Super soccer weekend
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 years, 8 months AGO
<p>Maddi Jessick receives a pass during a team drill Wednesday while practicing with the Sting soccer U16 girls in Coeur d'Alene. More than 150 teams are entered in the Bill Eisenwinter Hot Shot Tournament that begins this weekend.</p>
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | May 13, 2011 9:00 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - When Barb Patton got involved in the Bill Eisenwinter Hot Shot Tournament some 10 years ago, the tournament attracted 87 teams.
In 2008, the tourney had ballooned to a record 192 teams. This year, with the economy down and some Montana teams unable to come because of a soccer event in their state, 151 teams are entered.
But the Hot Shot tournament, which begins today and runs through Sunday and is in its 20th year, remains as wildly popular as ever.
"We have to turn away teams," said Patton, who started off as a volunteer parent doing field marshaling duties, even took a turn as tournament director and is now the registrar for the Coeur d'Alene Sting soccer club, which puts on the tournament.
A handful of games are scheduled for tonight, mostly involving area teams. Most teams begin play on Saturday. Championship games are scheduled for Sunday.
The tournament includes 23 teams from the Sting, 11 from the Post Falls-based Idaho Thunder, and seven from the Lakeland Nighthawks. Also, there are 34 teams entered from Canada, as well as teams from Washington and Montana, and a handful from the Boise area.
"The biggest challenge is field location," said Rob Rollins, Sting club president and this year's tournament director. "We are spread all over. We have six different locations. The big challenge is to make sure each location is running efficiently."
Boys divisions include under-10, U11, U12, U13, U14, U15/16 and U17/19.
Girls divisions include U10/11, U11, U12, U13, U14, U15, U16 and U17/19.
Games are scheduled for Hayden Meadows Elementary (seven fields), Canfield Middle School (four), Coeur d'Alene High (two), Lake City High (three), North Idaho College (one) and Skyway Elementary (three).
The Canfield Soccer Complex serves as tournament headquarters.
The tournament was bumped up one week this year to give teams more time to recover prior to the Idaho State Cup. This year, the State Cup is May 20-22 in Boise for the U18 and U19 divisions, and May 27-30 in Twin Falls for the U13 through U17 divisions.
Coeur d'Alene has hosted State Cup in the past, and bid on it this year. However, Twin Falls landed the tourney for the first time. Patton said having one complex with many fields helps in landing a State Cup. The Boise area has at least two large soccer complexes, and Twin Falls recently built the 15-field Sunway Soccer Complex.
While Patton and Rollins are both grateful for local schools offering their fields for the Hot Shot and State Cup tournaments, "it is a drawback for us" to not have a large soccer complex, Patton said.
A core of about 15 volunteers runs the Hot Shot Tournament, said Patton, who added that parents of all 400 or so Sting players in the tournament are asked to help out in some fashion.
The Hot Shot Tournament was renamed in 2004 to honor Eisenwinter, longtime Sting and area high school soccer coach, who died in a car accident in 2003.
Schedules and other tournament information can be found at the Sting's website, www.cdasting.com.
ARTICLES BY MARK NELKE
PREP FOOTBALL: Post Falls runs past Sandpoint
Sandpoint (2-1) hosts Davis High of Yakima on Friday.
Big Sky Football Kickoff: Plenty of new faces will need to step up for Vandals
“I’ve been very impressed by Zach’s natural ability to rush the passer,” Eck said. “And he’s worked hard on his body, he’s up to about 222 pounds now, and I really think he can be a difference maker for us. He’s still doing some things with the linebackers, but I think his speed can give some offensive linemen problems (as an edge rusher).”
THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Journey to a title in Bonners — with a brief stop in Cd’A
“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”