Kaissa Gurvine has spent most of her life in some aspect of soccer. But she's latched on to a new concept that is opening doors for women to the sport that have been rarely cracked before.
"I've been running the Tucson adult soccer league for 22 years," said Gurvine, who lives part-time in St. Anthony and part-time in Arizona. "We've only started the Legendary Women's Cup the last two years. We've been doing tournaments within our league so I'm not new to tournaments — but we wanted to do something just for women, so that's new."
This past weekend, the Legendary Women's Cup made its Idaho debut at the Portneuf Valley Soccer Club (PVSC) fields located near the Portneuf Wellness Complex in Pocatello. Eighteen different women's teams composed of athletes ranging in age from 18 to over 70, from all over the West, took part in the tournament.
They got to rub elbows with Ruth Harker, who was a goalie on the first U.S. women's national soccer team back in 1985. Harker met Gurvine in Mexico a couple of years ago, and was inspired by the concept of an adult women's soccer tournament.
"It just floored me," said Harker, who is from the St. Louis area. "It gave me purpose. I really wanted to do this. So Kaissa and I started these legendary tournaments. I played on the first U.S. women's team. The goal was to bring one of our players to each of these tournaments to engage and teach and help these players learn the game."
The women's tournaments attract players of all ages and all skill levels. Some, like Sahara Spring Stinger, grew up playing soccer and she was excited to be invited back to her hometown of Pocatello to play with her former Portneuf Valley Soccer Club teammates.
"It's really great to be back on the field with my prior teammates that I haven't played with in years," said Stinger, 21, who is studying criminal justice in Boise. "It's great to be back on the home turf and play the sport that I love, that I grew up playing. It's beautiful — it's a beautiful sport — and I'll be joining the 50-plus league. You can catch me on the same field … in 30 years."
But there are also a lot of players like Vicki Hill, who didn't start playing the game until she was 30. Now 69 years old, Hill, who lives in Sedona, Arizona, was involved in individual sports like running and the triathlon, when a friend asked her to come join her adult soccer team.
"I really love it," said Hill, who was involved in the development of geographic information systems during her career.
Because there were no team slots available for her age group at the Pocatello tournament, Hill connected with a 50-plus team. She says the key to competing at her age is controlling the pace of play.
"You just scale it down," said Hill, who has played in four legendary women's tournaments. "I can see the difference between 50 and 70. But all the way through, a lot of women are playing at 70, and they want to do a 75 division. It's so cool, it's really just about staying healthy, not banging into people or falling. The quality of the fields is something because it's easy to trip."
The older athletes don't seem to worry about getting hurt. Harker said she's played with two 83-year-old women, and a 78-year-old goalkeeper.
"I shanked a ball and she went horizontal," Harker said of the aging keeper. "I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, did you break a hip?' She said, 'Oh, it's nothing. In my day, I could bicycle kick.'"
Pocatello was selected as the first Idaho site for the Legendary Women's Cup for largely practical reasons, Gurvine said. The key is finding available fields.
"That's the hardest thing to get anywhere," she said. "When we connected with PVSC, they were willing to work with us and they were excited about this opportunity. They said we can get you fields. Not that I can get them for free — that I need to schedule them. If we can't get them in advance to plan and advertise, then you can't have an event."
The hope is that there will be another Legendary Women's Cup in Pocatello next year. In the meantime, tournaments are scheduled for Oro Valley, Arizona, Dec. 3-6, and Ventura, California, Feb. 4-7.
"These women are having joy," said Harker. "We're not going to win a World Cup here. It's about joy. It's about community. I brought a player in from St. Louis. It's her first time playing and today she scored a goal. It made my whole tournament."