LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Remember the Woodstock Music Festival in upstate New York in 1969 when the crowd was so large that it was rumored that at least one baby was born?
Well, there were so many people and cars crammed into the 2011 Labor Day Showcase Soccer Tournament off State Road 70, next to the U.S. Post Office in Lakewood Ranch, on Sunday that a woman in labor might have had to deliver on site.
In fact, one woman nearly delivered at the event, said tournament co-director Brian Shriver, who estimated the crowd to be 12,000 to 15,000.
“If it was a boy they would have to name him Beckham,” said Shriver, referring to one of the world’s most famous soccer players.
The massive gathering of 254 soccer teams from Miami to Pensacola and their entourages not only set a new attendance record for the fledging Premiere Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch but left campus officials stunned, said Roger Hill, grounds manager at the event.
“This has astonished us,” said Hill of the size of the crowd.
The Clearwater Chargers joined forces with the Fusion Futbol Club to host the event for boys and girls from ages 9 to 18.
The three-day event concludes today with championship games beginning at 7:45 a.m. in all divisions.
Parking shortage Sunday? No big deal to Brad Hall of White Springs, near Lake City.
Hall, a former member of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, has a background of loading 42-ton M-1 Abrams battle tanks on trains.
Using skills he learned while stationed in Germany in the mid-1980s, he put his family’s Ford SUV on a narrow cement pad next to a blue mailbox at the nearby post office.
“I had to back those tanks to within inches of the back of the train,” Hall said, shooting a thumbs-up. “This was nothing for me.”
Despite the creative parking Sunday and some lightning and rain on Saturday, parents were raving about how efficiently the five tournament organizers from the Chargers and Fusion Futbol, including Rob O’Nan, Kathleen Sullivan, Garth Pollonais, Sandy Parker and Shriver, had done scheduling 436 games on 22 soccer fields, making this one of the three largest youth soccer tournaments in Florida this year.
“I am so impressed with the communication at the tournament,” said Naples soccer mom Pamela Vickaryous, who had traveled to Lakewood Ranch in her Honda Odyssey van with her husband, Charlie, daughter Molly 5, and star soccer player Katie, 10.
“Not only did they keep us informed on the rain and games, but they also sent us information on where to go after the games and where to eat,” Pamela Vickaryous said.
To show just one impact of the Premiere Sports Campus on the local economy, the Vickaryous family had lunch at the Anna Maria City Pier during a gap in their daughter’s games.
“The food was terrific and we spotted a stingray,” Pamela Vickaryous said. “We also looked at rental real estate for a future vacation on Anna Maria Island.”
The efficient communication and Manatee County PR flowed from the laptop computers of volunteer organizers Shelton and Parker who sat in a yellow trailer on site nicknamed “The Brain.”
“These two woman are why the tournament works,” Shriver said. “We guys just did what they told us to do.”
“The secret to an event this large is that we send email blasts and texts to the teams constantly,” Shelton said.
When it started to rain over the weekend, for instance, Shelton sent out an email blast and people began running for their cars.
“It’s amazing to see,” Shelton said. “But everyone is online on their cell phones and the kids all text. When the sun came out and I sent an email blast and text that the games were starting up again, you could actually see the people running out of their cars.”
It’s all about the kids
Watching young and aspiring soccer stars like Katie Vickaryous, Mirza Slijepcevic, Hugh Jones and Alex McGill makes it all worthwhile, said O’Nan, president of the Clearwater and Lakewood Ranch Chargers.
Katie Vickaryous hopes to match the skills of her father, who was a star soccer player at Barron-Collier High School in Naples.
“I just love being able to play hard,” Katie said. “But the best thing about soccer is playing with your teammates.”
In one of the day’s most stunning moments, Mirza Slijepcevic of the Clearwater Chargers took a perfect pass from teammate Hugh Jones in an under-age 10 game and blasted a shot by the Boynton Beach Knight goaltender.
Many of these youngsters are guided by their parents as well as their team coach.
“Our key phrase to Katie is ‘strategic hustle,’” said Pamela Vickaryous, who was a cheerleader for the University of Miami Hurricane football team that won a national title in 1991.
“‘Go get that ball,’ is what we tell Alex,” said Alex and Liza McGill, parents of the speedy Alex, 7, from Ruskin.
And that’s exactly what thousands of kids did Sunday.
