Soccer Three Blind Refs Tourney starts Saturday at Kidsports

| June 1, 2017 11:04 PM

By DAVID LESNICK

Daily Inter Lake

The numbers of note for the Three Blind Refs soccer tournament this weekend at Kidsports Complex are ...

n 220 games to be played on ...

n 18 fields (14 at Kidsports and 4 at Glacier High School) in a ...

n 48-hour period with...

n 80 referees making all the calls and ...

n 1,500-plus youngsters competing.

Those figures sound overwhelming at times, however the Flathead Soccer Club always manages to pull it off without any major problems thanks to a strong volunteer base and membership.

Now it its 24th year, this event remains a popular draw for teams in Idaho, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta and Montana.

“It has stayed pretty consistent,” Miles Glynn, program director for the Flathead Soccer Club, said of the entry list. “We stay above the 100-team mark.”

This year there are 120 teams, two more than the previous year. Boys and girls will competing in 10 divisions from U10 to U19.

Play begins Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. Championship matches on the final day have staggered starts from noon to 3 p.m.

“This (event) has the right combination of elements (to be successful),” Glynn said.

“People love coming to Kalispell and the Flathead Valley. That’s one aspect of it.

“The competition here comes from other cities and two Canadian provinces,” he continued.

“It’s great competition.”

And finally ...

“We have a top-notch facility,” he said. “It is centrally located. Some tournaments are spread out over a dozen locations. All the teams and vendors are here, so there is more of a tournament feel to it.”

Buffalo Wild Wings is the title sponsor for this tournament for a second-straight year.

“They have made an investment in youth tournaments around the state,” Glynn said of Buffalo Wild Wings.

Glynn has been involved with the Flathead Soccer Club since 2010.

He said the Flathead Soccer Club had two teams last weekend at the Montana State Cup in Billings advance to the finals.

The U13 boys won state and the U14 boys finished second.