San Diego’s Soccer in the Sand beach tournament was held June 5th and 6th in Coronado, California.  The beach competition was one of the first summer tournaments in Southern California. More than 4,000 people attended the tournament on Coronado’s Silver Strand beach.
 

Chris Lemay, Tournament Director and Robert Uno, parent coach

Chris Lemay said, "The new location on Coronado was terrific.  The sand fields were great, the beach access perfect and the state parks people were awesome.” Lemay continued, "The entire experience was wonderful and I hope we exceeded everyone's expectations.  Having the ability to swim in the ocean always makes a soccer tournament terrific."  

 

More than 100 soccer teams from Southern California competed in the weekend’s tournament including:San Diego Surf, Encinitas Express, Barcelona from Temecula, FC Blades from Orange County, FC Murrieta, RSF Attack, Del Mar Sharks among others.

 

The Soccer in the Sand tournament was a great opportunity for the coaches to take a break and watch parents take a turn coaching.   (Some coaches must really love this!) Many parents enjoyed the chance to coach and some even left the beach with a deeper and freshly acquired appreciation for their club’s coaches.

 

Robert Uno, who coached his son Ish Uno’s Surf U8 team in the competition said "I have a new appreciation for ALL the coaches; is a tough job."  Uno's BU8 team played up in the BU9 bracket and won the championship.  "The parents’ support was wonderful and our kids played with a lot of heart," said Uno who encouraged his boys from the sidelines and rotated players often.      

 

According to Lemay, “A great majority of the parent coaches did exactly what we hoped. Beach soccer is a great time for players to be creative on their own and just flat out play. A lot of our parent coaches allowed the kids to have a great time while provide equal playing time for all the players. This was not an event for over coaching.” 

 

Lemay continued, "All other countries are so much less organized in terms of youth soccer and yet their players are often better.  This is a great chance for soccer players to just play soccer." 

 

"It is great to see parents realize how much effort coaching is and how much talent it requires.  Sometimes it is a thankless job, but I love it.  I like the interaction with the kids, watching them develop and grow.  Coaching teaches leadership, teamwork, and responsibility. It also builds confident people.” 

 

Lemay did not find it hard to just sit back and watch his team.  "I watched some of my teams' games and enjoyed it.  I wasn't telling Sarah to go left and Johnny to go up... I just watched them play.”  

 

“The games I watched were exciting and high scoring. We had new, bigger, FIFA regulation size beach goals this year from GOLME. The 7’ x 21’ bigger goals lead to higher scoring games, which are usually more fun for everyone, except the hard working goalies,” said Lemay.