On August 1st, the Tournament of Champions celebrated its 30th anniversary at the wonderful facilities of Fort Wayne Sport Club, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
A total of 30 Teams, made up of State Champions, State Runners up, and State League Champions competed in the event on Saturday, Aug. 1st and Sunday, Aug. 2nd. The tournament is held annually by Region II.
Here are the 2009 champions and runners-up –
Men’s open Championship
1st Place - Louisville Soccer Alliance (Kentucky)
2nd Place - Croatia Cleveland (Ohio North)
Men’s Over 30 Championship
1st Place - Drita (Michigan)
2nd Place - Fort Wayne Sport Club (Indiana)
Men’s U-23 Championship
1st place - 1790 Cincinnati (Southern Ohio)
2nd place - Dynamo (Indiana)
Women’s Open Championship
1st Place - Dynamo (Kansas)
2nd Place - Michigan Burn (Michigan)
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 and Women’s Open, 0ver 30, Under 23 and Coed Divisions. 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 in 2005 and replaced by the Flo Dyson trophy in 2006.
