The weekend of July 12 and 13 the Oregon Soccer Association held their annual soccer tournament. This tournament is the major fund-raiser for the club, but it also provides the majority of the fund-raising for the graduating classes (senior class runs the food concessions and junior class runs the bake sale) as well as more minor fundraising for the Hockey Club (snow cones) and the Band Boosters (pizza and that incredible lemonade). <BR><BR>While the late-week drenching caused many problems with the fields, the tournament crew was able to move a couple of fields with support from both the village of Oregon Parks Department and from the Oregon School District. There were also a number of incredible volunteers who worked tirelessly to keep several of the wetter fields as dry as possible with pumps, squeegees, rollers and garden shovels - thanks to all of you!<BR><BR>The tournament had almost 190 teams from four different states competing on 22 fields throughout the village. Teams from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota were spread out between Jaycee Park, Oregon Middle School, Rome Corners Intermediate School and Scott Street Park. Many, many thanks to the neighbors of all those schools and parks for their patience with the extra traffic around their houses - especially as Scott/Ames Street was used when some of our original fields became submerged (again).<BR><BR>Quite a number of the final matches came down to shootouts, a sign that the brackets were well put together and offered all of the competitors a challenge and lots of excitement. While only one Oregon team won their division (congratulations to the U16 Rampage team, made up predominately of boys from the soon to be junior class with a couple of sophomores as well), many others came in second or did very well in their divisions as well. The Fox Valley was well represented in the winners list with teams from Oshkosh, Neenah, Green Bay and Howard all making a good showing.<BR><BR>The Tournament Committee puts in innumerable hours lining up the vendors, the referees, the trophies and - most importantly - lining up the teams to ensure the high level of competition. The volunteers who come out to help set up the fields, sort the nets, work throughout the weekend to marshal the fields, pick up the trash and sell the tee shirts are an incredible group. The Oregon Soccer Association couldn't do this without them. A huge, huge thank you to all of those people!<BR><BR>While many of the fields do not look very good right now, Oregon Soccer will be working with both the village and with the Oregon School District to do what can be done to fix them; many dry days with some sun and wind will do the most for repairing these fields. We feel privileged to have the use of these fields and know that there are many other residents and sport groups who will use them as well.<BR><BR>Thanks again to the tournament committee: Dave Gasner, Chris Niebauer, Jean Larson, Kevin, Maggie and John Gasner, Phil and Paul Huettl, Andrew, Rebekah and Kevin Krenz, Nick Frautschy, Cassie Admeitz and several others. They set up the teams, the vendors, the refs and everything else that pulling a tournament this large together means. Thanks to the main field guys, Tom Fischer and Bob Tolly, for all your hours marking and re-marking the fields. Many thanks to all of our volunteers for tee shirts (Amy Miller) and just making sure that all ran smooth both during and between the games. From what I could see as I handed out the final trophies, all of the teams had a grand time and this may be the best thank you we can all get.<BR><BR>Christine Johnston<BR><BR>Oregon Soccer Association
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