January 13, 2005

Plans Unveiled for Spring State Cup
Open Forum Meeting Set for February 11th

Ever since champions were crowned in the fall portion of the 2005 State Cup, Chairperson Teresa Ortiz has been working to develop plans for the spring portion of the tournament. This report is meant to communicate current plans for the tournament, and to request feedback from players, coaches, and administrators regarding these plans. There will also be an open forum discussion about these plans at the Association's State Office on Friday, February 11th at 7:00 PM. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

The State Cup is being planned to be the culmination of the 2004-05 seasonal year. At the same time, the Association does not want the tournament to detract from the importance of league play. As a result, the Premier Divisions of the State Competition League will be scheduled to end before Pool Play begins for State Cup. League play for teams in the Premier Divisions will conclude on Saturday, May 14th.

The State Cup is open to all teams registered with the Utah Youth Soccer Association. Interested teams may enter the tournament through the Association's online management system beginning on February 1st. The State Cup Committee will then meet on Thursday, April 14th to establish the seeding for the entered teams. Based on the number of teams, the Committee will then select and ratify a competition format for each age group. Assuming enough teams enter, the default format will be World Cup style, with pool play followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship games.

Pool Play in the State Cup will open on Monday, May 16th. Pool Play will be limited to not more than sixteen teams. In the event that more sixteen teams enter the tournament in any given age group, the State Cup tournament committee will seed the teams and provide for play-in games that will be played before May 16th.

To illustrate how this would work, consider this example (bearing in mind that this is a hypothetical example-the State Cup Committee will adopt the actual format at its seeding meeting after the number of entrants is known). If twenty teams enter the tournament in a particular age group, the State Cup Committee could elect to seed twelve teams directly into Pool Play. The remaining eight teams would be assigned matches before May 16th to decide the remaining four places in the Pool Play round.

The introduction of "play-in" matches to Pool Play has become necessary due to the growth in the tournament. In recent years, as the tournament has grown, players have been asked to play more games in the same period of time, thereby jeopardizing their ability to sustain a high level of play. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of non-competitive games. To address both of these concerns, Pool Play during the last two weeks of the tournament will be limited to sixteen teams. Consequently, because some teams may be eliminated before the start of Pool Play, and perhaps only after one or two games, the Board of Directors will consider a proposal at its meeting this month to provide a rebate for teams that may be eliminated before the dawn of Pool Play.

Pool Play will thus commence on Monday, May 16th. Each age group will open Pool Play with not more than sixteen teams, divided into not more than four divisions. During pool play, assuming that groups will consist of four teams, teams can expect to play three games. Pool Play will continue from May 16th through Tuesday, May 24th, meaning that teams will play not more than four games over a nine day stretch. Whenever possible, a day of rest will be scheduled between games during Pool Play, but some back-to-back games may be required.

A day of rest for teams will be scheduled between the end of Pool Play and the quarterfinals, which would be split between Wednesday, May 25th and Thursday, May 26th. Another scheduled day of rest would follow the quarterfinals on Friday, May 27th. Semi-finals will be held on Saturday, May 28th. After a proverbial day of rest on Sunday, Utah's State Cup Champions would be crowned on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th.

The State Cup Committee is studying its options regarding venues. In the ideal world, all the games in the tournament would be held at a single venue. Unfortunately, there is not a single available site with quality fields capable of hosting the tournament. As a result, the current plan is to cluster Pool Play at two or three venues, located from Layton to Orem. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will be contested at a single site.

If you have any comments, concerns, or suggestions about these plans, please e-mail Executive Director Scott Harward at uysascott@yahoo.com and Ortiz at tortiz08@yahoo.com. You are also invited to attend the open forum meeting on February 11th at 7:00 PM at the Association's State Office.