Inaugural Keeper’s Cup kicks off high school soccer season on the Peninsula
The Peninsula-area high school soccer season gets underway with a bang Monday, with the inaugural kickoff of a tournament that will fill the void left by the discontinuation several years ago of the Christine Garvey Memorial Soccer Tournament.
For almost two decades, the Garvey tournament, which honored the late Christine Olsen Garvey’s valiant battle with breast cancer, opened the soccer season on the Peninsula. The Keeper’s Cup is poised as a fitting successor, in part because it is adopting the same format.
Six schools will compete in four divisions: girls and boys varsity, and girls and boys junior varsity. They will play 12 games per day at the Warhill Sports Complex, including Wanner Stadium, at 4, 5:45 and 7:30 p.m.
The Keeper’s Cup, co-founded by Tammy Guido and tournament director David Messick, will honor their children, late area goalkeepers Conner Guido (Tabb High) and Luke Messick (Kecoughtan High), who were killed in car accidents involving distracted drivers. As such, the event will double as, and is billed as, a Distracted Driving Outreach.
“This is really bringing back the Garvey Tournament,” Tammy Guido said. “There will be 528 players in the tournament and their parents, as well as athletes on the other 11 fields at the Warhill Sports Complex.
“DriveSmart VA (www.drivesmartva.org), YOVASO (www.yovaso.org), the James City County Police and York County-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office will be in attendance. They will have a distracted driving course and provide education for our teenagers to remind them of the dangers of speeding, reckless driving and drunk and drugged driving.
“Our hope is that people will come support the tournament, learn about safe driving while there and see some great soccer.”
Proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Gweedo Foundation and Luke Messick Futbol Charities. Messick Charities will send a team of coaches to Ghana in May, and tournament proceeds will help fund the scholarships it provides to students there.
The Keeper’s Cup soccer menu is terrific, including a game at 7:30 p.m. Monday between defending boys Class 3 state champion Tabb and 2022 Class 5 state semifinalist Kecoughtan. Tabb is led by Michael Hackworth, who scored the winning goal in the state championship game in May, while Kecoughtan is led by All-Tidewater selections Joe Summerfield (43 goals, 15 assists in 2022) and Colin Skwirut.
Highlights Tuesday include a 7:30 p.m. girls game between defending Peninsula District champion Menchville and Tabb, and the Kecoughtan-Lafayette boys game. Tammy Guido said Lafayette boys coach Bobby O’Brien, who also serves as the technical director and executive director of the Virginia Legacy, played a key role in getting the Keeper’s Cup started.
“He coached Conner and he freed up the four fields for us that the Virginia Legacy Soccer Club had reserved,” she said. “If he hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be able to conduct this tournament.
“We’re very grateful.”
Also participating in the tournament, which ends Thursday after a break on Wednesday, are Lafayette’s girls. The Rams are the defending Class 3 state champions.”
