EXCELSIOR SPRINGS — The high school soccer team has adopted a stretch of highway from 2021 alumna Emilie Barrera, who enlisted in the Army National Guard. Barrera and her family adopted a mile stretch of U.S. Highway 69 in May 2015. “When we found this, it just made me really happy. I was able not only to do something for my community but for the environment as well,” Barrera said. In high school, before a complex injury ended her career, Barrera played for the girls soccer team her sophomore year under coach Zac Ganzer. “It was a great thing that she adopted the highway and I thought this would be a whole lot better and more meaningful if we jumped in and helped, like a natural partnership,” Ganzer said. The boys and girls soccer teams volunteer their time twice a year. “We would do challenges with the team to see who could find the coolest piece of trash,” Barrera said. “The boys found the front of a was...