Members of the Manitou Springs High School boys and girls soccer teams have been doing indoor soccer over the winter season to play in the off season. The boys season started in November and the girls first season started in November and now the new season started in January. The team name for both the girls and boys indoor teams is Mustangs United. They play at SoccerHaus in Colorado Springs. The girls team is managed by Ben Mack and Sam Duff, and the boys team is managed by Brian Gervais.
Indoor soccer contrasts from outdoor soccer in a few ways, which makes it a very different experience. “It’s a lot more fast paced. The game never stops because there’s no out of bounds,” Duff said, “so it really prepares players for that outside soccer.”
Both the girls and boys indoor seasons take place during the offseason. The boys take place after the season and the girls take place before, which helps to get the team in shape. “I would say indoor soccer is the biggest, most efficient way for you to improve as a player during winter time. It gets you into shape in a different way. The field is a lot smaller. The game never stops,” Duff said. “You really develop your touch in indoor soccer, as well as your fitness. I highly encourage any and all athletes to play indoor soccer.”
Mateo Racho Pluth is a varsity player on the MSHS boys soccer team and has been playing indoor since sixth grade and has been playing for Mustangs Unite for two years. “I love the indoor soccer league, I think it’s a way that I can stay in the soccer mode and keep fitness up, while also just having fun. It’s not that competitive, it’s just kind of a fun way to do things,” Racho Pluth said. “and it’s a fun way to connect with others and chill out.”
The different rules of indoor soccer are what make the game different from outdoor soccer. “It’s a really small field, It’s more fast paced, There’s more subs, goals are smaller, you can hit it off the wall, you can rebound it off the wall and there’s a lot of different ways you can do things instead of just normal soccer,” Racho Pluth said, “and also, it can be a little more frustrating that you can’t slide, you can’t do cool stuff. Like, if you wanted to do a bicycle (An acrobatic soccer maneuver where a player strikes a ball backwards over their own head) do that, but still, there are more rules.”
Brynn Berardi is a player for the girls indoor team. She has been playing indoor soccer since sixth grade, and only started playing for Mustangs Unite this year, but she has enjoyed it so far. “I think it’s really fun, it’s just like a good way to build the team up before the season starts,” Berardi said. “The best part of playing indoor soccer is getting to have a fun time with people, and it’s not really serious, you just get to mess around.”
Indoor soccer gives soccer players a chance to have fun playing soccer as well as learn new skills and grow in the sport. “The biggest and most important thing is it just gives players an opportunity to play and continue to express themselves and play the game that they love again, during winter in Colorado it’s a lot harder to go out on your own in 15 degree weather and shoot when everything’s cold,” Duff said. “ If you have an opportunity to go into an indoor space where it’s warm and you have music playing, it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s really important that we continue playing for both boys and girls in that league.”
The sport makes it so that the soccer players have more freedom and fun while playing the game they love. “It’s an opportunity for them to play together without a lot of formal coaching. The idea behind indoor is that it is supposed to be a little bit more informal and give the players an opportunity to express themselves without being told what to do almost every single time they get the ball,” Duff said.
