AKRON – For some, the thought of soccer at Tippecanoe Valley is unthinkable. The school has never had it, or really ever had the game in the area. But the dream for others is becoming a reality as the official groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday afternoon at the school grounds for the construction of the new soccer field.

Ground had already been broken, plowed and partially cleared ahead of the 3 p.m. ceremony at Tippecanoe Valley High School, where over two dozen members of the Valley school corporation and club soccer team members were on hand. With the hope of having the field ready to use for the 2016 fall season, the small ceremony was a big step toward getting soccer in the school corporation.

“It’s obvious we have had interest, and we finally felt we had enough to go through with a field project,” said Tippecanoe Valley High School Athletic Director Duane Burkhart. “We have had the club team and felt like we could build on that.

“This started with just a few inquiries over the years,” continued Burkhart. “The hope was that the kids would commit. We need consistency from the kids, and also from the community. We don’t want this to just be a high school thing, we want to develop at all levels.”

The project was said to have officially grown legs in March, 2014, when TVHS junior Josh Petgen approached the school board with a request to start a high school program. Eventually granting approval, the field was charted to the west of the football stadium and work began recently.

The fields are said to not be ready for this fall’s club season, but instead for the 2016 season when Valley hopes to join the IHSAA with a boys program. A girls team is aimed for 2017. Currently, TVHS only has a co-ed club team which had 16 boys and four girls on last year’s roster.

The appreciation was evident at the groundbreaking from players and administration alike, noted in part by Valley student Victoria Kratzchmar approaching Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation Superintendent Brett Boggs. “Thank you for helping make this happen,” Kratzchmar stated with sincerity. “I think this will be a great thing for our school, and I’m excited to play.”

One man who has seen the game grow in greater Mentone is Mark Gordon, who has coached the Valley soccer club. Gordon, who will take over the boys program when it becomes a sanctioned sport, feels the game has enough growth potential to take off in the community, not just at the high school level.

“This is like a ‘Field of Dreams’ for a lot of these kids, and for the game,” Gordon said. “If we can build it, they will come. I want to develop here at the middle school. Our hope is that in two or three years from now, we can have fields other than just here. So that we can have all of the kids playing here and not having to go to Argos or Rochester.”

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for the future soccer field at Tippecanoe Valley High School. On hand for the ceremony were, from left, Ivan Santiago, Eliud Gutierrez, TVSC Superintendent Brett Boggs, Ron Hostetler, Ryan Petgen, TVHS athletic director Duane Burkhart, Scott Smith, Paul Schaeffer, Dave O’Brien, John Salmon, Joshua Petgen, Alvaro Gutierrez, Stan Miller, Rikko Montelongo, TVHS club coach Mark Gordon, Rafael Jiminez, Than Angsakul, Todd Glenn, Adrian Velazquez, Alyssa Brito, Brad Shepard, Victoria Kratzchmar, Trisha Rudolph, Elizabeth Salazar and Mackenzie Lowe. (Photo by Mike Deak)