It seems not that long ago—1994 in fact---that the City of Concord first decided to offer a series of youth sports competitions as a way of recognizing the variety of sports played in the community and the organizations that put on these activities.  With the large and ever increasing volume of youth playing soccer in Concord, “the beautiful game” became the first sport of Concord Cup.  And it remains so today.

City staff and volunteers from the various youth soccer leagues and clubs got together in a room for the very first time in the former Concord Leisure Services headquarters in the historic downtown Adobe building.  Concord Athletic League, Concord AYSO, Diablo Valley Soccer Club and Mt. Diablo Soccer Association were the four groups offering organized recreational and competitive youth soccer in the city at that time.  They were each seeking to attract players and families to their program and there was very little cooperation between the leagues.

Perhaps inadvertently, the City’s initial approach about the concept of an annual tournament served a dual purpose.  Out of that first and then subsequent meetings, not only did Concord Cup become a reality but much more dialogue and cooperation among the entire youth soccer community came about.

The inaugural Concord Cup soccer tournament was held May 14-15, 1994 with 47 teams in seven age groups (4 boys and 3 girls) from Under 10 through U16.  Bern Kurtz was chairman and Ed Heinrich was the city staff liaison.  Also on the committee was Jay Bedecarre, who had sons playing in both DVSC and MDSA and naively made the initial contacts with each group to meet.  Both Bern and Jay are still involved on the committee.  Bern, a former AYSO Area Director, and his family moved to the state of Washington several years ago but he continues to be the Concord Cup scheduler and webmaster. Concord Disposal Service and Tosco Refining (now Tesoro) were both sponsors that first year and have been with the tournament ever since.

Over the years, the City of Concord staff liaison to Concord Cup has rotated from Heinrich, Danny Brown and Steve Voorhies to Bruce Stanley.  They have had the strong support of the City Council, city administration and their department head (including John Toffoli Jr., Bill Cambra, Mark Deven and now Community and Recreation Services Director Joan Carrico).  The Concord Parks Department, Mt. Diablo Unified School District and Tesoro Golden Eagle Refinery have been most generous in letting Concord Cup utilize their fields for the games and other Cup activities.

In addition to soccer, over these years Concord Cup has included competition in swimming, kickboxing, wrestling, table tennis, softball, boxing, gymnastics and roller hockey.  Soccer has always been the largest of the competitions and in 2008 swimming and soccer are the two sports hosting Concord Cup events.

From the original group of four Concord Cup soccer hosts, Concord Athletic League no longer exists.  Mt. Diablo Soccer League began participating in 2002 and just this year DVSC and MDSL combined to form Diablo Futbol Club, which is co-hosting in 2008 with original members Concord AYSO and MDSA.  Over the years there have been dozens of regions, leagues and clubs from throughout Northern California and Nevada who have sent teams to play in Concord Cup, including the local Liga Latina.  We even had two teams from Hawaii in 1999, which was the only year we held the event in June.  As of this year we will have had exactly 1400 teams representing over 14,000 different players take part in the tournament.  We didn’t have a U16 girl’s bracket until Concord Cup IV but this year nearly 60% of our teams are girls.  We added the Under 19 division, with a little trepidation, in 2001.  We’ve had cold weather, blazing hot days and torrential rainstorms.  We started play on Friday for 10 years but transportation and logistics issues got too difficult

Concord Cup soccer has generated about $100,000 for the host organizations’ programs as well as AYSO VIP soccer and to the City to provide facilities for the youth soccer community.

Over these 15 years the number one constant of Concord Cup has been the small, dedicated group of volunteers---too numerous to mention here without fear of omitting some---who meet year-round to plan and organize the event.  Tournament chairs over these 15 years have included Kurtz, Linda Wilmoth, Ed Lee, Bob Pavlovic and Bedecarre.  For all their work the committee members get a few dinners at working meetings, a tournament jacket, maybe a polo shirt but most of all the great satisfaction of seeing Concord Cup take place with so many boys and girls, along with their families, enjoying a wonderful sporting weekend in the city we call home.

Our 2008 tournament committee is listed on the contacts page.  If you see any of them this weekend, please give them a “thank you”.  Do the same for our volunteer referees.  There would be no Concord Cup if over 100 referees didn’t step up every year to officiate the games!

Thanks for participating and we hope to see you back here over the next 15 years.

Championship results are recorded below: