Thursday is the debut of the 1999 IMS soccer team, with the varsity facing off against Cardinal St…

By Sports Dept.

Thursday is the debut of the 1999 IMS soccer team, with the varsity facing off against Cardinal Stritch at 6:30. Thursday will also be the debut of the new lights that will illuminate the soccer field.

Maybe.

“I still haven’t checked when the sun goes down,” Coach Marcus Miller said. “I don’t think it will be dark enough at the beginning of the season to really need to have the lights on. I heard that it is supposed to be cloudy and might rain on Thursday, so maybe we will have the lights on toward the end of the game.”

With only two 40-minute halves and with a short 10-minute break, it is doubtful that it will be late enough to need the lights for the game. But Miller said that they would probably turn them on just to try the lights out.

The new lighting instruments were mounted and raised in August, illuminating the IMS soccer pitch and baseball field. According to sources at IMS, the project to light the softball, baseball, and soccer fields at IMS was made possible by anonymous financial contributions and hours of labor donated by IMS parents, athletic boosters, and other volunteers.

Miller and the team have tested the lights and said they work well.

“I was out with a few college players right after they put the lights up,” Miller said. “There was some worry about the players casting shadows, but it looks really good on the field. The visibility is excellent and you can see the ball very well.”

Miller added that the lights gave a mystical quality to the field.

“When we were first out, it was really humid with a little drizzle that hung in the air. It was like a fog hung over the field. One guy commented that he half-expected soccer players to appear out of the woods, like in Field of Dreams.”

As for Thursday’s game, Miller doesn’t know that much about this year’s Cardinal Stritch team.

“They usually have a couple good midfielders, otherwise I am not sure what they will bring.”

Last year, IMS split with Cardinal Stritch; winning 3-0 at home, and then losing there in sudden-death overtime 3-2.

“We should have won the second game,” Miller said. “We had some laspes in our defense and didn’t finish our scoring chances.”

The Kalona News will highlight various home athletic match-ups in the Calendar section, appearing each week. If you have a story idea, or an event open to the public you would like listed in the Calendar, please contact The Kalona News.