Guttenberg Soccer League marks 30 years of play

By Molly Moser

The sports page in the July 9, 1986, issue of The Guttenberg Press featured stories of youth and adult softball, golf, and baseball leagues, a swim team, and even a dance party at the Guttenberg Swimming Pool with DJ Scott Fischer. Brand new on the page, though, was an advertisement for registration in Guttenberg’s first soccer league for youth ages six through 13. 

That spring, the city council agreed to let Clem DeMuth, Guttenberg resident and father of three soccer-playing youth, fashion a soccer field on the vacant property at Bluff and Goethe Streets, west of Highway 52. DeMuth and his family became aquainted with the sport while DeMuth was stationed in Europe as a member of the United States Air Force. 

The DeMuth family lived just a few doors away from Jim Osterhaus’ dentist office. Osterhaus had also learned to love soccer while spending time overseas. “I think I was the first one at the hall,” said Osterhaus, remembering that July registration day 30 years ago. 

Osterhaus began coaching and continued to do so for the next two decades. Denny Roth, Steve Bahls, Al and Fran Troester, and Bill Leonhart were also early coaches in the program. “We had a fairly good turnout,” Osterhaus recalls. Over 30 youth expressed interest in that first registration day, and a second one was scheduled later in the month garnering more than 50 participants. Soon after the program was established, the practice and playing area was relocated to the field north of the football stadium.

“The kids were like bees in a hive following that ball around. We couldn’t convince them to play their positions; it was so funny to watch,” Osterhaus chuckled. “Everybody was in a big mass around the ball. Some kids would be in that mass and never get a foot on the ball the whole season.”

The former coach still plays soccer weekly, carpooling to Wisconsin with teammates. He remembers rainy practices at the north field as some of the best of his coaching career. “The kids just loved it. We were drenched and muddy. People were diving and sliding. It was a hoot.”

Osterhaus built the goals at that field himself, using pipe from North End Wrecking, and later designed the irrigation system used at the current field on the south side of town. As the league grew, age ranges were cut to two grades each. 

“In 1997, Karen Merrick talked about kids being able to play after eighth grade. There were lots of kids – her son, my son, Sue’s son, and Bruce Bryant’s son, who really loved the game and still wanted to play. We organized an adult traveling league that went to Manchester, Earlville, Monticello, and Dyersville, divided into freshman/sophomores and junior/seniors,” said Osterhaus.

The Guttenberg soccer league still exists, now run by Dan Pierce. “Dan and his brother T.J. were just outstanding players,” Osterhaus recalls. Dan was 10 when he and his brother started, and the two were some of the first to join the new league. 

Fast forward to 2016, when Pierce serves as league coordinator and coaches teams for both of his daughters. There are nine teams with many parent coaches and roughly 100 youth participants. Soccer season is ending for the high school club, but will begin this month for youth league players. First and second graders play five-on-five in Guttenberg on two small fields, while older athletes travel to Dyersville – a community with multiple soccer fields and referees ready to officiate. 

The original soccer teams in Guttenberg were known as the Comets. Now, each team from grades one to eight bears the team name and logo of a local business. “This year, for the first time, we had local businesses sponsor each team,” said Pierce. For the past decade, the players have worn soccer jerseys owned by the city – but as those wore out, organizers looked for a different way to uniform the young athletes. 

"I believe soccer has made a huge impact for our youth and helped to improve the athletes for other Clayton Ridge sports," said Steve Staebler, president of the Clayton Ridge Athletic Booster Club. The names and jerseys may have changed over the last three decades, but the rules are the same – and young athletes in Guttenberg continue to enjoy the world’s most popular sport.