I'm a big supporter of soccer in the Brookings community, and have been involved with the game of soccer in some form, since I was a kid. I love playing & watching this fast paced, team played sport. So, when the Cubby's Indoor Futsal Tournament came to town this past weekend from January 25-27, I wanted to be a part of it....again.
What does my sponsorship include? Well, in the winter months, it means I get to sit indoors where it's nice and warm while watching a sport I enjoy. But it also means that I'm helping out , in my little way, with the tournament from start to finish while supporting young athletes from around the state of South Dakota.
This year, 113 teams made their way to Brookings to participate. The furthest travelers came all the way from Spearfish and participated in the age groups of U9-U19 for both boys and girls. That's some dedication to play the sport you love, and I'm thrilled that this tournament gave all of these kids a great way to get some exercise and have some fun during the winter months.
But all of this doesn't just happen out of thin air. A lot of work is put into organizing and staffing the tournament. First, there's not a single location to support all of the games, so we took over four different gymnasiums from Friday through Sunday and set up each venue for indoor futsal. We use the 5th Street Gym, Mickelson Middle School (two courts), Dakota Prairie Elementary School and Camelot Intermediate School.
Very precise estimations were made about the number of people that visited Brookings for the weekend - a few thousand. That's a lot of extra activity in our community between food and lodging for three days, two nights. So, not only are kids enjoying themselves and staying active, the community benefits from the added population during that time as well.
Did you know it took us about four hours to tape five courts? That's including a large number of helpers working from Thursday evening until midnight to complete the task. And it was all worth it when 5 pm on Friday rolled around and games starting kicking off. Things wrapped up on Sunday during the mid-afternoon when the championship games were played.
It really is a family-friendly, fun event to participate in and for people to come and watch the games being played. If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, stop out to a tournament and experience it firsthand. Look for this tournament and other events like it coming up in the future.
Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help with the Summer and Winter tournaments. It takes a lot of hands to put on a successful tournament and your help would be greatly appreciated. For more information, visit the Brookings Futbol Club website at https://brookingsfc.com/.
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