The Woodlands will be home to Copa Rayados Internacional, a boys’ youth soccer tournament held from Nov. 23-27, which is estimated to bring in more than 5,000 participants.
Texas Rush Soccer Club, Montgomery County’s largest youth sports organization, initially sought to bring the international tournament to The Woodlands more than a year ago. For the past three years, the tournament has taken place in San Antonio.
“The fields and the complexes in The Woodlands are great,” said Scott Spencer, president of Premier Soccer Services, the management company for the tournament. “They include a lot of synthetic turf, which is very attractive because it helps lower the concern of bad weather and dealing with muddy fields because synthetic turf handles rain conditions better.”
After coordinating with The Woodlands Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Woodlands Township, the Houston CVB and Premier Soccer Services, The Woodlands will now host the four-day event for the next three years at the Bear Branch, Gosling and Alden Bridge sports complexes.
“It’s something new that will bring international flavor to soccer in the community,” Texas Rush Technical Director Don Gemmell said. “It’s a good range of ages and will be a good caliber of quality teams that come to the tournament.”
According to Spencer, last year’s tournament had 275 total participating teams, 95 of which were international. Spencer said many teams travel from Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil and the Caribbean to compete.
“We did an economic impact study last year and I want to say we were at about a $7 million economic impact, [which] translated to about 6,000 participants and 9,000 nonparticipants,” Spencer said.
Due to field space limitations, Spencer said he expects this year’s numbers to be slightly smaller although still impressive. The tournament is open to boys teams ages 9-18 at the elite level and for pro club youth academy teams as well as the B-level for standard competitive teams.
“I think what’s really special about this tournament is that we get international competition all the way down to the 9-, 10- and 11-year olds, and they’re very good teams,” Spencer said. “You get to see those little kids compete and interact with different cultures and different people from other countries, and it makes for a very special event.”
According to The Woodlands CVB President Nick Wolda, the type of international camaraderie the tournament fosters is reflective of The Woodlands community, which has residents from more than 100 countries.
“It’s great to have international activity that celebrates this diversity,” he said. “It’s the opportunity to show people from around the world our community.”
