‘A win-win’: St. Bede adds soccer program

In recent years, St. Bede athletic director Michael Armatto has been approached about the possibility of adding soccer.

Last spring, Armatto did interest surveys among the student body.

“We started looking into it, and we did student interest surveys, and we did get back that there was interest,” Armatto said. “The key was determining exactly how much and how much was committed interest.”

In the spring, the surveys showed 40-45 students were interested in playing soccer, so over the summer Armatto reached out to the IHSA about starting a program.

When the students returned to school in the fall, a follow-up survey showed 25-28 students wanted to play.

So this fall, St. Bede is offering a co-ed junior varsity soccer team playing a limited schedule with hopes of expanding the program in the future.

“I think it’s ultimately a win-win,” Armatto said. “If it gets more kids participating, our goal is always to offer opportunities to kids no matter what that looks like.

“It gives us another sport to promote that we have on campus.”

Armatto said it’s a benefit for St. Bede’s boarding students.

“For the school, I think it opens up the door for our international students to have a sport they may be more interested in participating in,” Armatto said. “We don’t have a lot of them who play football or play basketball, but if soccer is an avenue for them it’s worthwhile.”

With the decision to offer JV soccer this fall, Armatto had to quickly put together a schedule.

“Fortunately, through all the other sports, we developed relationships with other schools and their athletic directors,” Armatto said. “I have an email blast of about 150 ADs. I put in there that we’re looking for some games at the JV levels.”

The Bruins, who have about 20 players on the roster, played Somonauk in their first game Sept. 9 at Rotary Park in La Salle.

St. Bede played to a 1-1 draw with the Bobcats. Freshman midfielder Ankinimbom Yong scored the Bruins’ lone goal.

“Teamwork, that’s the main thing, and also getting to know each other, how they play their positions,” St. Bede coach David Garcia said in a press release about the team’s goals early in the season. “The goal is for everyone to focus on their position, take care of their spot, work together as a team and put all their heart in and represent this institution as best they can.”

The Bruins have five more games on the schedule, with the next four on the road against Calvary Christian (Sept. 24), Coal City (Sept. 26), IVC (Oct. 1) and Riverdale (Oct. 4) before closing the season with a home game against Oregon at Rotary Park (Oct. 7).

“It means I get to pave the way for all future student-athletes who have been wanting and looking forward to playing soccer,” senior captain and goalkeeper Haiden Ator said in the release. “I get to help the rough edges, smoothing things out, helping the coaches work with the team, work on plays and help organize things.”

Armatto said the goal is to eventually offer separate boys and girls programs at the varsity level.

“I think what we would do next year is see if we have positive momentum,” Armatto said. “If we have the interest to do this again, we would probably do it in a similar fashion but add a more full slate of games, so instead of 6-8 JV games, we’d play 15-16. Then at that point we’ll see if we have enough to go boys in the fall and girls in the spring. The key is not to wipe out another program.

“If that appears to be there next year, we can make the next step or we can say we’re going to do one more year as is, and then the following year try to break it into separate programs.

“As long as we take it slow and we don’t put the cart in front of the horse and administer this in a sensible manner, I think everything is looking good, and this is something that will stick.”