Men’s and Women’s Soccer Look Ahead to Fall 2020

The 2020 soccer season at DCTC will see a few changes from previous years. The first change is that the both the Men’s and Women’s soccer programs will be moving from a division 1 NJCAA classification to a division 2 NJCAA classification. The change is happening for two reasons, one is to put the soccer programs at the same NJCAA classification as all of the other sports at DCTC and the second reason is that this is the first year the NJCAA is offering division two in soccer. DCTC will be joining many other schools around the country who are making this move. The soccer programs will still be able to offer athletic scholarships to athletes. A second change to the DCTC soccer programs is that they have moved from being an independent team, meaning not a member of a conference to being a member of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference for soccer. This change will be good for both programs, as it will provide a stable schedule and provide DCTC with some of the best competition in the country, as the Iowa Conference has a history of competing for national championships. Coach Mark Obarski, said, “he is excited to compete against in what many views as the top conference in the country for soccer, he noted that DCTC will need to be better prepared for games, work harder than ever before and be ready for players to step up their level of play to that which they have never seen before.” Obarski, added, “each and every player in the DCTC program will need to take responsibility for how they compete, just showing up to practice and games will not be enough, players will need to commit to excellence like many of them have never had to do before.” DCTC will continue to recruit locally from in and around the Minneapolis area, with an occasional recruit from outside the Twin Cities metro area. The third change for 2020 will be the schedule for both the Men’s and Women’s team. The schedule will now include ten games with DCTC new conference opponents. The Blueknights will play a home and home match within their new conference. Teams in the conference are: Hawkeye Community College: Waterloo, Iowa Northeast Community College: Norfolk, Nebraska North Iowa Area Community College: Mason City, Iowa Scott Community College: Bettendorf, Iowa Southeastern Community College: Burlington, Iowa Also, on the schedule for the Blueknights are St. Olaf College club team for the Men’s team, home and away games, Rochester Community College for the Women’s team, home and away games and both teams will travel to Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota. Both teams will play home and away with Lake Superior Community College from Duluth, Minnesota, St. Scholastic JV from Duluth, Minnesota. Both teams will open the season at home facing Allen Community College from Iola, Kansas. Both the Men’s and Women’s soccer teams have many key players returning for 2020 season, along with the addition of many exciting recruits that will join the teams in the fall of 2020. Obarski is excited about the challenges that are ahead in 2020. You can follow the blueknights soccer teams at www.goblueknights.com and follow the teams at www.iccac.org for conference play and regional information.