March 29, 2012

Spring dew clings to tangled branches below dusk-twilight in the greater Prescott area. In the distance, at the periphery of audible sensation, faint buzzing heralds a swarm of soccer players.

They'll descend in a three-day flurry beginning today, some 4,000 people, including 132 youth teams from Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah.

They'll storm 21 soccer fields, including municipal fields in Prescott Valley and Chino and the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University field, in Prescott.

But, unlike a locust plague, the 18th annual Yavapai Cup soccer tournament leaves a positive aftermath of skill-level matched games and local revenue.

That's what Ed Andert saw as a coach during the cup's nascent period.

"In the early 2000s, we were happy if we had enough teams to have every age group in the tournament," said Andert, now a tournament director with Yavapai Soccer, a local sports nonprofit. "The tournament's really grown since then."

The tournament - the group's only such yearly event - could net $2.5 million for local businesses this weekend, said Andert, using a Prescott Recreation Department formula.

The games are free for spectators and, multiple times during the Yavapai Cup, all 21 fields are simultaneously in use.

"When a bigger tournament is up here, it's really nice for the local teams, too," Andert said. "Everyone is matched up at level, so you end up with more satisfying, evenly matched brackets."

The push from a 30- to 40-team tournament to a 100-and-something affair came in 2009, the year Andert joined Yavapai Soccer and the year Yavapai Soccer contracted a tournament organizer.

"One of the things I bring is a set of organizational skills and connections," said Tom McConkey, the Yavapai Cup's other tournament director and owner of AzSoccerEvents, which organizes similarly sized affairs around Phoenix.

Part of the event's draw of the event is its timing.

"It's the last tournament of the year before state competition," McConkey said. "For a team that's not going to state, we say come out have fun, and it'll be a vacation. For going to the state competition the following week, we market it as a great tune-up cup."

It's also a boon for local teams.

"When you're in a smaller market, you have ... (fewer) teams, and you tend to play the same teams again and again," McConkey said. "We've probably got 20-25 teams coming from Tucson alone. It's a great opportunity."

Andert concurred, adding his experience as a parent of the three boys who got him involved in the soccer world in the first place.

"It's fun to be a parent involved with kids in soccer (and) to have a tournament in the local area," he said. "These days, it's a lot bigger and a lot better."

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Yavapai Cup Tournament

March 1, 2012

Yavapai Soccer's U13 Boys team competed in the Blackhawks Invitational SoccerTournament Feb 25-26 and won the second division in overwhelming fashion, besting two Division I teams and a Division II team in the process.  

The team won the final game in a shootout to take the crown.  

This is another tournament win for this young team as they move up in divisions and standings in the state.  

Next up is the State Cup. It is the Arizona State Championship.  With a win in the State Cup they would move on to Regionals, which are held in Phoenix this year. If they were to advance out of Regionals they would move into the National Championship series. This is a huge accomplishment for this young team.  

Also upcoming for Yavapai Soccer is the Yavapai Cup.  This is one of Northern Arizona's largest tournaments with over 140 teams attending last year. The tournament will be held this year March 30 through April 1.

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January 26, 2012

The Yavapai Soccer U10 boys team took first place in the CCV Shoot for the Stars tournament this past wekend. It was their first tournament of the year, they are off to a great start.

The teams players include: Dillon Harwood, Britton Carver, Dalton Mitchell, Ian Torp, Francisco Butterworth, Shane Workman, Andrew Rojas, Jet Burginger, Geronimo Sotelo, Jonathon hernandez and Nathan Vaca. Coaches: Jim Workman, Shawn Vaca and Shane Burginger.

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U10 Boys Team

June 1, 2011

Local youth soccer coach Craig Hacker didn't know he would be pitted against himself in the finals of the 3v3 Live Soccer Tournament May 21 at the Snedigar Sports Complex in Chandler.

But that's what happened after he split his Yavapai Soccer Under-12 team in half to enter the tourney, which allows just six players per team, and both squads made it to the title game.

The green squad handed the white squad its only loss of the tournament in the championship game, and both teams qualified for the 3v3.

