Georgia Soccer Association Enjoys Weekend in the Sun

If you're a youth soccer enthusiast, this Labor Day weekend is for you.

Lilburn's Gwinnett Soccer Association fields on Cole Drive across from Parkview High will be among 22 sites for the 32nd annual Atlanta Cup, Georgia Soccer's largest tournament for an estimated 13,500 players on 620 teams.

Round-robin games will be played on eight of GSA's 13 fields today, with semifinals scheduled for the afternoon and finals at GSA and two other metro-Atlanta sites on Monday.

The tournament is billed as the Southeast's largest three-day youth soccer tournament, a third of whose teams come from outside Georgia. It's also the highly awaited kickoff of the GSA season for 1,820 kids on 155 recreation and travel teams and welcome acclaim for one of Georgia Soccer's most distinguished associations.

"We're glad to be participating in something this big," GSA President Larry Green said. "We have not only a fiduciary responsibility, but a moral responsibility to be involved in a tournament like this.

"From our standpoint, it's a win-win," Green added. "We have all (these) teams playing right here in our backyard."

GSA will field 16 teams in round-robin play among the 22 sites statewide. The youngest is the 11-under '01 Benefica boys team, and among the oldest are the '94 Phoenix Red boys team and '94 Phoenix White girls squad. Several of GSA's elite travel teams are scheduled to participate, too.

The tournament comprises teams in 60 age divisions, each with varying ability levels. Sites for Monday's finals are GSA, Marietta's Metro North Soccer Complex and Fayetteville's McCurry Park South. GSA will host 23 of the 60 division finals, with games set for 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Though spectator admission is free, Green said the tournament is expected to raise about $600,000 for Georgia Soccer from team entry fees and sponsorship of businesses including its primary sponsor, Publix supermarkets. He said the GSA should get about $3,500, used to pay the $200 to $300 season fees for players who volunteer to work the event.

The tournament has grown immensely from the time Georgia Soccer's Sharron Safriet became its director in 1998. She recalled it being only about a third the size then, with 225 teams playing at just a half dozen venues, including GSA.

She said GSA has been vital to the Atlanta Cup becoming by far the largest of Georgia Soccer's five annual tournaments, dwarfing its second-largest, the State Cup for 240 teams in Columbus each May and June.

"(GSA teams) have been true to (the Atlanta Cup). They've come back year after year," she said. "It's a model association. They have excellent volunteers and their venue runs like a top, which is another reason we use them for the finals.

"If not for organizations like GSA," she added, "Georgia Soccer wouldn't be half the organization it is today."