Melody Kaup's dream of continuing to play soccer after high school will come true after the Gering senior signed a letter-of-intent to play at Western Nebraska Community College on Wednesday.
Kaup, who's been playing soccer since the age of 8, is excited to become a Cougar, a program she has watched over the past years.
"I decided to go with WNCC because it is my hometown college and I have watched WNCC play for a long time. I have been inspired and wanted to really just wanted to play for WNCC," Kaup said. "I am very excited to be with WNCC and play with them. Playing college soccer is what I wanted. I wanted to continue with soccer as long as I can and getting to do that is my life dream."
Kaup said coming to a program she is familiar with will help her in college.
"Knowing the WNCC program is a big plus," she said. "I feel a lot more comfortable going in. there are not as much new things to learn as well as getting to know my new team and building from that."
Kaup added that she is looking forward to reunited next year with a couple of Gering graduates [Sydney Heimbouch and Leah Martin] that were members of the Cougars last season.
"It is exciting and I am so excited to play with Sydney and Leah," she said. "They are people I was comfortable with before and they are people who I have established a good relationship with. I am really excited."
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic is excited to get another area player on the team and feels she will fit in fine. Several of the Cougar freshmen were in attendance watching Kaup sign her letter of intent.
""I think she will bring experience and she has played competitively over the years and had good technical training," Rasnic said. "When I watch her play in competition, she does a lot of things correct. My expectations on keepers is they come in fully ready to play. I think she is at that level and I think the game itself will give her the ability to see the game at a higher rate of speed. I think she will bring some good qualities to the team and I think it speaks well of our club program when we can bring in local student athletes and let them compete."
Kaup will bring experience to the team next year. She started playing soccer when she was 8-years old but didn't start playing goalkeeper until a few years later because of AYSO rules in her age group. But, when she started to travel with her club teams when she was 10, she was primarily a goalkeeper.
Through the years she has continued to grow as a keeper and hopes to keep improving and playing the game for as long as she can. Last year, she shared goalkeeping duties with Leah Martin.
The Gering girls started practice for the coming year this week and the team's first matches are slated for March 17 when they host Scottsbluff. Kaup said they should have a good season this season.
The hard part, though, is come May when she closes out her high school career. She said she will miss her friends the most.
"I think the one thing I will miss about Gering is all the girls I play with," she said. "I think I have developed a family here and I definitely going to miss them."