While the inaugural Gateway Conference Championship was just outside their grasp in 2023, Cedar Rapids Inferno Owner/Head Coach Kenan Malicevic and his team were given nine months to process their emotions and an opportunity to return with a vengeance in 2024. Return with a vengeance they certainly did, beating last year’s champions Ajax St. Louis 2-1 in their only meeting on June 8th. By the time Week 8 rolled around on the Inferno’s calendar, Ajax and any other clubs’ championship hopes were nothing more than a memory. The entire Gateway averaged 1.34 ppg for the 2024 season, but it was the Inferno being the only club to eclipse the 2-goal mark with title-winning 2.22 ppg.

As a third-year rostered member of the Inferno, you can count Gabe Chupa one of those who felt the heartbreak in 2023. “Oh man we were fired up,” he said. “We had a rough start to last season and finishing second to Ajax…we were really fired up and knew what the goal was.” Second-year player Callum McKenna shared the misery; however, last year was far from a disaster. All it would take is flipping two results and we would be talking about a back-to-back conference champion. “We knew that if we built on the foundation, we had last year, and added in the right places, guys would help enhance the team,” he elaborated. “It formulated to the point this year where we were able to get a run going and we achieved the success that we wanted.” Nothing eats at an athlete more than working for an entire season just to come up short. Throw in a well-respected coach to lead a group of said determined men…

Spark, meet Tinderbox.

At the first practice for the 2024 season Malicevic laid out to his team the changes need to be made, and to be so close the previous season there was just one last hurdle to overcome. “From day one, we reminded the guys that we were so close the year before,” Malicevic said. “To be completely honest, we were not as professional about the approach to our practices and games as we should have been the year prior.” The attention to detail was heightened and the overall motivation of the squad molded them into a serious group with one goal in mind. “From that first speech, it felt like the guys were buying in and everyone was on the same page,” he explained. “It just clicked. The chemistry was good, and a bunch of the guys knew each other from years prior, sure enough we used that as fuel to build.”

If an amateur club has been around since 2018 and is winning trophies off the back of second place finishes, everyone is pulling in the right direction. When asked about Malicevic, these two young men didn’t regurgitate preseason bullet points, they lauded his ability to lead them, trust them and his ability to foster growth. “Trust in the philosophy and the tactics in training,” McKenna said. “We keep a good atmosphere; all work for each other and buy into the project to be as successful as possible.” As one of the newer elder statesmen on the roster, he does feel a sense of responsibility to be that mentor. Malicevic shares the leadership platform, giving his more experienced players the room and respect to continue the Inferno Way. “This is probably the first time I’m a senior guy within a roster,” he admitted. “I just had to use the experiences I’ve had to guide and steer the younger ones on the correct path.” With a roster spanning a wider age range, McKenna explained the squad embraced the on-field IQ and ambition that the roster’s varying levels of experience offered. “It’s a super competitive environment, there’s good playerw all around so you need to work super hard,” Chupa added. “I feel Kenan has really pushed us to that 120%. You always have a little more left in the tank and everyone did well with that this season.”

“I hate the word ‘Participate’,” Maliceivc lamented. “So many guys want to participate and be happy with it.” In previous seasons he would notice during matches players would be hesitant to challenge for 50/50 balls or drop and commit to a tackle, so he made a point to be for his players to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. “I decided to introduce the word ‘Grit’ in some of those tighter games and situations we had and told them why not feel a little bruise from time to time and overcome that,” he said. “Once you do get that 50/50 ball, that bruise goes away that much quicker because it is satisfactory to know you sacrificed a little bit to get to that ball first.” McKenna and Chupa’s leadership through action was a message the younger players understood and were supported in the game with the customary arm-over-the-shoulder when the occasion called for a little extra guidance.

Malicevic has confidence in the maturity of his team to be able to approach them as someone other than an authority figure and ask for assistance to further the success of the club. “Thats the crucial aspect for me being the owner and the coach. We do not necessarily have a full coaching staff or anything like that, but what I do use is a lot of my older players. I come to them as a friend at times. I’m like ‘Listen, you are basically the extension of me out on the field. And the guys can either see you and someone they want to learn from or someone they don’t want to speak to’,” he explained.

