Joan Cusco: “The spectacle at Virginia Beach is something every member of the beach soccer family should experience at least once…”
With more than 12,000 players, around 1,100 teams and 64 pitches hosting games simultaneously from sunrise to sunset, what you could breath in Virginia Beach over the past weekend was beach soccer in its purest form. Just Beach Soccer. And this has been happening for the last 23 years.
Joan Cusco, BSWW’s Executive vice-president, was one of the many attendees to this beach soccer festival, explaining: “It is an event that every single member in the beach soccer family around the world should experience at least once in their lives. Coming down to Virginia and seeing the atmosphere, how people interact with each other, is stunning – it gives you goosebumps.”
Everybody felt a part of it. Maybe a little one, but an essential indispensable part. Everybody, every single one of the 12.000 participants was a winner. Boys and girls, from eight years old onwards, in 86 different divisions, brought the best they had onto the sand, showing that beach soccer is already part of their life. And this makes them precisely that, an essential part of beach soccer.
The history books will show the 2016 US Open Cup belonged to Team Pugg but that was just a little part of what the entire North American Sand Soccer Championships meant. The three-days event proved another major step forward for beach soccer in the United States, way beyond the professional division.
Together with the 1100 teams, the game was also played off the pitch, where hordes of supporters took also a very relevant role, spanning the generations, and helping make this year’s competition what it has become.
Volunteers, sponsors, advertisers, vendors and numerous members of the US military all contributed to the wider feelgood factor at the event, along with throngs of enthusiastic fans, with divisions ranging from boys and girls under-8s through to men’s over 30s and women’s over 40s.
The family-centered event was signified by spectators of all ages enjoying the beachside atmosphere and sunshine vibe at an event that not only brought home the strengths of sport to the Virginia Beach community but also kept the sport of beach soccer growing in the region and the wider country.
Maintaining momentum in Oceanfront is obviously key and, on that theme, the dates for next year’s event have already been confirmed.
Taking place from June 9th to June 11th, 2017 has big shoes to fill but organiser Dick Whalen is confident the competition will continue to grow from its relatively humble beginnings. “With our long and highly successful history, we justifiably consider that NASSC is leading the way in the USA, and hopefully will keep bringing this huge championship on for may years”, Whelan colcludes.
Beach Soccer financing eleven-a-side football
“In the 1990s, Beach Soccer was beginning to expand internationally and becoming visible in the US. So, down in 1994, we attempted an inaugural beach soccer event as a revenue generator for the newly built soccer facility, a 75-acre soccer park, which also helped the city’s sportive soul blossom. The new sport and the Virginia Beach oceanfront were a perfect match!”
“The modest ‘core’ staff was created using volunteers from four local soccer clubs. As time passed, the numbers of participants exploded from twenty-six pioneering teams to over over 1,000 this time”.
“Two decades later, our mile-and-a-half, 60-plus field festival is now one of one of the brightest jewels in our resort’s calendar of beach attractions, producing significant economic impact, while allowing our grass soccer park to remain one of the most premier facilities in the USA”.
This is another example of what makes the North American Sand Soccer Championships such a special event, as it is the ‘little brother’, beach soccer, financing the elder, eleven-a-side football. The revenue generated by the beach soccer championships crucially helps sustain the football sporting centre.
“It is truly sand that is making the grass grow in Virginia Beach”, Whalen continues, “permitting many thousands of youth and adult soccer players to fully enjoy their sport – both on the grass and on the beach.”
Key Stats of the North American Sand Soccer Championships
– Total beach soccer teams: around 1,100+ across 27 countries
– 12.000 players
– More tan 250 people invloved in the organisation, most of them volunteers.
– Amount of sponsors: 142
– Number of matches: 2,000 across two-and-a-half days
– Location size: 25 city blocks of oceanfront across 1.5 miles and 64 sand fields
– U.S. Open: Sixteen Pro teams competing
– Equipment numbers: 250 beach soccer balls were used along with 7,500 yards of field lining, 128 sets of goals and 800 plastic cones
