Mt. Pleasant, IA- The Mt. Pleasant girls’ soccer team has produced six consecutive seasons of at least 0.500 records, including three seasons of double-digit wins. One of those seasons coincided with talented midfielder Charice Auwerda, as the senior officially announced her decision to continue her collegiate career at Iowa Central Community College.
Auwerda is happy to have to decision finalized,
“I mean, it’s been a really long process. My parents and I, we’ve been like, toughing it out. This has been going on for like a year and I think that Iowa Central is honestly the best fit for my family and I, and I’m really excited to play for this team.”
The senior has been a magnet for the goal, leading the Southeast Conference (SEC) in goals and points once and assists every year. Auwerda has scored an impressive 55 career goals to go along with 53 assists, which is the Panther record.
Her sophomore season was her most impressive, tied for the conference lead in goals with fellow Panther Elly Manning with 24 goals and assisted on 18 more goals. It was also a successful season from a team perspective, collecting 11 wins and falling a game short of the Regional Championship.
The success has just been a by-product of competing in a sport she’s loved for a decade,
“[Fell in love with the sport] About 8 years old. My parents put me in the rec program, and I started playing for the Rec team and then I made a lot of friends. We were just connecting, playing soccer and everything, and then we started playing for Pink Panthers with one of my friend’s dad’s little club. And then ever since then I just started playing a lot and I really like playing it.”
The Panthers will return a strong senior class for the 2025 season, which includes Auwerda and the team’s leading goal scorer in Tori Wilson. This will be an experienced team coming off a 7-7 campaign last year. Another stat to look out for is Auwerda only needs 12 more points to set the program record as she averages 54 per season.
“I’m very excited” said Auwerda. “It’s our last time playing together. Some of the people that I play with, we’ve played together at a very young age. It’s definitely sentimental and emotional, but I’m very happy.”
The Triton women’s soccer team finished the 2024-25 season with a 9-5-3 record and dominated conference play with an 8-0-1 record. Auwerda will look to add some fire power next season while majoring in business.