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Canfield’s Cardinal Classic hosts 50 teams
By Ryan Buck
canfield
As an air horn blared across the Canfield High School campus sounding the end of their third game of the morning, Canfield soccer players Kelsey Yankush and Sydney Miller retreated past a row of tents offering everything from massages to Hawaiian ice to a miniature sporting goods store. All-terrain vehicles carrying players and their families weaved past hundreds of spectators who found respite from the sun under small tents or set up lawn chairs and picnic blankets up and down the hill that overlooks the fields.
Such are the amenities for players, coaches, and patrons at this festival de futbol.
The Cardinal Classic preseason soccer tournament is in its fifth year, held every July. What began as a small showcase for 20 local teams to scrimmage one another has exploded into one of the largest high school tournaments in Ohio. Fifty teams from as far as Cleveland and Columbus — including some of the state’s top programs — now descend upon Canfield.
Each team plays three 40-minute games, the equivalent of one-and-a-half high school matches, in the span of four hours. Cardinal Stadium and the four practice soccer and football fields are utilized from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Games on all fields, officiated by two referees each, begin at the same time, as directed by the announcements made over the public address system from the stadium’s press box which is heard by all.
The planning and execution of the tournament is a long and painstaking process.
“We start prepping right after the first of the year and we start setting up the on-line registration.,” said Canfield boys and girls coach Phil Simone. “Some other planning will start in the previous fall with hooking up corporate sponsors. It’s all the tournaments we’ve been through over the years, trying to pick out the pluses and minuses and choosing the good aspects from each of them to build on with ours.”
Teams reserve spots quickly, enabling tournament organizers to lure businesses like NC Soccer Shop of Hudson, various food vendors and a masseuse to plan their visits.
“They have everything here so it’s really nice,” said Yankush, a member of Canfield’s Division II regional runner-up team from last season.
On the field, matches are very competitive. Strong local teams will usually meet state powers like Strongsville, Richfield Revere and Akron St. Vincent- St. Mary.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Miller. “It’s good to see all these teams and get a view of what the upcoming season’s going to be like.
“It’s good for conditioning,” Miller added. “We’re all really tired right now.”
Coaches are able to see their teams’ off-season progress only weeks after Ohio High School regulations allow teams to officially practice.
“We go to Hudson and we go to Strongsville, but this is nice because you get to see the local coaches, talk shop, and a lot of these young guys play club soccer together,” said Austintown Fitch coach Ken Kilpatrick. “It’s not often that Austintown scrimmages Salem or Badger or even play them in the regular season.”
Simone has been amazed at the event’s rapid growth, spurred on by the Canfield Soccer boosters who devote much of their personal time to the tournament.
“Quite a bit of it is word of mouth,” he said. “Our parents group has really helped. They’re extremely organized. The games start on time all the time. They’re friendly to everybody that comes in. The word of mouth gets out to everyone with how well run and how good the people are has spread.”
Expansion is the order of business for next summer.
“I think we’ll try and continue that. We’re talking now — it’s one day — but we’re talking for next year to potentially have boys on Saturday, girls on Sunday or vice versa so we can have one extra day.”