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November 13th, 2009 | By Darwin Manning | Section: Features

1014 High St., better known as Soccer House knows how to get its game on. Each year the house gets plenty of abuse and sees its fair share of parties, a goal that this year’s resident players Ben Schemper ’11, Justin Koester ’10, Matti Sahel ’11, Alex Kohut ’10 and Andrew Stephenson ’10 are sure to score.

“What’s truly great about 1014 is all the bro’ing out that takes place there. Any night of the week you’ll find anywhere between four to eight ‘bros’ hanging at the house,” Schemper said.

Their goal as a house is summed up quite well by Stephenson. “We see ourselves as providing a service to the student body by giving them a place to go—somewhere they can hang out for the rest of the night, a fun place for people to feel like they can go to.”       

Indeed, this house is quite notorious for being a beacon of warmth on cold Saturday nights after Harris parties. “The soccer house holds many of the after-parties for Harris and, in short, is one of the more prominent houses on High Street that allows itself to be trashed,” Stephenson said.       

But being one of the top locations on High Street to go for some cold beer and good company post-Harris isn’t the only reason Soccer House gets recognition. “My first year, ‘Moose’ [Club] was in the hands of Moose House,” Kohut said. So when they graduated, the soccer team took it over, not only to make sure that this wholesome Grinnell tradition of Moose club didn’t die out, but also because Wednesday makes for a great party night when you have weekend soccer games.”

Moose Club—a collection of students that gathers on Wednesday nights to play the popular Grinnell drinking game Moose—has grown in popularity over the years. This year is no different—especially since Moose has started having different themes. “Ones we have done this semester so far have been F-Daryl Moose, Ninja Moose, Country Moose and Halloween Moose to name a few,” Sahel said.

1014 is also known for the shenanigans that are held after the conclusion of the soccer season. “We are most notorious for the WEEK OF GREATEST that occurs as soon as the soccer season ends,” Sahel said. “What happens then is that the entire team comes out to our house every night of one week to drink together, ending on Friday with tub-o-beer!!!  It is absolute mayhem.”

The most faithful witness to this mayhem is “The Maiden”—the house’s unorthodox, wooden, extended-length beer pong table and central furniture piece.

Through all the recreational fun that takes place here it is amazing that the house hasn’t fallen down yet. “The house on the outside looks like a piece of crap, but on the inside has some amazing columns and a really nice staircase,” Stephenson said.

The residents of 1014 are well aware of the neglect to which they subject their home. “It has the potential to be a really nice house. It’s just we’ve been neglecting it a little to much and we should probably get on that,” Stephenson said.

Yet it doesn’t seem like they’ll be getting on it anytime soon—they’ll be too busy getting their party on, leaving fans cheering and the Maiden smelling of beer.