It’s time for soccer — about 485 teams of soccer, in fact — in Park City.
Next Thursday through Saturday, the Park City Soccer Club’s Extreme Cup will return for the 21st time.
The Extreme Cup will welcome teams both local and out-of-state to the town and its surrounding areas. It’s one of the largest youth soccer tournaments in the entire country.
The Extreme Cup has boy’s and girl’s divisions from U9 all the way up to U19. In each of those divisions, teams are separated based on level.
Putting on the event of this magnitude is a year-long endeavor for the club.
The club’s executive director Shelley Gillwald believes the Cup will draw teams from seven nearby states this year. Most of the teams, however, are from Utah and don’t require overnight stays in the area.
The Cup has a total of 16 play venues in Park City, Heber City, Oakley and Kamas. Tournament headquarters will be at the New Park Resort in Park City.
The club does have to turn away later-registering extra teams. That’s why they expanded out of Park City back in 2014.
“The climate being up in the mountains for a summer tournament, instead of out in West Jordan in a parking lot,” said Gillwald on the Cup’s advantages. “The quality of the fields up here are second-to-none around the state. Third is going to be the incredible job Cora (Reddan, tournament director) does, both organizing this tournament and overseeing her volunteers, but also the time and effort that she and her team put into the bracketing and the different divisions.”
Reddan was hard at work getting the brackets together last Friday. She has to make sure everyone is in the right brackets for their level, so they want to keep coming back to a competitive tournament in future years.
Each participating team is guaranteed three games of play each year. Registration ran April 1 through June 19 and cost various amounts based on age and team size. Entry was $925 for full-size U13 through U19 teams.
Gillwald said the Cup typically attracts some new, and some experienced, high-performing teams. She said she would hate it if the new teams, especially at the younger levels, become disillusioned with the sport because they were placed in too-difficult a bracket at the event.
“They get medals, the winning team gets a MLS match ball,” said Reddan. “The winning team also gets an in-hand frozen Jamba (Juice) as soon as they win.”
Gillwald said the Cup doesn’t provide on-site meal vendors because the teams typically love going out in Park City. There are medical trainers at each site.
The event was founded to help provide club scholarships to youth athletes. The club is currently sponsoring 100 athletes. Gillwald projects they will hand out $140,000 in scholarships this upcoming year, having doled out over a million since the fund kicked off in 2005.
“We are a local club; we’re not an out-of-town for-profit company that’s come in to make money in Park City,” added Gillwald. “This is put on by the local organization, by our volunteers, our family members of the community, and we’re doing it to benefit the children of the community.”
Scholarships to the club typically cover program fees, uniform costs and tournament expenses. They have 38 teams and anticipate working with over 700 kids this upcoming year.
The club has been working with the Utah Department of Transportation, Park City Recreation and within themselves to create an undisturbing event. They’re very proud of their recent sustainability efforts, such as removing single-use plastics.
There are numerous Park City High and college players who have come through the Cup over the years. The school’s head boy’s and girl’s soccer coach Anthony DiCicco is also a coach at the club.
The club also allows for other high school teams and local organizations to use the event as their fundraisers.
“The chamber and the restaurant tax are being supporters of this event,” said Gillwald. “We couldn’t do it without our friends at Basin Rec, Park City Municipal, and then also the city of Oakley and city of Francis.”
More information including a full Cup schedule can be found on the Extreme Cup website: parkcityextremecup.com/.