"They have worked so hard in the past season earning them no less than third place in every tournament we entered this year," said Hacker. "I am proud to be their coach."

"That's one happy coach and a bunch of happy kids," said Yavapai spokesman John Sterling.

He said each squad played four games in one day in 100-degree heat. The fast game is played on a smaller field (40-feet long by 30-feet wide or about one-fourth the size of a regulation field) in 10-minute halves.

He added, "This particular group of boys has been playing together for about two years without any major additions or deletions from the roster. Both teams were unchallenged on the day scoring over 25 goals each. They beat teams from San Tan soccer club in Phoenix, The Tigers and local team Vardar."

Sterling noted the very young U10 boys, playing in their first 3v3 tourney, improved every game.

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April 20, 2011

Don Prince, director of tourism for the City of Prescott, recalls taking his son, Chris, to Prescott from Scottsdale to participate in the Mile High Classic regional soccer tournament. Prince's son is now an adult, but dad now takes in the tournament from a different perspective: soccer players and their families filling hotel rooms, tables and booths in restaurants and buying other merchandise and services.

"Mile High pretty much sells out all the hotels," Prince said, referring to the tournament that the American Youth Soccer Organization sponsored from Friday through Sunday. Citing a study that the city's Parks and Recreation Department conducted, he said Mile High drew 1,060 participants [70 teams] in 2010. He added the estimated direct spending amounted to $273,000 from visitors and $22,500 from participants from the tri-city area ...

Mile High took place two weekends after the Yavapai Soccer League hosted the annual Yavapai Cup Tournament in Prescott Valley. A total of 143 teams [2,160 participants] participated in the Yavapai Cup and came from throughout Arizona, New Mexico, California and Utah, said Mary Sterling, league president.

Players and their families stay in hotels in Prescott Valley, Prescott and Chino Valley, she said. "People definitely come to stay the night," Sterling said. "They are eating out, shopping at our stores."

Players and their families filled at least 70 percent of the rooms in the 118-unit Hampton Inn & Suites off Glassford Hill Road in Prescott Valley, said Jeff Sandy, director of operations ...

The soccer traffic also spilled over into restaurants and other establishments. Business increased about 20 percent at Freedom Station in Prescott Valley on the Saturday during Yavapai Cup, sales manager Clint Mapston said. Freedom Station, located in the Entertainment District, offers a café, arcade, climbing wall, roller coaster simulator and miniature golf ...

Saturday amounted to one of the busiest days of the season for Bill's Pizza on South Cortez Street, said Ken West, a waiter and cook. He counted about 10 uniforms of players of middle school age around noon Sunday ...

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March 30, 2011

Youth soccer teams from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico will kick up their heels at area fields starting Friday in the [seventh] Annual Yavapai Cup.

The event, which has grown from 112 teams to 144 this year, will be hosted by Yavapai Soccer.

"Part of the attraction is the weather," Yavapai Soccer president Mary Sterling said. "It's so hot in the Valley. And we have so many nice fields to play on up here thanks to the City of Prescott Valley."

The tourney, which will have boys and girls division from U10 to U19, will be played on fields in Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott starting Friday at [6:15] p.m.

Saturday's and Sunday's games start at 8 a.m., and run for the rest of the day.

Yavapai Soccer will be represented by teams in the U10 boys, U12 boys, two U17 girls teams and a U18 boys team.

Prescott AYSO will also be represented.

Along with the youth games, the Phoenix-based Arizona Sahuaros, Embry-Riddle and Yavapai FC - a team made up of former area prep and college standouts - will participate in a round-robin tournament at ERAU on Saturday starting at noon.

"A lot of kudos go out to Yavapai Soccer for being able to attract a team like the Arizona Sahuaros. They're going to put on a good show for the kids," Bradshaw Mountain boys soccer coach and Yavapai Soccer director of coaching Philip Reid said.

Yavapai Soccer is a non-profit organization that promotes the sport of soccer to the area's youth.

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September 29, 2010

Former Bradshaw Mountain standout boys soccer player Oscar Irvin Juvera died in a swimming accident in Utah on Friday.

