The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Kickers look to defend title
By Than Acuff
What in the world is going on here. There’s a new soccer field being built at the school in Crested Butte and in Gunnison, the U.S. is hosting the Club World Cup soccer tournament, the U.S. men’s national team is in the midst of the Gold Cup tournament, the U.S. women’s team totally kicks ass and, most importantly, the West Elk Soccer Association (WESA) is hosting the 30th, that’s right 3-0, Annual Crested Butte adult coed soccer tournament Saturday and Sunday, June 28-29.
When did this country get so communist, I mean, soccer crazed? No wonder the Trumpers are so scared. As it was so eloquently put in the animation sitcom King of the Hill, “Soccer was invented by European ladies to keep them busy while their husbands did the cooking.”
Well, this weekend will be a showcase of aging recreational soccer talent as 11 teams are coming to Crested Butte to take home the coveted title and knock off the defending champions, the Crested Butte Kickers. For the first time in the history of the tournament last year, the local team won. Many have tried. Some have come close but last year the Kickers did it.
Given we are in the same position as last year with limited field space, the coed tournament format will be 9v9 on smaller fields as opposed to the “normal” 11v11, which arguably makes for more exciting soccer. In fact, last year an average of 5.23 goals per game were scored while the average number of goals scored per game in professional 11v11 soccer is between 2.5 and 3.2 per game depending on the league.
In addition, it’s looking like the Kickers may have a similar squad to last year’s title team with the usual suspects of the Kovals, O’Neal, a Durgan, a Rodriguez, an Abbott, an Albers and a host of former collegiate players among the women on the squad with a couple, but only a few, additions for the tournament.
“We’ve got a couple of changes but if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” says tournament director and player/manager Tom Lewis.
The tournament drew teams from all over Colorado and filled up four minutes after registration opened back in March. In addition to the Kickers, there will be teams from Montrose, Grand Junction, Boulder, Breckenridge, Ft. Collins, Windsor and Durango. The weekend kicks off with a welcome party at Zuni West Brewing in CB South Friday from 6-9 p.m. The action then starts early Saturday morning with games all day at Rainbow Field and the Center for the Arts field. The Kickers open their repeat title bid at 8 a.m. on Saturday at Rainbow with a tough challenge against Megaton out of Durango.
“They reached the semis last year, so it’ll be a good test,” says Lewis.
The Kickers play again at 2:30 p.m. and the last games of the first day kick off at 4 p.m. with the classic Saturday night tournament party at Rainbow Pavillion with pizza provided by Mikey’s Pizza.
Sunday opens at 8:30 a.m. with two semifinal matches, consolation games follow that and then the finals are slated for 1:30 p.m. at the Center for the Arts field at which point a champion will be crowned and the unveiling of the biggest change to the tournament, the trophy, will take place. It’s essentially two kegs welded together with a brass plate attached where the champion’s team name will be etched each year from this year forward. And, of course, there’s a bowl mounted on top to drink from.
“It’s the Stanley Cup of adult soccer tournaments,” says Lewis. “It stands four-and-a-half feet tall, it’s gonna be awesome.”
