by Augusto Raffi-Angulo

Virginia Beach - It won't be your momma's normal beach weekend June 6-8 for the 50,000 daily visitors sun worshipers strutting their stuff along Virginia Beach's famed Atlantic Ocean Boardwalk What was a basic resort strip just days before will have been transformed by hundreds of volunteers into the10th anniversary "North American Sand Soccer Championships". Virginia sports equipment merchandiser "Soccer Plus Field Hockey" is returning as this year's "Title Sponsor" while the region's pro soccer franchise "Virginia Beach Mariners" has newly partnered as the festival's "Presenting Sponsor".

Hailed by international sports gurus in the rapidly emerging sport of sand, or beach soccer, this "Grand Prix" of amateur and professional sand blasts will attract 6,000 youth and adult competitors from over 15 states and several countries, battling in 40 divisions along a mile and a quarter of seacoast city blocks.

Two special attractions have been added to the 2003 Championships. In the "U.S. OPEN", the top 12 entering national and international men's pro/am teams will battle for cash over a three-day format. Friday will involve two matches per club, with the top 8 squads advancing to the Saturday/Sunday cash round. The elite beach soccer Brazilian "Flamilia" are expected to defend their 2002 national crown and should be pressed by a bevy of other pro/am clubs who now have extensive sand soccer experience, including the local "Hampton Roads All Stars", who lost 5-4 to Flamilia last year in the final 20 seconds. A second new venue involves pro/am women's teams from the U.S. and Canada which will compete in an international "Atlantic Challenge" , sponsored by radio stations Z104, 94.9 and 2WD. A U.S./Canada men's component may be added before June. All pro/am matches will be held in a large beach stadium erected especially for the weekend.

Played at the professional level by numerous countries in Europe and South America, sand soccer was imported into the United States in the early 90's by a Florida entrepreneur who created several small tournament in that state. Virginia Beach soccer administrators quickly learned of this development and the rest is history, thanks to a 90% annual return rate of annual competitors, advertising on the festival's Internet site, and a soccer-friendly beach resort sports mecca.

Begun in1994 with just 26 teams, the North American Sand Soccer Championships are formally ranked as one of the nation's top summer tourist attractions and in 2003, will host 600 teams of boys and girls aged 9 through 19, men, women and coed squads in a monster weekend of surf, sun and sand soccer. With seeded divisions, it's for every level of soccer skills - from the most professional down to folks who have never tried the game. Contests are 5 on 5, with ten players per team competing in fast-paced action during three 12-minute periods on sand "courts", ranging in size from 25x35 yards to 30x40 yards. Endurance is a prerequisite and substitutions are made "on the fly", much like ice hockey, with which sand soccer has many similarities.

The giant sports beach party is hosted by the Hampton Roads Soccer Council as a charity fund raiser for the organization's 75-acre, 19-field Soccer Complex. Information may be obtained at www.sandsoccer.com, by emailing sandsoccervb@aol.com or calling 757-456-0578. The application deadline is May 1, 2003.Over100 teams were turned away last year due to the festival's popularity.