2012 US Youth Soccer Region I Championships Start Thursday, June 28th in Lancaster, Continuing Through Tuesday, July 3rd with 260 Soccer Teams from 12 States Competing in 444 Matches at Three Area Venues
Opening Ceremonies Thursday, June 28th at Clipper Magazine
Stadium
Lancaster,
PA – June 27, 2012 – For the second consecutive year, Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer and the City of Lancaster will host the 2012 US Youth Soccer Region I Championships, which begin on
Thursday, June 28th with opening ceremonies at Clipper Magazine Stadium
in downtown Lancaster, and continue through Tuesday, July 3rd at
three competition venues in the Lancaster community.
A total of
444 soccer matches are scheduled with 260 teams over the course of five
days. Admission to all games at all
venues is free of charge. The official
website for the championships is http://championships.usyouthsoccer.org/regionI
and a complete overview of local information is available at http://lancastersoccer2012.com.
Opening
ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday, June 28th at Clipper Magazine
Stadium (650
North Prince Street, Lancaster, PA 17603) beginning at 6 p.m. The opening ceremonies will include a parade
of all participating teams and officials, accompanied by the mascots of the
Lancaster Barnstormers and other local attractions, as well as members of the
National Guard. Dignitaries from state
and local government as well as from the world of soccer are also expected to
be in attendance at the ceremony.
Preliminary
matches begin on Friday, June 29th and continue through Sunday, July
1st at the Hempfield High School Complex (340 Mumma Drive, Landisville, PA
17538), at Elizabethtown College (1 Alpha Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022) and
at Classics Soccer Park (the headquarters venue, 1461 Lancaster Road, Manheim,
PA 17545).
Semi-final
matches begin at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 2nd at Hempfield High School Complex
and at Classics Soccer Park.
The championship
finals matches will be played on Tuesday, July 3rd beginning at 8
a.m. at Classics Soccer Park.
The 2012 US Youth Soccer Region I Championships
in Lancaster features the top 260 boys and girls teams ranging in age from
under-12 to under-19 from US Youth Soccer Region I, which includes the
following 16 state organizations: Eastern
Pennsylvania (host); Connecticut; Delaware; Eastern New York; Maine; Maryland;
Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York West; Pennsylvania West;
Premier League; Rhode Island; Vermont; Virginia; West Virginia.
Regional
winners from the under-14 through under-19 boys and girls brackets earn a berth
to the upcoming 2012 US Youth Soccer
National Championships, scheduled for July 25th through July 29th in Rock
Hill, South Carolina.
Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, which has partnered with the City
of Lancaster
“Building
upon the considerable success of last summer’s event, this year we anticipate
that the 2012 US Youth Soccer Region I
Championships will bring over 15,000 visitors to Lancaster County during
the six days of the tournament,” said Chris Branscome, Chief Executive Officer
of Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer
and co-chair of the Lancaster Organizing Committee. “Our event will result in over 10,000 room
nights booked into Lancaster-area hotels with over $15 million in economic
benefits for Lancaster and the region.
“We’ve
received outstanding cooperation and assistance from the City of Lancaster, the
Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, and a number of civic,
business and soccer organizations over the past two years,” Branscome said.
This is the
only the second in Eastern Pennsylvania
Youth Soccer’s 40 years of existence that the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships will be held within its own
borders. The event was held in Lancaster
last year, and generated outstanding local, regional and national attention,
with one of the champions crowned in Lancaster, the under-18
Boys YMS Thunder (from Morrisville, PA) earning the 2011 US Youth Soccer
National Championship last August in Phoenix.
About Eastern Pennsylvania Youth
Soccer:
Since 1972,
Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer
has worked throughout Eastern Pennsylvania to promote, foster and perpetuate
the game of soccer to the region's youth. Through competitions, educational
programs, workshops and coaching clinics, Eastern
Pennsylvania Youth Soccer impacts the lives of more than 130,000 youth
soccer players from ages five to 19.
Additional information is available at http://www.epysa.org.
Media Contacts:
For Eastern
Pennsylvania Youth Soccer:
Rob Brown, Communications Manager,
Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer
Cell phone: 215-218-8143
E-mail: rbrown@epysa.org
Jim DeLorenzo, Jim DeLorenzo Public
Relations
Cellphone: 215-266-5943
E-mail: jim@jhdenterprises.com
For US Youth
Soccer:
Mike Anderson, US Youth Soccer
Communications
Cellphone: 972-213-5272
E-mail: manderson@usyouthsoccer.org