By STEVE CARLSON

VIRGINIA BEACH - Saturday wasn't your typical beach day, which was fitting in a way. There was nothing typical about what was going on at the Oceanfront.

On most June weekends, the stretch of sand from First to Ninth Streets is for laying as thousands of sun worshipers flock to the beach. Saturday and today, that same sand is for playing in for thousands of soccer afficionados.

The North American Sand Soccer Championships attracted 258 youth , adult and co-ed teams for a weekend of kicking sand in each other's faces. More than 900 matches will be played during the two days. Organizers dub the tournament, in its fourth year, the largest sands soccer event in the nation. "I had no clue it would be as popular as it is", said tournament director Dick Whalen, who has seen the event mushroom from an inauspicious 28-team beginning in 1994.

Like beach volleyball, sand soccer is a scaled down version of the traditional game. The fields and goals are smaller and teams have five players. The players are bare-footed or in socks, and not only contend with opponents but also with an uncooperative surface, compared to normal field grass.

"It's a lot harder on the calf muscles, and there's really never a true bounce and roll on the ball because of all the craters and divots in the sand," said Daniel Keever of Virginia Beach, who is competing in the men's open division, the highest level of play.

Or, as high school student Vanessa Kreshover, from Vienna put it while discussing how the sand negates many of the traditional soccer skills and moves, "sometimes you feel a little stupid". That's not to say it isn't fun, because there's an obvious attraction, given the number of players. Twenty fields are set up over the nine-block stretch. Most of the players are local, but there are teams from seven states, traveling from as far as Ohio.

The Middletown Raiders brought two teams totaling 16 11-12 year olds and about twenty parents from Langhorn, Pa. That's located about 20 miles north of Philadelphia, almost a six-hour drive. They came for soccer, as well as the appeal of the beach. But with the temperature hovering around 60 degrees, it wasn't much of a beach day. Last year, the temperatures were in the 90's and players were running to the ocean to cool off after the games. The only people in the water Saturday were surfers.