80 teams come to Pekin as youth soccer takes center stage this weekend

PEKIN — The Celestial City will become Soccer City this weekend.

Eighty boys and girls youth soccer teams from across Illinois and Iowa will descend on the Pekin Park District Sports Complex at 300 Koch Street from Friday through Sunday for the third annual Kickoff to Summer Classic tournament.

The anticipated $500,000 economic windfall from the three-day influx of soccer players and their families — 25 of the 80 teams will travel at least 70 miles to get to Pekin — will spread from Pekin across Tazewell County.

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"All the rooms are booked this weekend at the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Suites in Pekin, and there will be a spillover of people from our tournament staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Morton and the Fairfield Inn and Hampton Inn in East Peoria," said tournament director Troy Tarter.

The expected economic boost from the tournament convinced the Pekin City Council by a 5-1 vote in March to approve a first-time $2,500 sponsorship for the tournament.

Funds for the sponsorship will come from city hotel/motel tax revenue.

"We asked the city for $2,500 because that will pay for the vendors who marketed our tournament in the soccer community and handled registration," Tarter said. "Those are things we needed to have done for us."

Who is playing in the Pekin soccer tournament?

The Pekin Pride Soccer Club is the host club for the tournament. Nine Pride teams will play this weekend.

So will club teams from places like Arcola, Bartonville, Bloomington, Champaign, Decatur, East Moline, Galesburg, Geneseo, Germantown Hills, Glen Ellyn, Jacksonville, Morton, Peoria, Springfield, Streator and Washington.

The 16 tournament age divisions range from U7/U8 to U17/U18/U19.

Pride teams will play in U7/U8 girls, U9/U10 girls, U10 boys, U11 girls, U12 boys, U13 girls, U14/U15 boys and U17/U18/U19 boys divisions. Two Pride U11 girls teams will play.

The East Moline Silvis Soccer Club will send five teams to Kickoff to Summer Classic, more than either of the previous two years.

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"It's an open weekend for us, and an easy 90-minute drive for our parents," said Dennis "Mooch" King, the club's director of coaching. "We also like the tournament because we get to play teams we don't normally play."

The EMSSC hosts its own annual youth soccer tournament, the Quad Cities Spring Shootout.

This year's Spring Shootout, held April 30 and May 1, attracted a record 112 teams. So EMSSC officials know the logistics required to run a large tournament.

"I wasn't at the Pekin tournament last year, but I was there in 2019 and I was impressed with the communication with the teams, especially for a first-year tournament," King said.

What are the details of the Pekin soccer tournament?

Tarter said from 40 to 50 volunteers will work this weekend at the Kickoff to Summer Classic, as will about 50 referees. A myriad of sponsors will help defray costs, assuring there is no admission charge for spectators.

"Ultimately, our tournament is about a lot of folks working together so the tournament is a huge success for Pekin and the Pekin Pride Soccer Club," Tarter said.

Games will be played from 5:30 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. until about 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, some on lighted fields.

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Division champions will receive a team plaque and individual medals. Runners-up in each division will get individual medals.

Tarter has been the tournament director since 2019, its inaugural year.

The first Kickoff to Summer Classic attracted 46 teams. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant shutdown of activities.

"Our tournament committee was in the midst of planning for the 2020 tournament (in March 2020) when the pandemic hit. We didn't hold the tournament that year," Tarter said.

Undaunted, the tournament returned in 2021 and the field increased to 71 teams.

Steve Stein can be reached at (248) 224-2616 or stevestein21@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.