A lot of these kids have been playing soccer for 10 years, 12 years – since they’ve pretty much walked – and it’s great to have an opportunity for them to be able to play competitively in high school,” she said.

Next year, the club plans to host a tournament, drawing teams from as far away as Sault Ste. Marie, said volunteer Carrie Flaspohler.

Trustee Buck Foltz said the team had told him the district’s new complex had enabled them to play later into the fall, and began practices earlier.

“Half of those kids weren’t doing anything else athletically, so it’s not like you’re pulling away from something else,” he said.

Past clubs, such as softball and baseball, have graduated from club to varsity sports after five years of demonstrating their viability, said Athletic Director John Sanregret.

Aside from the Copper Country Christian Academy, the other opponents are about a two-hour drive away, Sanregret said. If it became a varsity sport, the teams might follow in the footsteps of sports such as baseball and junior varsity hockey, where parents drive students to the games rather than the school providing transportation.

“They’re taking all the kids, which you wouldn’t have to do if you had a varsity team,” he said. “It might be 15 kids – far more manageable.”

Twenty or so years ago, the last time the school had a soccer club, it lasted about two years, said Trustee Brad Baltensperger. The largest obstacle was the low number of teams. He was encouraged by the news of Hancock’s team.

“That’s what you need to make these things work, because you need teams you can play,” he said.