Cassopolis’ Meagan Ruff and Jessica Waldschmidt are going to help build the Lake Michigan College women’s soccer program.

The Rangers standouts selected the Red Hawks to continue their academic and athletic careers.

Lake Michigan coaches Jeremy Woolery and Jason Woolery are currently putting together the school’s first soccer team. The Red Hawks will begin play August.

Ruff and Waldschmidt have accumulated plenty of awards throughout their four-year high school careers including all-conference, district, regional and state.

The two are no strangers to starting a program having helped Cassopolis add girls soccer four years ago.

“It will be the second program we started,” Waldschmidt said. “It’s a pretty great feeling. We started with high school and now we are transitioning to college. I am looking forward to it.”

“Knowing that we get to be the first ones for everything is really exciting,” Ruff said.

Waldschmidt, who said she chose LMC over St. Mary’s and Michigan State, because it was close to home and she new and liked the coaches.

Ruff picked LMC because it was close to home and she had heard good things about the Woolerys. She was also looking at Jackson Community College and Siena Heights.

Veteran Cassopolis soccer coach Oli Olafsson said that LMC was a good fit for his two players.

“They are great players,” he said. “They are going into a new program with very good coaching and I think this is a great opportunity for them to play college soccer.”

Olafsson added that his helps the Ranger soccer program. They have really built this program with their sheer determination and winning attitudes. This just proves that if you put in the effort and the commitment the long-term results are there.”

Jeremy Woolery is pleased to sign teammates, who both play center-mid.

“It’s really hard to develop that kind of chemistry in the center, but coming from the same school, same program it will make the learning process that much easier and quicker for them,” he said.