Park City Adult Soccer hosts mountain-towns tournament

Women's winners of the Park City Adult Soccer Tournament. Photo: Dino Busuladzic

PARK CITY, Utah. — All of the Trailside Park soccer fields were occupied by the Park City Adult Soccer Tournament this weekend. Except, that is, while the Euro soccer finals was on tv since the tournament scheduled a break so the players could watch and, needless to say, stay hydrated. 

The tournament isn’t necessarily associated with any of the usual suspects around town that often organize larger sporting events. This is simply a bunch of soccer-loving locals who’ve taken it upon themselves to get out and make it work.

Don’t let that lack of attachment to a Park City recreation umbrella organization fool you, these guys are legit, so says the Utah Youth Soccer league which shows it by utilization of its website, supplying shade tents and also some standing banners, the other standing banners are there courtesy of Little Caesars. Another name lending some serious street cred’ to this league is Skull Candy which donated ear gear for volunteer team managers to go home with after the tournament. 

Dennis Hoglin, whose been a soccer player since he was five has been participating in the Park City Adult Soccer Tournament since 2004. The team he represented this weekend, which is managed by Chris Retzer, had players from ages 18 to 55 and made it all the way to the semi-final round.

Hoglin said, “It started out as even more of a mountain-town league and has morphed into just a bunch of adults getting out and playing some really quality soccer mostly just for the fun of it.”

This particular tournament saw all of the other teams coming to Park City from around Northern Utah, Jackson, WY and Sun Valley, ID. A decade ago, Breckenridge and Vail, CO were also in the mix.

Some Park City players struck up friendships while their children rostered on the Park City Soccer Club, others, not so much. 

This tournament had a women’s 7 v 7 division, a men’s 7 v 7 division and a men’s 11 v 11 division.

• In the women’s 7 v 7, the semis were decided by penalty kicks (pk) then the finals came down to the Ber and Friends victorious over the Oldies but Goodies team. 
• Men’s 7 v 7’s final came down to the winner’s, the Hurrican’s vs. Boxican FC. 
• And the Men’s 11 v 11 final pitted the winning Sons of Chuck Norris against the Vikings SC.

All of the winning teams were from Utah.

As evidenced in this social media post, it was possible to join a team mere days before the tournament which speaks to the desirable ‘lax attitude the players have. Sometimes a game’s roster was so unpredictable that introductions are warranted on the sidelines as teammates are warming up, a fact that makes the flow that much more logistically feasible for all stakeholders. Next year registration deadlines promise to be tightened up, however.

To join a team, you can message their Facebook page.

Dino Busuladzic has been a co-tournament director with Jose Huerta for seven years. Busuladzic said, “The tournament went very well this year. We were blessed with great weather, beautiful fields, and solid competition. We are proud that we were able to grow the tournament by re-introducing the women’s division while running both 7 v 7 and 11 v 11 divisions for the men. We would like to thank Basin Rec for maintaining and allowing us to play on the beautiful grass fields at Trailside Park. Most importantly, a big thank you to all the players that participated and fans that came out to support them. We are excited about the feedback we received and look forward to improving and providing a great experience again next year–which is a World Cup year;  we have some exciting surprises planned.”

Winning teams each split the prize money of $500 along with medals, a trophy, and bragging rights which made the whole tournament a GGGOOOAAALLL.