By Nick Bowton

Dick Whalen might have a tough time topping himself next summer. Whalen, the tournament director of the 2001 North American Sand Soccer Championships, has seen the event grow every year from the inaugural tournament in 1994. It started with 26 teams and has grown to 482.

The U.S. and Canadian national pro beach soccer teams will play and exhibition at noon Saturday, highlighting the tournament in Virginia Beach. Giancarlo Signorini's Pro Beach Soccer Tour will hold its first U.S. National Finals Sunday.

Whalen said the Virginia Beach tournament, which benefits the Hampton Roads Soccer Council, is the only amateur beach soccer competition in the country that has had any relation with the Pro Beach Soccer Tour. "It's also the first amateur tournament to host a national exhibition", Whalen said.

"It's made our overall tournament much better, more attractive, " Whalen said. "When you bring in the professional element and your country's national team, you can't get much better than that."

Both the exhibition and the national finals match will take place in a 2000-seat stadium between Sixth and Seventh Streets. The stadium, like the many adult matches that will be played in it, is new to the tournament. It was built for the sole purpose of attracting yet another new element - television. Whalen said the event couldn't get television coverage without a stadium. He made plans to build one, and Signorini worked out the details with the Outdoor Life Network (OLN). The network will televise the exhibition match and the U.S. National Finals championship match, as well as provide various coverage of other tournament matches, in August. The events will be broadcast in prime time in the United States and Canada.

"I believe the support of a channel like the Outdoor Life Network is important," said Signorini, who started the Pro Beach Soccer Tour in 1992. "There is a big commitment from the network to help the sport grow in other markets, to follow us next year with 6-8 events. The events Signorini speaks of are regional qualifiers - a stage of the U.S. National Fianls that will be added next year.

For the tournament, Signorini invited eight teams to compete. Four of them - the regional qualifier division - are local teams that have fared well in NASSC in the past. The other four - national qualifier division - are teams from around the country that have done well in Virginia Beach and at other sand soccer tournaments.

Signorini has been eying the U.S. market for sometime. His Pro Beach Soccer Tour already has leagues in Europe and South America, and his knowledge of NASSC led him to choose Virginia Beach as the location for the first U.S. National Finals. The Finals winners receive $6,000 of a $15,000 purse.