Guyer head soccer coach Cody Schroeder had a plan in mind when he started the Iron Bridge Classic last year.

Schroeder saw an opportunity to bring in programs in a similar situation to his — building a program from the ground up.

“We wanted to have a tournament with teams that were all kind of in our same boat,” Schroeder said.

Last year, McKinney Boyd won the inaugural tournament, in which Guyer finished third. Boyd won’t be returning this year because its district added teams between realignments and the Broncos will be starting district play on Friday. Rockwall-Heath was in the same situation.

The Wildcats (3-2) will open play tonight at 8 p.m. against Highland Park’s junior varsity squad, which was a last-minute replacement. Decatur and Little Elm will open the tournament at 6 p.m.

The six-team tournament continues through Saturday at Guyer.

Schroeder knows his team has improved since last year, but was quick to point out to his players that Guyer isn’t the only team that’s seen improvements.

“Little Elm and Prosper are coming back very much im-proved,” Schroeder said. “Deca-tur’s coming back and they’re all improved programs. I’ve been telling them [Guyer] that everyone’s improved. Not only have we improved but everyone has.”

Hosting a tournament with similar programs gives the Wildcats a chance to get a good measuring stick of the progress they’ve made entering their third season.

“Are we progressing at the rate that we’ve identified we want to progress at?” Schroeder said. “Are we further along than some of the other programs? Was that first year of varsity — where a lot of teams were fortunate to have a JV year — was that first year of varsity worth it to us to take the beating we did [two years ago]?”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com .