WORTHINGTON — The Minnesota West soccer team is in its third year of existence as a sanctioned team in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference. With the largest roster the Bluejays have ever had, they are ready to exit their infancy.

The Bluejays squad features an array of players from all across the world. Some like former Worthington High School center back Dalen Gonzalez are at home, trading Trojans red, and black for Bluejays white and blue.

Others come from further-away Minnesota areas, such as Fairmont and Rochester. There are also three athletes from Germany competing on the squad and two more originating from Colombia.

Last year the Minnesota West team won zero games in their soccer season. The year before that three. This season there is optimism to change that under coach Jordan Balster.

“Four out of the five guys returning were playing with the UPSL team (Worthington Community FC) so they have been playing all summer and playing together, keeping their fitness up and getting even more experience against higher levels of competition,” said Balster. “I think with the younger guys coming in — and with the level that they can play at — they can really connect well and the team works like a solid group. But you never know until you get into it.”

Balster joined Minnesota West when the soccer team switched to sanctioned three years ago. Before that he worked as an assistant coach for Juan Flores on the Worthington High School team. Balster was also a goalkeeper at both Buena Vista and WHS.

Balster is joined on the coaching staff by Minnesota West English professor Dan Bernstrom and Frank Herrera.

Bernstrom played high school soccer in Iowa. And Balster said his presence with the team is a big addition, due to his ability to help manage some of the day-to-day soccer, and non soccer tasks needed to keep the program running smoothly.

“He has been more than willing to sit down with guys and go through anything. He will just talk to them about everything, if it is questions with the Villas or stuff like that,” said Balster. “I think a couple of the guys are trying to find a car and they mentioned that to him today and he’s already contacted some guys to figure it out. He has been a lot of help.”

Herrera played high school soccer with Balster and was a long time coach for the WHS middle school and C-squad programs.

“Frank will be a lot of help this year. He works hard and he wants to learn,” said Balster. “He hasn’t had as much coaching experience with older (kids). But he ran the Community Education soccer program this summer and he has been working with middle school soccer the last couple of years. He does a really good job, gets along with all the guys and brings a positive attitude.”

Two late additions to the club were Adrian Sanchez and Prince Lebbi Jr, both of whom played this past spring and summer for the WCFC UPSL Premier and Division One teams.

“Sometimes when teams come in and play Worthington (High School) they don’t look quite as good. So it is hard to get a good read on players when they aren’t playing on quite as good of a team,” said Balster on Fairmont graduates Lebbi and Sanchez. “But once you get that quality up and they are playing with a little bit better guys — the level steps up and you can really see how they play.”

Minnesota West’s first game of the season is on Tuesday, Aug. 15 taking on North Iowa Area Community College. They will play a second home game that Thursday, Aug. 17 against Dakota County Technical College.

The third game of the season is an exhibition game in Storm Lake, Iowa against Balster’s alma mater Buena Vista University.

The MCAC has five teams which compete in men’s soccer. Riverland and Anoka-Ramsey have a history of fine soccer seasons. Lake Superior College has also been trending in the right direction and has talent on their team. Alexandria Technical and Community College and Minnesota West are the newest two teams and Balster said this could be the season to see a breakthrough.

“We are trying to get across to the guys that our most important games are going to be our conference games," said Balster. "Trying to get results there so we can get a good seed in the conference tournament and home playoff games.”

Winning the conference tournament gives entry to a regional tournament with other conference winners and beyond that is national tournaments.

But Balster isn’t thinking about that yet, he wants his team to first prove itself against the conference with favorites such as Austin’s Riverland.

“As we continue to play we have played a couple tight games against Riverland but I would really like to see a lot better play against our conference opponents,” said Balster. “And that will come with experience and as we grow our team.”

Balance, Balster said, will be the identity of the Bluejays. He expects a balanced starting eleven of sophomores and freshman — and for the first time a balanced bench to replace exhausted players and potentially provide a spark late in games. The Bluejays have a few players still to make the trip to Worthington but will end up with just around 20 guys in total. The team will also have two goalkeepers, a big bonus in case of an emergency.

Another perk to the Minnesota West schedule is eight of their 10 first games being played at Trojan Field.

“Especially being healthy, guys having energy and turn out at home with people cheering on adding that extra energy to them. Once you get people in the stands cheering it really gets you going,” said Balster. “We are plenty excited about that. The better start that we can get it just builds confidence as we go and have to travel to these other places. If we can start and be successful right away then when we run into a game where we don’t play great we have the opportunity to look back and say ‘Hey we know how to play’ and get back on track.”