The DLI Soccer Team have been proud members of the MPSL since 19__.
Our team is comprised mostly of military staff, faculty and students from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey California. Our American players are from the US Army, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, US Navy and even the US Coast Guard.

The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) is the world's largest foreign language institute. The mission of the DLIFLC is to educate, sustain, evaluate, and support foreign language specialists under the guidelines of the Defense Foreign Language Program, which provides the Department of Defense and other Federal agencies with linguists fully capable of supporting United States national interests worldwide.

The Defense Language Institute traces its roots to the eve of America’s entry into World War II, when the U.S. Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language. Classes began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast.

In 1946 the school moved to the historic Presidio of Monterey. By that time little remained of the original Spanish presidio, which had been established in 1770 to protect the San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel. The city of Monterey had grown up near the mission and presidio to become the capital of the Spanish (later Mexican) province of Alta California. Commodore Sloat captured the town during the War with Mexico in 1846. Following the Spanish-American War the U.S. Army rebuilt the post, beginning in 1902, and after World War I it became the home of the 11th Cavalry. Nobel laureate John Steinbeck captures the spirit of Monterey during this period in his novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945).

Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Institute has experienced an exciting period of growth and change. The DLIFLC won academic accreditation in 1979, and in 1981 the position of Academic Dean (later called Provost) was reestablished. The DLIFLC has established itself as a national pacesetter in foreign language education, resident and nonresident, using cutting-edge educational technology such as computers, interactive video, and video tele-training to train and support military linguists. In the years ahead, the Institute will continue to provide top-quality language instruction to support critical national requirements.