Meet the River City Jaguars, winners of the National Home School Soccer Championship title in Fort Wayne recently.
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Coach Jon Sweetland of New Albany steered the Jaguars to the Division II national title after a season which did not suggest such lofty heights were about to be reached.
Having lost more games than it won, River City went on an unbeaten four-match run during the tournament held at Kreager Park in Fort Wayne. Co-team manager, Janet Eldridge of Floyds Knobs, whose son Ryan is a senior on the team, said it was a major surprise, even to them.
“Everything just pulled together,” said Eldridge. “Our win-loss record for the season, we would not have predicted it. We were just thrilled. We had an awesome bunch of players and families this year.”
The run included group-stage victories over the SE Wisconsin Saints (6-1) and the Kalamazoo Cougars of Michigan (2-1). Then, in the semifinal, the Jaguars beat Traverse City, also from Michigan, 3-0, before triumphing over Metro United of Minnesota by a 1-0 score in the final.
The 19-strong coed roster from grades 7-12 comprises players from far and wide, including New Albany, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, Floyds Knobs, Borden, Pekin, Corydon, Georgetown, Louisville and Shepherdsville, Ky. They receive the majority of their education in a home school environment.
“One of the things we try to do as a Christian program is character-build,” said Eldridge. “You don’t have to play the way that girl did (referring to the recent, well-publicized antics of New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert).”
The Jaguars, who play their home games at Cannon Acres and practice twice a week, were founded in 2004 by Charlestown’s Jenny Stopher at a time when there was no fall soccer team for her son Aaron to play on.
Stopher used her experience as team manager at Southern Indiana United to get a squad of home-schoolers together through word of mouth and an e-mail network. Then, she got googling and found a similar home school team in Lexington, Ky. (Bluegrass United), who became the Jaguars’ first and only opponents that year.
The Jaguars’ schedule nowadays is a little busier and comprises a mix of home school and Indiana high school teams, while this was their third time competing at the national championships.
Stopher’s involvement in the team ended after her son graduated two years ago. But she is still kept in the loop in regards to team news and she said she is “tickled pink” with the recent success.
“It was a rough first year, but I think God laid it on my heart to build a team for future years,” said Stopher. “The kids bonded and it brought them some consistency year to year. The consistency is something that really helped my son.”
And long may the consistency continue.