A collective mindset needs to be established quickly to have success in a ten game MWPL season. As last year in the Gateway results show, it only takes two bad weeks to watch your trophy hopes turn into ash. “One of the main philosophies of the Inferno is that we are a team, we’re not individuals. Obviously, there is a respect given to those that have been there longer,” McKenna said. “Their job is not to overrule, but more steer in the direction of the ethos of the club.” Kenan is our coach and our leader, but he trusts in all of us guys and he trusts us to do the right thing.”

Malicevic’s squad got with the program in a hurry as they ran through the first eight games of the season undefeated, highlighted by a six-match unbeaten run born from a 4-2 home win against the Southeast Soccer Academy on May 24th. “This year I was very fortunate to have a team that really, really clicked and liked each other off the field,” Malicevic said with a sense of relief. “It made my job that much easier to put the group together when they like each other.” The acclimation speed amongst the roster was rewarded by outscoring their opponents by eleven goals during their eight-week rampage through the schedule. “We kind of just had a little of momentum and a run came, he was just steering the ship really,” McKenna said of Malicevic. The Inferno’s championship intentions were put on full display during its June 15th visit to SESA, leaving with three points by way of a 6-0 victory. “It didn’t matter who was on the field, we all had the same mindset and that made us a championship team this year,” Chupa said. Only the Great Lakes West Champions Northern Indiana FC can boast a more impressive 2024 season, going 9-0-1 eventually falling 3-1 to Cedars FC in the Great Lakes Championship game. “He does a great job keeping us focused, we never have an easy practice.” Chupa added. “He is always pushing us. If we are down at half, he is always pushing that word ‘Grit’ and it’s been drilled into our minds.”

Going on the road and beating the likes of SESA and Junction FC in their own backyards is one thing but performing a 90+ minute exorcism on turf in the Missouri heat is another. Both Chupa and McKenna were quick to tab the 2-1 road win against the defending champions as the night where the thought of silverware began to creep into the back of their heads. “It didn’t matter if the guy was playing two minutes, no minutes, or 90 minutes every game, it was a really good collective group,” Malicevic said. With a reduced roster and uncomfortable temperatures, he kept his team tactically disciplined, trusting them to make the right decisions. “We wanted that title, we knew we were super close, but we also knew we couldn’t get cocky,” Chupa said. “If you do, things like that can slip away so we tried to keep our excitement inside and finish off the season.”

With Inferno’ s ascension to the top of the conference, McKenna and Chupa have watched approvingly as the league continues to evolve, in their opinion, for the better. “I think it’s made the league a lot better, it’s more competitive. We have the new Pearl City team and the Junction team, I know a couple of those guys who play on my collegiate team, so it’s made it a lot more competitive, and I like it,” Chupa said. “It gives players of all ages a chance to prove themselves and get themselves looked at,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of guys on my team who are older than I am, and the younger players a chance to get the ball. It’s really helping grow the game.”

Even though promotion and relegation has yet to make its way to the Gateway Conference, for McKenna, its very existence in the league and the potential for it to reach past the Heartland Conference gives him a little slice of home. “I think what the Midwest Premier League is doing is really exciting,” he said. “Being from England myself, I’m very familiar with the concept of promotion and relegation. I know it’s not in the Gateway Conference, but the concept of adding that other conferences is really exciting. I think it adds to the competition and it adds to the pressures that are involved with the league as well.”

Of course, when you are stacking wins and points quickly, people will notice. The only thing better than being a champion is to play the spoiler and McKenna added that he was very in tune with that fact as the season progressed. The targets on their backs grew with each point and the strain of playing in an amateur league requires the navigation of lineup consistencies due to injuries or outside commitments over the summer months. “In this league we struggle when it comes to traveling, some guys aren’t always up for it as its summertime as they have other things to do,” Malicevic admitted. Being able to balance those personnel situations while adapting to different styles of play by the 2024 expansion teams, is a testament to the work Milacevic, his coaching staff and his team invested to bring a title back to Iowa after the heartbreak of 2023.

“It was absolutely a fantastic feeling, the ultimate Inferno goal. We wanted to finish first; we came so close for so many years,” Malicevic said. “I’m fortunate to have some really great talent in the area, so it was just a matter of time until I was able to figure out and put a solid group together. Honestly all credit to the guys. They were phenomenal, they bought into the plan day one and we just kept improving every single day. I already can’t wait for the next season”

- Rich Schenck