Juvera, 20, who was from Prescott Valley, was at the Sand Hollow Reservoir as part of a Dixie College of Utah-sponsored kayaking trip.

"On behalf of Dixie State College, we want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Oscar Juvera," DSC President Dr. Stephen D. Nadauld said in the release. "Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and as a campus family, we join them in mourning his loss at this time."

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July 21, 2010

Prescott Valley experienced its own British Invasion of sorts when Challenger Sports set up its British Soccer Camp June 28 through July 2 on the amphitheater soccer field.

With the Yavapai College soccer scoreboard looming from field's edge, 85 aspiring soccer stars as young as 2 braved the heat to learn British-style "football" from five young coaches

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April 21, 2010

Youth soccer teams from as far away as Vancouver, Canada, and Colorado will descend on the tri-city area this Friday through Sunday for the annual Yavapai Cup.

Yavapai Soccer, an Arizona Youth Soccer Association (AYSA) member celebrating two decades in Prescott Valley this year, is playing host to the tournament.

Mary Sterling, YSL president, said that as of Sunday 111 teams of 7- to 18-year-old boys and girls from across Arizona as well as Colorado, New Mexico and Vancouver were registered for the event.

Ed Andert, who doubles as the 2010 Yavapai Cup's director, said the clubs will bring an estimated 3,300-plus visitors and provide an economic impact of at least $1 million over the three-day weekend.

The tournament will be played on the Town of Prescott Valley's fields at Mountain Valley Park, Antelope Park (behind Coyote Springs Elementary School), Quailwood Park, Viewpoint Park and Pronghorn Park, as well as Bradshaw Mountain High School, two of the lower fields at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott and fields in Chino Valley, among others.

Yavapai Soccer, which is operated entirely by volunteers, offers a wide range of opportunities to boys and girls who are interested in playing soccer, from Prescott and Prescott Valley to Dewey-Humboldt and Mayer.

It features a 10-week recreational season for those ages 3-16 and a club/select season for players seeking a higher level of competition. Club/select squads conduct their tryouts over the summer and play from September through May...

Philip Reid, Bradshaw Mountain High School's varsity boys' soccer coach who doubles as YSL's director of coaching, said he oversees the level of coaching in the club, from the recreational to the competitive clubs.

In order for the league to gain more structure, Reid said he is developing a coaching curriculum and educational program that league coaches will follow to develop their players' skills. Backed by coaches' clinics and training sessions for its 35-40 recreational teams, the hope is that some of the league's rec players eventually will join its competitive clubs.

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March 31, 2010

Hundreds of children ages 3 through 18 participate each fall in the Yavapai Soccer League's 10-week recreation program.

But YSL also supports a half-dozen select competitive teams for a season that spans September through April. Two U11 (under 11) teams, one U13 team and one U16 team exist for boys, and a U12 and a U16 team for girls are forming. The league encompasses the Quad City area, and in fact, all of Yavapai County.

"Yavapai Soccer caters to every type of player from recreation to serious," said new coaching director Philip Reid, who also is head boys' soccer coach at Bradshaw Mountain High School.

YSL president Mary Sterling said the league suspends club play during the high school season so athletes can play for their schools. But that season has ended and the club teams are in full swing.

Reid noted the annual Yavapai Cup is coming April 23-25 on fields all around Prescott Valley, Prescott and Chino Valley. More than 90 teams participated in 2009, filling up hotels all the way to Camp Verde. The Arizona Youth Soccer Association sanctions the tournament.

The league also will host the British Challenger Soccer Camp June 28-July 2. Coaches and players from England will stay in the homes of YSL families.

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April 21, 2009

If soccer's your game, your weekend plans are set.

One week after AYSO hosted a 72-team tournament to close its season, the Yavapai Soccer League (YSL) ups the ante with a 94-team field for the Yavapai Cup. The event is expected to draw more than 1,400 players.

"The tournament has grown significantly this year so we're pretty much managing it as best we can," Tournament Director Ed Andert said Tuesday. "It got very popular this year ... the popularity of the tournament has just mushroomed."

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