Marc Butz drew an adoring crowd Thursday, even if it was only for a few seconds.
He exited his car at Hilo Bayfront and made it halfway to the officials tent before keiki started swarming toward him from all directions.
His fleeting popularity was almost entirely due to the fact that he was carrying a handful of pizza boxes. However, the annual Volcano International Soccer Tournament, which Butz oversees, appears to have more staying power.
With a 54-team field, almost double the amount of clubs the tournament drew two years ago, Volcano is growing in regard, and Butz didn’t have to offer any edible enticements to draw outer-island teams here, just words of encouragement that Hilo is safe despite the Kilauea eruption.
“I was constantly (reassuring) them,” Butz said. “I said, ‘A) It’s a corner of our island; and B) check out our air quality.’
“We lost one team.”
The tournament starts a three-day run at 9 a.m. Friday morning at Bayfront and Amauulu Field and culminates with championship games Sunday in four age divisions (19-and-under, 14U, 12U and 10U) for boys and girls.
“We like to think of this as our end-of-the-year bash,” Butz said of a tournament – with help from Big Island Candies and Meadow Gold – that puts a bow on the Hilo American Youth Soccer Association’s summer season.
The tournament is unique in the state in that it’s AYSO-sponsored but open to club teams such as those from the Hawaii Youth Soccer Association. While one of AYSO’s core tenets is everyone plays, a rule that applies this weekend, club teams tend to feature players more serious about soccer. Still, if a club held a tournament, there is a feeling that other clubs might not support it, but this event appears to hold more community attraction.
Butz is particularly looking forward to a U12 girls division that includes teams from three islands.
“This is where the future is for us, to start start pulling club teams from Oahu and Maui,” he said. “Because we’re an open tournament, that’s what we’ve been pushing here. We have a unique experience. You have HYSA tournaments and purely AYSO tournaments, but this is different.”
Hilo AYSO commissioner Troy Keolanui said the Volcano turnout is its largest yet, and the field includes 10 U19 teams, five apiece for girls and boys. He said many Big Island entrants played in the AYSO summer league, which recently completed its sixth season.
“More of the actual (BIIF) coaches are participating during the summer, and that is providing a good lead-in to Volcano,” Keolanui said.
Three teams from Oahu join North Hawaii and Hilo in the older girls division this weekend.
“A couple of the Oahu teams are high-powered,” Keolanui said.
The U19 boys side features Waiakea High, two teams from Kamehameha, Honokaa and West Oahu AYSO.
Waiakea High School coach David Urakami guided a youth-laden summer league team, but he’ll hand over the coaching duties at Volcano to Chad Hanashiro and Dayne Tamanaha. The Warriors broke an HHSAA drought in 2018 after finishing runner-up in BIIF Division I.
“We had a bunch of freshman join us (this summer) and this should be good practice for us leading to the (high school) season,” Urakami said.
The Volcano schedule is available at www.volcanotournament.com and Butz said a smartphone app is available as well.
“We trying to bring this tournament into 2018,” he said.
