Annual Memorial Day soccer tournament set to begin

Friday marks the start of the 21st edition of the Lynn Youth Soccer Memorial Day Tournament at Hood Park in Lynn, which runs through Monday, when the playoffs and championships are held. Since its inception in 1991, the tournament, which fields boys and girls teams from all over Essex and Middlesex counties (Town Travel & Recreation teams in all divisions are invited), has grown into a proud tradition.This summer’s tournament features over 30 teams (age groups U10, U12, U14, U16, U18 and U19/20), 17 of which come from Lynn. The other local entries come from Lynnfield, Marblehead, Revere, Salem, and Saugus (three entries).Teams with some traveling to do hail from Georgetown, Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, Westford and Woburn, the latter of which will bring seven teams to the tournament.Justine Fuccione, in her first year as tournament registrar, explained that with such a popular and long-running tournament comes a lot of hard work.”This is just my first year, but I can honestly say so much hard work goes into making this weekend a success,” she explained. “The smaller things, like making sure each individual is correctly registered, getting balls and t-shirts, booking catering and hiring referees, really add up. We begin planning this tournament in January, so it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.”Formatting-wise, the U10 teams each play three games without a playoff, while teams in each other age group are guaranteed at least three games. The top teams make it to Monday, when the playoffs and championship games are settled.To make things as fair as possible, teams that come from further distances to compete are slotted into more convenient game times. According to Fuccione, “most teams go back and forth between games, so we try to figure something out that evens things out a bit.”Besides the action on the field, the participants show team spirit in other ways. For instance, the players can often be seen sporting team-colored sprayed hair.With the threat of poor weather never far off in the region, the tournament has been blessed with about 19 years of great playing conditions. As Fuccione pointed out, in the tournament’s history, only twice has it rained on Memorial Day weekend.”It is just a great weekend and everyone always seems to enjoy themselves,” said Fuccione. “Between the kids playing and the parents volunteering to help out with running the concessions, you really see something great develop.”