May 9, 2008

AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass men's and women's soccer teams will cap their spring seasons this Saturday afternoon with exhibition games against the Western Mass Pioneers and the Adirondack Lynx highlighting the Sport Management Department's annual SoccerFest. The men's game will kick off at 1 PM, while the women's game will begin at approximately 3:30 PM. Both games will take part at Rudd Field.

SoccerFest is an annual soccer tournament which is entire produced and managed by students of the Sport Management Department at the Isenberg School of Management. The non-profit tournament is supported solely by partners and participant registration fees. Tournament proceeds go toward the Erik Kjeldsen Scholarship Fund, named after former UMass Sport Management professor Dr. Erik Kjeldsen. Each year the Sport Management Department awards scholarships for two to its students who exemplify academic excellence and superior work ethic.

The 2008 tournament will see Clif Bar return as title sponsor along with Platinum sponsor, Coca-Cola. This year the tournament will add PUMA athletic footwear and apparel to its impressive list of partners. SoccerFest has also increased the capacity to a total of 120 teams to accommodate the growing popularity of the event.

"The SoccerFest marketing team is eagerly anticipating this year's event and all the activities we are going to be offering," says student Samantha Lewis. "Along with the the inflatables everyone loves, we have many exciting activities available in the ClifKid FunZone, including, but not limited, to a dunk tank, FANtasy Fenway Park, a rock wall, new carnival game activities and live music. However, most of all we are looking forward to seeing all the smiling faces of our participants, spectators and parents."

This year marks the third consecutive year that SoccerFest will work with the Amherst Youth Soccer Association. All AYSA players will participate in Clif Bar SoccerFest 2008, making it the largest spring soccer tournament for the entire community.

Director of Coaching for AYSA Christopher Streeter remarks, "SoccerFest gives Amherst Youth Soccer an opportunity to be a part of an incredible day of soccer. More importantly than that, it's a community event that uses soccer as its platform, encompassing music, games, food, soccer clinics, a FunZone, and prizes. The UMass Sport Management students are professional, competent, attentive, and committed to making the event bigger and better than the year before, which is very difficult to do."

SoccerFest is pleased to have once again both the UMass Men's and Women's Varsity Soccer teams playing exhibition games. The UMass Men's team is coming off the most successful season in the program's history as it advanced to the NCAA Final Four. They will take on the Western Mass Pioneers in their SoccerFest match, which will feature a special ceremony honoring the 75th anniversary of the soccer program at the university. The Women's team will take the field against the Adirondack Lynx, a member of the Women's Premier Soccer league, with special Mother's Day festivities featured during the game.

The Sport Management program in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has always been a pioneering and model program for other universities throughout the United States. As one of the first schools in the nation to establish such a unique program, UMass Sport Management has a rich history and an alumni base filled with graduates working in all facets of the sporting industry. As a piece of its ground breaking ways, UMass Sport Management offers its most experienced, skilled, and driven students an opportunity to take Sport Event Management, an experiential learning class that provides students with the opportunity to get hands-on experience running a major event.

Each spring, students have the unique opportunity to gain admittance into this culminating class in the Sport Management program. "The undergraduate and graduate students are responsible for all aspects of managing and marketing Clif Bar SoccerFest. Essentially, the students gain the experience of running their own small company. This course requires students to set event goals and objectives, budget for the event, develop and execute a marketing plan, sell sponsorships, recruit and train 180 volunteers and perform all aspects of tournament operations," remarked Dr. Mark McDonald, faculty advisor for the class.

A great deal of work goes into SoccerFest to make sure the event runs smoothly, but so much more is gained from this class in the knowledge that each of the twenty-four students have learned on how to run a successful business operation. "I've gotten so much more out of this class than I even expected going in. So many different pieces need to come together to effectively run a soccer tournament, many of which aren't even seen by the spectators, sponsors or athletes," remarked student Phil Chien. Putting on SoccerFest also takes a tremendous amount of discipline from the students in the class, as they must balance extracurricular activities, other classes and outside jobs with the responsibility of putting on one of the largest events on campus. "What makes running this soccer tournament unique from any other is that we are all students first and foremost. We don't work full time days, and each of us has different class schedules," remarked student Ari Sliffman.

"There is always the challenge of trying to improve the event each year. Last year's event set a pretty high bar, but we think that we are really going to surprise a lot of people this year, especially those who have been participating since year one," says student Alex Hughes. While the soccer festival itself will run like any other tournament, the class has come up with numerous additions to the event in hopes of leaping over that bar. These extras include live entertainment featuring local touring band Maxxtone, an enhanced FunZone for kids with inflatables, rock wall, and dunk tank and a double-header played by the UMass Men's and Women's soccer teams.

This year's SoccerFest will be held on May 10th at the McGuirk Alumni Fields on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The registration period brought tremendous success as the tournament reached full capacity of 140 teams. "Being fully responsible for a large sport event, students grow personally and professionally through interacting with each other and the various event stakeholders, including Amherst Youth Soccer Association (AYSA), corporate sponsors, community members and organizations, and UMass staff, faculty, and administration. Working with these constituencies provides students with a realistic preview of the challenges inherent in running sport events that require the commitment of an entire community to be successful," says McDonald. Dr. McDonald believes that students who have taken the SoccerFest course will go on to do great things in the sport management world.

For more information on Clif Bar SoccerFest 2008, and tournament schedules, please visit http://www.soccerfest.org.