Welcome!

32nd ANNUAL NEEDHAM INVITATIONAL
MEMORIAL DAY TOURNAMENT

U.S.Y.S.A. Sanctioned
May 23^th - 26^th, 2008
DeFazio Park, Needham
For Boys and Girls
Premier (Club)
Division 1 (Town and Developmental Club Teams)
Division 2 (Town Teams)

The Needham Soccer Club, located 15 miles west of Boston, is proud to host its 32^nd annual Invitational Memorial Day tournament. The Needham Invitational Memorial Day Tournament is one of the oldest and highest ranked New England tournaments open to premier and town teams (according to g otsoccer.com) and is a favorite destination for top-caliber teams from throughout the Northeast United States and beyond.

As in prior years, games are refereed by some of the top USSF registered referees in the country.

We continue to enhance our tournament! For 2008's tournament we are excited to announce our partnership with Mass Premier Soccer to offer a New College Showcase Division for U15 - U19 boys and girls teams. These games will be held at a separate venue and viewed by college coaches.

We will also continue to offer 8 v 8 as well as 11 v 11 format for U11 and U12 teams.

2007's tournament proved to be a great success with the sunshine tipping the scales. We are focusing on making improvements for your total tournament experience including...

Seeding/Schedule
As in 2007 teams will be seeded much earlier in the process and the seeding will be sent to each team before the schedule is published. This will allow teams to request changes without having an impact on scheduled games. If this goes as planned the schedule should be more stable once it is published.

Play-Offs
On Sunday night and Monday morning calls will be made to the on-site contact of all teams playing in the play-offs to ensure everyone understands where and when they are playing.

We will also not publish the play-off schedule until it is set. This way there will be no confusion about what is final and what is still subject to change.

Communications
In 2006 & 2007 we were lucky enough to have Nokia provide us with 30 mobile phones which were used during the tournament for communication and for calling the scores into the website. We also used these phones to give us wireless Internet access directly from DeFazio Park and Medfield.

Since this worked so well we will be expanding the use of these phones in 2008. The Information Booth at DeFazio and Medfield will have multiple computers connected to the website so questions can be answered in real time.

We also plan on using the Nokia phones in such a way as to allow the field marshals to access the website right from the phone so they too will be able to answer questions in real time.

Fields
Field capacity is always one of our biggest challenges. In 2007 we had 32 fields counting our two backup fields.

In 2008 we will be able to continue to use these high quality fields as well as acquire several more which will bring us to a total of nearly 40 fields. The plan is to not increase the overall size of the tournament (except for adding in the showcase portion) but to replace some of our less desirable fields with better quality fields.

This will improve the overall quality of the fields while giving us a few backup options if we were to have rain.

Doing Your Part
We need your help to make the 2008 Tournament run as smooth as possible.

With an event this large it is impossible to communicate to each team individually. The only way to guarantee everyone gets the right information is to post it on the website and have people check it on a regular basis. Therefore we can not stress enough how important it is for every team manager/contact/coach to have Internet access during the tournament.

We also need you to pay close attention to the status emails that will be sent out in the weeks leading up to the tournament. These emails will contain time sensitive actions that you must complete before coming to the event.

When you register please ensure you give us an accurate on-site contact for your team (not the entire club). Each team needs a responsible main contact and it will be that contact who is responsible for passing on information to the rest of the team.

*** Get the Latest Tournament News ***

Click here to view team schedules

Learn about some of the clubs participating in this years tournament

Learn how we find our great referees

Are you a college coach? Please register here if you will be attending the Needham Invitational Memorial Day Tournament.

If you are a U15 or up player, you may set up or update your profile here. (Your coach must give you a user name and password first.)

Have a question? Check out our FAQ or Contact the Memorial Day Tournament Director.