The Airdrie and District Soccer Association (ADSA) is hosting its annual Summit Cup from June 10 to 12 for the first time in three years.
After two years of COVID-caused cancellations, Airdrie's marquee youth soccer tournament is once again kicking off at Monklands Park, located in the northwest quadrant of the city, from Friday to Sunday.
“It takes away from the kids and it takes away some of their joy,” said ADSA Executive Director, Melissa Collinson, when asked about the impact of not hosting the tournament for the past two seasons.
“Tournaments are a great way to bring teams together…not having that really takes away being with people and having fun and remembering to enjoy a good time,” she added. “This is the comeback tournament.”
This weekend, Collinson is “looking forward to seeing that many kids out on the field again, running around and playing and hopefully lots of smiles.”
Matches will begin on Friday at 5 p.m. Participating teams will play on the nine painted fields at Monklands Park, with the last of the tournament's matches wrapping up around 6:15 p.m. on Sunday.
The over 100 teams who will compete at the Summit Cup are coming from all over Alberta, according to Collinson, with one team coming from British Columbia. Although most teams are commuting from Airdrie and Calgary, she said there will still be province-wide representation at the tournament.
The tournament features U10 to U19 boys' and girls' teams.
Sebastién Durand, who is one of the coaches for the ADSA, said many Airdrie FC squads will be in action, including his U13 Tier 3 girls' team.
“It’s always fun to play three or four games in a short period of time and really rally together,” said Durand, who also coaches the Bert Church Chargers boys' soccer team. “The other cool thing is we get to see teams we don’t normally play because they come from other parts of the province or other provinces. It’s always fun to play a new team you don’t see every couple of weeks.
“The tournament feel, from my experience, just brings a different level of excitement from just a single game that is part of your league play.”
For the youngest players, Collinson noted this might be their first ever tournament, due to the pandemic cancelling many sporting events.
To enter the tournament, teams had to pre-register and pay a registration fee, which helps the ADSA cover the cost of hosting the tournament, including referee fees, field bookings, and medals for the teams.
“It [also] allows us to put a little bit of money back into all of our regular programming so that we can continue to better improve all of those programs as we move forward,” Collinson said.
While children play soccer, spectators can join in the 50/50 raffle that the ADSA is hosting, as well as grab a bite to eat from any of the food trucks serving up specials all weekend.
“We hope [people are] able to come and it's stress-free,” Collinson said. “Just really enjoy running around, playing the game, watching.”
—With files from Scott Strasser/Airdrie City View
