Beach Soccer Championships comes to Fort Myers Beach
The Beach Soccer Championships, the second largest beach soccer festival series in the United States, will make its inaugural visit to the Sunshine State at the Holiday Inn at 6890 Estero Blvd. on Fort Myers Beach during the weekend of July 17-18.
Registrations are now open until Friday, July 9, for the festival-style event put on by California-based organizer LifeThruSports. Go to www.beachsoccerusa.org for registration information.
A free kids beach soccer clinic will precede the tournament action on Friday, July 16. The clinic will feature professional players teaching specific beach soccer skills to registered team members.
According to LifeThruSports President Marc Koehler, the Beach Soccer Championships is a combination of a soccer tournament on sand for children and adults, a skills clinic, a festival with music and food vendors, a standardized test for athleticism, raffles and informational classes.
The soccer tournament will involve games for all ages including under age 8 teams to under age 19 teams, men, women, co-ed, college and professional. The format of play features five-on-five barefoot action (U8 and U9 teams play six players aside) during three 11-minute periods on a 25 foot by 35 foot beach field.
“It’s a very exciting game with an indoor soccer flair,” said Koehler. “Games tend to be high scoring.”
This will be the third stop for the Beach Soccer Championships, which has held tournaments since 2007. The festival visited Oceanside, Calif. (its original tournament site) on May 15-16, and Long Beach, Calif. on May 29-30. The Oceanside tournament included more than 25,000 attendees and visitors, while the inaugural Long Beach championships featured more than 10,000.
Lee County Sports Authority, who is responsible for bringing the Beach Soccer Championships to Southwest Florida, is thrilled LifeThruSports signed a three-year contract to bring its market-impacting tournament to Southwest Florida.
“We are excited to be able to bring The Beach Soccer Championships to our beautiful beaches,” said Jeff Mielke, the executive director of Lee County Sports Authority, back in mid-March. “LifeThruSports is a top notch organization with a proven track record of delivering a first-class, family-based festival atmosphere.”
Koehler hopes the amount of teams in the championships can double in size each year.
“Our goal is to have 75 teams this year and double the next year and the year following,” he said. “We’re looking to be at 250-300 teams by year three. The more success it has, the more success Lee County has. It’s a nice circle of life.”