Kentucky Soccer Association was well represented.  We thank the teams for traveling and playing in the Tournament of Champions.  All teams played their best and look forward to returning to try again

The Derbytown Jazz of the Greater Louisville Soccer League and the Kosmos of the Louisville Soccer Amateur League participated in the tournament Men’s Open in Fort Wayne.  They played well, but did not get out of their brackets.

The Louisville Soccer Alliance Open Women participated in the tournament.  They placed played in the Finals of the Open Women’s Division.  They came in second, place.  The received the traveling trophy, medals and a T-shirts for coming in second.

The Louisville Soccer Alliance U-23 participated in the U-23 Division.  They came in first place.  In the beginning of having this specific division in the Tournament of Chapions, the Louisville Alliance U-23 won the first competition, they won again this year.  They also received a trophy, medals and T-shirts. 

The Fort Wayne Soccer Complex was excellent.  The fields were very good condition.  The food and drink was great.  They hospitality was beyond words.  The weather was good except for a shower on Saturday afternoon.     

About the Region II Tournament of Champions

The Tournament of Champions features the state and league championship teams in seven competitive categories from the Midwest Region's 14 state associations. These categories include Men's, Women's, Men 0/30, and Women 0/30 division, Men U23, Women U23 and Coed Division. The tournament has grown to be one of the two largest such events in the Midwest annually, including between 30-40 teams in certain years. Envisioned by Joe Rodrigues (past Regional Director, Region II), the TOC began in 1980 to provide competition between the best teams in each of the States of the Midwest Region. The men's competition is open to Midwest (Region II) State Champions and Runners-Up. All of the other competitions are open to any league champions from the region. Following the long illness and death of Joe, the tournament was renamed in honor of its founder to be the Joseph L. Rodrigues Tournament of Champions.

Each tournament division has a traveling trophy, which is returned to the tournament the following year, until teams from a State have won the trophy three times, at which time, the trophy is retired. In the late 1990's, the regional council decided to honor noteworthy members of Region II by naming the traveling trophies for them. Presently, the four trophies honor the following: Men's Open; Joseph L. Rodrigues; Women's Open, Mary Hollerung; Men's 0/30, James Carson, and Women's O/30, Julie Ilacqua. The Mary Hollerung trophy was retired tin 2005 and replaced by the Flo Dyson trophy in 2006.