Magic Soccer celebrates 10 years, students publish commemorative book

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – In 2014, Ricardo Pierre-Louis wanted to share his love for soccer with kids in Bismarck and Mandan.

So, he created Magic Soccer, an elite soccer club that has produced some of the state’s best players.

That’s good news for the sport, but there’s even more good news to share.

Always a teacher and coach, Pierre-Louis found a way to get more students involved in celebrating 10 years of Magic Soccer.

The pages of this book are filled with a decade’s worth of memories for Ricardo Pierre Louis. The words on these pages tell the story of Magic Soccer; stories of players and of parents, of a dream come true and of the lessons learned from the game of soccer.

“When we started, our goal was to create opportunities for young people to develop not just the soccer skills, but also their character, discipline and confidence,” said Pierre-Louis, founder of Magic Soccer.

Those are much the same goals for students on the Bismarck High School Hi-Herald staff. Those students wrote, photographed and designed the entire 52-page full-color book.

“I’m beyond proud of them,” said Annie McKenzie, Hi-Herald adviser.

“I helped design a lot of pages,” said sophomore Madalynn Fitterer.

“My favorite part was writing and learning about other people’s stories,” said Alannah Kemmis, a junior at Bismarck High and editor of the Hi-Herald.

Stories like this one, written by sophomore Payton Hehr.

“It was about Becky Matthews, a mom who passed away,” he explained.

Hehr said seeing his name in print is the best part of this project.

“It’s pretty cool that everybody gets to know we did that,” said Hehr.

“The work that students have put in was incredible. It wasn’t an easy project, but throughout the process, they have grown so much,” said Pierre-Louis.

That growth is forever captured on the pages of this book.

Students will be selling the books this weekend at Magic Soccer’s tournament. They printed 500 copies and expect to sell out. All the money they make will go toward printing their monthly newsmagazine.