Updated May 12, 2021: We will not be playing in the tournament. There’s generally not a lot of participation for U8 or younger teams in tournaments. The tournament drew only one other U8 entrant. This would have led to us paying extra to play multiple intra-Academy games. We were’t able to get a team into a U9 division.
We’ll finish our 2020-2021 soccer year by playing in the NTH Adidas Select Cup tournament. The tournament takes place the weekend of May 22-23, 2021.
This is a big tournament hosting 200+ teams from local and other areas, ages U8 up through U19, with each team playing three or four games. This will be our final event of the spring season. (Tryouts take place the following week, but tryouts are considered part of the following soccer year.)
Tournament play:
Tournaments differ from league play (also called Junior Academy game days) as follows:
Entry fees:
- Tournament entry fees are not included in the Junior Academy fees you pay to NTH. Entry fees are typically $60-$80 per player per tournament. Our treasurer will collect entry fees 1-2 weeks before the tournament.
Paperwork:
- The tournament requires parents to sign a release form; we collect signatures the week or two prior to the tournament.
- We’ll need to present a copy of each player’s birth certificate (B.C.), along with her medical consent form (M.C.). We collected this paperwork for many of our players last summer, but still need forms for other players. The table below shows each player’s paperwork status as of May 7, 2021:
2021 May: player registration paperwork
| Player | B.C. | M.C. |
|---|---|---|
| Almy | need | need |
| Antoci | received | received |
| Augustin | need | need |
| Barbalho | need | need |
| Brewster | received | received |
| Cadic | need | need |
| Calvo | need | need |
| Chisholm | received | received |
| Dawson | received | received |
| Edens | received | received |
| Galbraith | received | received |
| Ghazi | received | received |
| Hecht | received | need |
| Jackson | received | received |
| Jarrett | received | received |
| Kirchner | need | need |
| Kobliska | received | received |
| Mannino | need | need |
| Maselle | need | need |
| Masisak | received | received |
| McGinn | received | received |
| Michalke | received | received |
| Moore | need | need |
| Patel | received | received |
| Ragsdale | need | need |
| Revell | received | received |
| Roller | received | received |
| Velotta | need | need |
| Wilkens | need | need |
| Williams | received | received |
Schedules:
- Schedules are usually posted 7-10 days before the tournament. Each team plays 3-4 games during the weekend, typically two games on Saturday, one or two on Sunday (a Sunday AM game is likely). There’s no pre-set schedule formula; we’ve had games as early as 7:45 AM and as late as 8:00 PM, but in recent years, the latest games have been mid-afternoon to avoid potential late-afternoon thunderstorms.
- Tournaments follow a different set of schedule standards than our regular Junior Academy game days. Tournaments typically include 200+ teams in multiple age groups spread across multiple venues. Our Junior Academy Girls teams are just a few tiny pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle. In tournaments, we have no control over our schedules or venues.
Rosters:
- We typically have bigger team rosters than we do during normal game days. Main reasons:
- Multiple games per day is more physically challenging for the players, which means we need more subs.
- Tournament rules require rosters to stay fixed, so we can’t borrow a player from one of our other Junior Academy Girls teams in case of illness, injury, traffic delay, etc.
- We can’t move players between teams to work around schedule conflicts. If your daughter has a conflict with a game, she will still be eligible to play in her team’s other games.
Results:
- Game results are recorded, and teams have a chance to win their division’s championship.
Likely challenges:
Tournament experiences are affected by the number and quality of teams in our brackets. The U8 Junior Academy age group doesn’t tend to attract a lot of teams (U7 even less so), and we try to avoid “us vs. us” tournament games if possible. So this creates some challenges:
- We may enter a U8 team (2013 birth year) in a lower level U9 Academy division.
- We may enter a U7 team (2014 birth year) in a U8 division.
- There’s a chance we’ll have to recruit a guest coach or coaches to help cover our games. (Each team plays 3-4 games over the weekend, so there’s a chance of schedule conflicts.)
Tournament availability poll:
Please open our Survey Monkey link to complete a tournament availability poll: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7DMB7WS. The poll only takes a minute or two to complete. Deadline: Thursday night, April 29th.