Calgary Minor Soccer hitches its spurs for Giddy Up Cup this weekend
112 games played over two days
2011 Giddy Up Cup opening ceremonies. Photo: Calgary Minor Soccer Association.
By Jessica Belbin
The Third Annual Calgary Minor Soccer Association’s Giddy Up Cup kicks off tonight at SAIT. Fifty teams from Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., Manitoba and Ontario descend on the city this weekend with hopes of taking home some medals and partaking in some Stampede spirit.
The Giddy Up Cup is the premiere tournament for the CMSA with tier 1, 2 and 3 teams battling it out for gold. 112 games will be played over two days with both girls and boys teams in attendance.
The Giddy Up Cup was created three years ago after climbing numbers in the sport made it difficult to hold separate tournaments for girls and boys. For over 40 years separate tournaments were held for the girls and boys.
Tournament Coordinator, Karrie Kreutz hopes word of mouth will continue to grow the Giddy Up Cup.
“I want there to be good competition, for people to have fun, and our out of town guests to leave with a feeling of accomplishment and that they want to go home and tell all their friends about it and come back next year,” she said.
The opening ceremonies for the Cup begin tonight at 6 p.m. at SAIT on the artificial turf field. Miss Teen Calgary Kirsten Collins will lead the teams out onto the field for the parade of teams and where referees and athletes will take their tournament pledge.
A surprise ambush and shoot out by the Guns of the Golden West will be a highlight.
As well, the Subway Restaurants Scholarships for the indoor season will be awarded. Winners Samantha Valadao and Mohammed Ali Al Saed take home $2,500 each to put towards their post-secondary studies. Both Samantha and Mohammed will be pursuing engineering.
These are two of four scholarships presented every year, two for the indoor season and two for the outdoor season. A total of $10,000 is awarded to soccer players heading into post-secondary studies that have a financial need but also demonstrate academic proficiency and community involvement.
The CMSA’s season is 12 months long with over 400 games a week. With 109,000 participants in soccer in Calgary, it’s clear the CMSA has its hands full and are loving it.
Fund Development Communications Coordinator Donna Hrechka thinks this weekend is ripe for fun with the 100th anniversary of the Stampede, warm weather and good sport combined.
“I hope that everybody has a rip roaring kick ass good time! It is during Stampede after all,” she said.
Games for the tournament start Saturday, July 7 and will be held at four areas in Calgary: Shouldice Athletic Park, Renfrew, Ernest Manning and SAIT. The standings, schedules and maps for the games can be found on the CMSA’s website at calgaryminorsoccer.com.
Category: Soccer
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