Soccer: Three Blind Refs and hundreds of happy faces

There will be no record field for this weekend’s Three Blind Refs soccer tournament like a year ago, when 165 teams were registered.

However it still is a very popular draw for teams from all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada.

Tournament director Rob Riley said this year’s total is 157 for the 22nd edition of this event, which begins Saturday at 8 a.m. with matches at Kidsports Complex, Glacier High School and Kalispell Middle School.

Play resumes Sunday at 8 a.m. at all three locations. Championship matches start at noon on the final day.

“I’m totally amazed,” Riley said of the number of teams for 2015.

“This spring I thought maybe 136 or 137.”

The reason he was expecting fewer entries was because of the U.S./Canadian exchange rate. Last year 65 teams were from Canada, including one from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

“The number of Canadian teams coming is down,” he said.

“But we made (up the difference) from Montana teams coming. We have more from Great Falls, more from Helena that didn’t come last year.”

Teams, boys and girls, will be competing in the following divisions — U10, U11, U12, U13, U14, U15, U16 and U17-18.

There are no teams this year in U15 boys.

This year the tournament will be held entirely in Kalispell. Last year, because of the record field, matches were also held at Smith Fields in Whitefish.

“This will make it much more convenient,” Riley said.

The young divisions — 10-12 — will be at Kidsports. Glacier and the middle school will handle 13-18.

There will be 157 matches played on Saturday with 131 to follow on Sunday.

More than 2,100 soccer players will be in attendance along with 200 referees.

“I’d like to thank all of the other organizations (Kalispell Youth Softball Association and Pee Wee and Major League baseball) who use Kidsports,” Riley said.

“They make an effort not to have games this weekend so we can make full use of the facility.”

Riley said it would be a parking nightmare for Kidsports to accommodate all three sporting activities on one weekend.

Flathead Soccer Club had five teams claim championships last year and two finished second.

This tournament is a major fundraiser for FSC.