General Tournament Information

Soccer Links

Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau

 

Tournaments

The Ames Soccer Club encourages its players to participate in tournaments, as these can be uniquely fun experiences for families and teams and can encourage intense periods of soccer development through the multiple games in a short time and team bonding that can occur. Almost every tournament will have an entry fee; this is the responsibility of the team to cover. Club registration fees do not include tournament entries. Generally speaking, U8 and U10 teams make their own decisions about entering tournaments. Gary Eyles schedules tournaments throughout the year for the U11-U19 teams, and players are generally expected to participate. The competitive teams will also cover the expenses of the coaches. U11-U19 teams collect funds at the beginning of the season to cover the entry fees for tournaments.

The Ames Soccer Club is currently the host for three tournaments, which we particularly encourage participation in:

ISA Sanctioned Tournaments

The Iowa Soccer Association lists all of its sanctioned tournaments as the information becomes available during the year. Tournaments can admit recreational teams only or admit recreational and "competitive" teams. All ISA U6, U8, and U10 teams (including ours) are recreational teams. All teams that play in the IPSL are "competitive" teams. Our GDMJSL teams, in general, may play in either "recreational" or "competitive" tournaments.

Click here to see the list of ISA-sanctioned tournaments.

Iowa Games

The Iowa Games soccer tournament is held each July in Ames. This is another good tournament for younger teams to enter, since there is no travel, and they can participate in the opening ceremonies. Click here to visit the Iowa Games youth soccer web site. Entry can be done on-line or by mail.

Iowa Games Team Formation. U6, U8, and U10 teams can all enter the Iowa Games (as can older teams, but this paragraph concerns the younger ones). You can enter Iowa Games two ways:

  1. Enter as your regular spring team. Depending on the age group, you can add a small number of "guest players", i.e., kids from other teams. Check the rules for your age group for limits. If you do this, you can enter the "recreational" division of the tournament.
  2. Enter any group of players you want of the proper age as a team. This is a particularly good option when half a team is going to be out of town, because you can pick up players from other teams that couldn't otherwise participate as well. If you enter such an 'ad hoc' team, you have to play in the "open" division, which means some of the teams in it will have been put together by parents or coaches anxious to have a local "all-star" team. Take this into account when you rate your team's ability on the entry form.