Shindigz National Soccer Festival

Posted By Lynn Altevogt on Aug 21, 2014

Another great event is coming back to Fort Wayne this summer, The ShindigZ National Soccer Festival. The festival takes place twice a year, once in the spring and once in the summer. It will be held at the historic Fort Wayne Sport Club located on Ardmore Ave. Running from August 21 through 23rd, the Festival will host high school and college soccer games ranging from local teams to Division 1 all-stars. It is recognized nationally as the premier collegiate soccer event. According to Shindigz, the mission of the National Soccer Festival is: “To provide periodic amateur athletic competitive programs and cultural events that recognize and celebrate the history and traditions in the sport of soccer as well as other charitable educational and athletic purposes which encourage exercise and physical activity through the sport of soccer, especially amongst youth, so as to promote healthy lifestyles and help combat childhood obesity.” Timothy Spralding, a long time volunteer for the festival has this to say, “The festival has been very successful since its inception, and we’ve broken attendance records each of the last three years.  The level of competition is as high as you can get.  In our spring event we hosted Notre Dame and Indiana – the last two national champion teams.  IU is coming to the summer festival, as well as top ten ranked Washington and Michigan State, (those two actually play each other in Thursday’s game, it’s quietly the game of the tournament) and other top teams like Ohio State, Marquette, Xavier, and Fort Wayne’s own IPFW.  We’ll also have women’s college games as well as a high school boys and a high school girls tournament. Lastly, we have four teams from the Chicago Fire and Indiana Fire academies.  These games are always fun because the kids that play for the academies are steeped in the professionalism and style of play required from their parent clubs, and it definitely shows!”  “The festival is generally a little slow on Thursday, picking up steam to what is generally a jam packed Saturday for the IU finale.  The energy is great, it’s family friendly with a midway that has games and Sumo Soccer, but there’s a robust beer tent for the older crowd,” Spralding adds.   You can find more info, the full schedule of events, and more here!  And, they are always in need of more volunteers, go to this link to help out. Good luck to all teams next weekend! The following information is the latest press release on the festival: SNSF 15th Year 2014...