Alumni Game Informal, Unforgettable

Thursday afternoon's contest was a pretty informal affair.

No officials. No team uniforms. Liberal substitution rules.

But it's a game participants won't soon forget.

About 20 former soccer players—ranging in age from just graduated to late 20s—gathered Thursday at to take on the current varsity squad in the annual alumni game.

A lot of the alumni players are living in Northfield—either temporarily or permanently—but others traveled from the Twin Cities or farther to help carry on the annual tradition.

Louis Rohr made the trip from Eagan, “just to hang out, have fun and screw around with former teammates, try to make a few of (the current varsity players) look foolish.”

And while the game's all in fun, players on both sides will remember  the outcome of the games for a good long time.

“We crushed them 5-0 my senior year,” said Ethan Neal, Class of 2008. “That's the only year the varsity beat the alumni.”

Neal coached the current NHS juniors for three seasons, and was curious to see how they'd progressed.

Neal is one of a number of former Raiders who is still active in soccer.

“We play on a team in the Twin Cities, the St. Paul Football Club,” he said. “There are about eight Northfield grads and the rest are (St.) Olaf guys.”

Bryce Thompson, who played on the 2003 and ’04 Raiders teams that were state runners-up, is in Northfield for the summer and had just a short drive to the soccer complex.

“I just came back from Colorado,” he said. “I haven't played ball in a while.”

Kyle Holden, another ’04 grad, is also back living in Northfield during a transition in his life.

“I was living in Minneapolis, but I'm moving to Denver,” he said, admitting he also hasn't played soccer in a long time.

Matt Yak, on the other hand, just wrapped up his collegiate soccer career. After leaving NHS, Yak didn't travel far.

“I just graduated from St. Olaf and I'm looking for a job,” he said.

Current Raiders captain Aaron Stets said he and his teammates appreciate the support of the alumni.

“There's lots of relations, lots of brothers,” he said. “And the high school players run camps in the summer, so you grow up hearing the names of a lot of these guys.

“It's cool that they're proud of the tradition they helped create.”