16th annual Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament kicks off with 213 teams

There are 213 teams in the 16th annual Daily Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament this year.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. If you don’t believe that, you didn’t try to park near the fields at Costa Mesa High and Jack Hammett Sports Complex on Tuesday afternoon or early evening.

“It’s kind of plateaued at right around 210,” Daily Pilot Cup tournament director Kirk McIntosh said. “That’s about as much as we can handle, unless we branch out to other fields.”

There are a total of 13 fields used for the tournament, in which third- through sixth-graders from Newport-Mesa schools — public and private — will compete all the way through the championship games for each division on Sunday. Six are at Jack Hammett, also known as The Farm. Five fields are at Costa Mesa High, and two at Davis Magnet School.

Fighting for that parking spot ultimately is worth it. After all, this is the tournament that kids look forward to for months. Even the dedicated club soccer kids seem to have pride in representing their school. Teams wear a T-shirt with their school’s color. Many of them elect to use markers to decorate the back of the shirt, to make it into more of a uniform.

All that is required for a kid to play is $10, and that includes the shirt.

Pam Garrett, who was the registrar for AYSO Region 97 for years, has seen the difference the Pilot Cup has made in the community.

“You’ve got kids that play club soccer, kids that play AYSO soccer on elite teams, kids that play AYSO rec soccer and kids that don’t even play soccer,” Garrett said. “Every year after the Pilot Cup, when I was the registrar, you’d get a certain number of kids that would sign up for soccer because they’d have such a good time. And it brings schools together.”

Garrett has volunteered at the Pilot Cup as the scorekeeper. Garrett and Wendy Moore can be found at the benches by the snack bar this week, inputting scores but also able to answer questions that any parents or coaches might have.

“We answer questions, but mostly I put in scores,” Garrett said with a laugh. “Kirk is incredibly good at handling any kind of issue. If there’s issues, I let him handle them. I’m not much of an issue-solver; that’s not my thing.”

McIntosh is a lawyer, so that indeed is his thing. Yet, he said the tournament has gone pretty smoothly over the past couple of years, knock on wood.

“We haven’t had any real problems other than a team forfeiting here and there,” he said. “What we never know is how many teams we’re going to have. At the last minute we have to figure out fields and schedules, and that’s a lot of work. I need to delegate more, but I still have some key people that if they weren’t around, it wouldn’t go smoothly at all. The last two or three years, it’s gone pretty smoothly.”

McIntosh said that referee director Jeff Grant, as well as Deena Jeffs, are putting in a lot of time throughout the week to make sure all does run smoothly. When there are more than 300 games on the schedule in bronze, silver and gold divisions, things can get complicated, but things seemed to be running smoothly Tuesday.

The Pilot Cup certainly creates memories. Kobe Bryant has attended in the past to watch his daughters play. Maddie Musselman, now a member of the U.S. senior women’s national water polo team, was once a star goalie for Andersen Elementary. And Rea Elementary had dominance for years, winning nine boys’ fifth- and sixth-grade gold division titles in 10 years from 2001-2010.

“The best part of this tournament is that it brings the whole community together,” McIntosh said as he watched one of the games Tuesday. “This is the entire Newport-Mesa community in this tournament. I challenge any event to do better than this.”