By John Plevyak

In the summer of 1978, I was approached by the Catonsville Recreation Council with a request to help start its inaugural in-house soccer program. Areas like Columbia, Fallston and Edmondson Heights were gaining strength in developing youth programs to catch up with the traditional local programs like Highlandtown, Locust Point and Dundalk.

It was an opportunity to expose the game to those who were not playing football, the most popular fall sport in Catonsville. That fall the program began with a total of 48 players, including girls, which was unique back then. The sport was about to take off and when it did there would be no stopping it. 

Few realized how the staggering numbers of young boys and girls playing throughout the country would lead to what youth soccer has become today. Jump ahead nearly 30 years to last weekend and it's amazing how much has changed. 

On this hot, humid Memorial Day weekend, Elite Tournaments hosted the Soccer Association of Columbia’s (SAC) 31st annual tournament. The SAC tournament is the largest of the seven events that Elite Tournaments runs throughout the year and this year’s is the largest ever. 

Mike Libber, founder and president of Elite, was a prolific high school player, earning the 1993 Player of the Year award while leading Archbishop Curley to the MIAA championship. He continued his playing career for UMBC and became coach Pete Caringi’s assistant in 1999. He coached Oakland Mills High School in 2005 and ’06 and was at the helm for the Baltimore Bays' U-23 team that won the national championship in 2002. 

The SAC tournament was evidence that soccer is thriving like never before at the youth level with 375 teams from 20 states and Canada participated in the event. In order to accommodate the amount of games, Elite secured 35 fields, canvassing seven venues and two counties (Howard and Montgomery).

Libber set up his command center at Covenant Park in Columbia, and the tournament ran smoothly. Young employees were everywhere -- directing traffic, hustling to check on fields, equipment, injuries and recording scores from eight fields at once. Libber prefers hiring college students because they “are the best workers, need the money and will do the grunt work that is necessary to pull this off.” 

The biggest problems are usually the unexpected (such as a first for Libber on this day, a team not showing up for its game, resulting in a forfeit), the weather and the occasional irate parent.

“Inclement weather is our biggest fear,” Libber said. "We don’t own the fields and do not control whether games can be played on them if the weather is bad."  If the weather is good, Libber doesn't sweat the little things. “I can deal with the parent upset with the officiating or the player shown a red card and not being able to play the next game,” he said.

Libber has seen just about everything that could spring up with so many participants spread over so many locations, and he is well prepared to handle it all. 

“I started in 2000, holding a 10-team U-12 tournament in Edgewood Park as a fundraiser, and the following year it grew to 64 teams,” he said. “Soon after, SAC approached me to run their tournaments and I was hooked.” 

Libber, with the help of fiancé Mandy Bishop and his brother Matt, organizes 15 tournaments throughout the year and is always looking to expand his business. His company is recognized as one of the premier organizations in the country, and he is still a young man with huge ambitions.  The thought of future growth brings a smile to his face.

“The numbers of teams and players is staggering,” Libber said. “On this day alone there are over 200 teams down in the Potomac tournament and 700 teams in the Virginian tournament.”

Libber estimates the number of participants and their family members adds more than $1.5 million to the local community for the weekend as they pack hotels, restaurants and shopping centers.

Read all of John Plevyak's columns at PRESSBOXONLINE.COM

Issue 2.22: May 31, 2007