The Lachute National Soccer Tournament will be held from June 28 to July 1, on the Lachute secondary school campus. To mark the 10th anniversary of the event, organizers will hold a special event: Soccer Night, during which teams will play matches throughout the night from June 29 to 30.
For twelve hours, from 8 p.m. on June 29 until 8 a.m. the next day, different adult teams will take turns on the Lachute multi-sport field to play friendly matches continuously. The team registration fees will be donated to the Jérémie-Paradis Foundation, which helps young people in the region to practice sports.
“We were looking for something special to mark our tenth anniversary while involving a local organization,” explained Julie Sanscartier, president of the Lachute Lynx Soccer Association. “There will be special activities, such as a game with glow sticks. We’ve had a great response so far.”
Participating teams are teams formed within organizations in the region. For example, a team composed of members of the soccer club’s board of directors was formed. At the time of speaking with Ms. Sanscartier, at least four teams had registered for the event and the organizers hoped to reach ten in time for the event to take place. Interested teams can register by writing to [email protected].
If the activity is popular enough, it could come back in the coming years. “We’ll see how people respond, but it definitely requires a lot of organization,” confirmed Ms. Sanscartier. “We’ll see how it works for our first edition, and if it works well, it could become our trademark for the coming years.”
A record of participation
As for the tournament itself, it could have a record edition in 2024. At the time of writing, at least 65 teams were registered for the event, beating last year’s record of 57, which represents nearly 975 players aged 9 to 16. About ten Lachutois teams should take part in the celebrations. However, some teams may not compete in the tournament if there are teams missing in their category.
One of the reasons that explains the increase in popularity of the event is that it is held, this year, during a weekend where the Laurentides Soccer Association has not scheduled regular season matches. calendar.
“Our teams from the Laurentians are present in large numbers compared to other years,” noted Ms. Sanscartier. Other times, some teams didn’t come to the tournament because they didn’t want to miss a regular season game. »
It must be said that the tournament was also brought forward by a few weeks, moving from mid-July to the end of June.
“We brought the event forward this year because mid-July is a fairly busy time in Lachute with the Agricultural Expo and Lachute celebrating,” explained the president of the event. We decided to move forward the tournament to give the city’s recreation department employees a break so they could help us. »
Ironically, June 29 will undoubtedly be the busiest day of the year in Lachute with, in addition to the soccer tournament, the baseball tournament at Richelieu Park, the Auto-Expo exhibition on Principale Street, the Argenteuil festival in blues downtown and the Sir-John Brewery birthday party concerts on Court Street…
For more information on the event, visit the “Tournoi national soccer Lachute” Facebook page.
