Dakota United Adapted Soccer Teams Finish Successful Seasons

As a captain of the Dakota United Hawks adapted soccer team, Brandon Mathiowetz knows that how an athlete feels affects how he or she performs in competition. That’s why he makes sure he offers encouraging words to his teammates if he sees that they are getting down.

“When we’re losing, I tell them ‘good job’,” said Mathiowetz, a senior at Hastings High School. “Positive reinforcement.”

This season, however, Mathiowetz and his teammates on the Hawks’ physically impaired (PI) team haven’t had to worry much about losing. The team, coached by Stacy Pfarr, finished the regular season with a 6-1-1 record, good for second place in the South Division of the Minnesota Adapted Athletic Association (MAAA).

The Hawks’ cognitively impaired (CI)  team, coached by Tom Grothe, is in much the same position, having finished second in the South Division with an 8-1-0 record.

But despite the teams’ regular-season success and the excitement of playing in the state tournament last weekend, members of both teams were in agreement when asked their favorite part about playing soccer:  making friends and having fun playing a sport together.

Students from Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan, Hastings, Mendota Heights, Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul are eligible to play on the Dakota United teams.

Paul Stokke, a freshman at Simley High School on the PI team, is the only Inver Grove Heights resident on either team.

 “I like how well the people get along, the camaraderie on our team,” said Mathiowetz, who plays defense.

“It’s fun—playing with your friends” said Ricky Arends, a Rosemount High School senior on the CI team.

Many of the Hawks also play on the Dakota United floor hockey teams in the winter and softball teams in the spring, which has helped them grow even closer. In addition, most adaptive athletes start playing at the high school level in seventh grade, and some of them play on teams in sports the Minnesota State High School League doesn’t sponsor—like wheelchair basketball through the Golden Valley-based Courage Center. So it’s no surprise that Mathiowetz said the adapted athletics community is “very tight-knit.”

Both Grothe and Pfarr share this view, and both are impressed with their teams on and off the floor.

“We’re passing real well,” Grothe said. “These guys are good hustlers, they really hustle.”

“What I like about it is the attitude of most of the kids. It’s amazing how quickly they get over a loss. After five minutes, they’re asking, ‘When do we get pizza?’ ”

That’s not to say the players don’t take the game seriously. While the CI team flew up and down the gym floor during a recent practice at the Rosemount Community Center, Pfarr stopped talking and apologized to a visitor.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “This is a really good game.”

Earlier that afternoon, as the PI team practiced, it was easy to see why Pfarr is just as pleased with her team as Grothe is with his.

There is a rule in the PI divisions that prohibits players with use of their legs from running and jumping that’s designed to make the game fairer for those in manually-powered wheelchairs. Despite that, the PI team practiced at a fast pace, with the offensive players hustling to and battling for the ball and the defensive players moving quickly to get in position to stop the attack.

“We have a young team,” Pfarr said. “We lost a big position to graduation. At the beginning of the year, it was a question of who was going to step up and be a leader.”

Pfarr got some of that leadership from a couple of her younger players. Eighth grader Grayson Nicolay (Rosemount Middle School) is one of the team’s leading scorers.

“He brings motivation to our team,” Pfarr said.

Hastings High School freshman Liz Kimmes has played forward, defense and goalie this season.

“She’s a relatively young player to be in so many different positions,” Pfarr said.

While Kimmes, Mathiowetz and the rest of the Hawks know the importance of things that are keys in all team sports—like defending and good communication —they also realize that there are things that set them apart.

“We talk about things a lot of other teams don’t talk about,” Mathiowetz said.

Like how they will get to and from practices and games.

District 196, in which many of the players attend school, cut after-school activity buses, putting more pressure on families, Pfarr said.

But there has been some good news on the transportation front.

The Hawks travel to games on one short school bus, and—new this year—a coach bus designed to comfortably transport wheelchairs. The nine wheelchair players are the most Pfarr has had in her six years with Dakota United.

“It’s one of those things,” Mathiowetz said. “We finally get what we deserve.”

The PI team ended its season with a 4-3 overtime win against Park Center on Saturday, Nov. 19 to finish in third place at the state tournament. The CI team ended finished with a victory as well, beating South Suburban 12-4 to claim the consolation title. Click here for more on the CI  state tournament, and here for more on the PI state tournament.