Defenders Cup
Boys & Girls U9-U19:
February 28th-March 2nd 2025
About
Kings Hammer Bay United is excited to bring a new event to Panama City Beach, The Defenders Cup. Paying homage to the rich military tradition in the region, The Defenders Cup offers a club-friendly environment with competition for all levels of play (Great event for clubs to bring all teams to kick off the spring season), professional referee crews, and first-class facilities.
The event will take place in early March each year at the Publix Sports Park in Panama City Beach, FL. The Publix Sports Park, regarded as one of the best facilities in the South, is home to 13 high quality fields- 9 Artificial Turf and 4 Natural Grass with all fields having flood lights. The Publix Sports Park facility provides high-quality playing surfaces along with convenience to many local attractions and Panama City Beach, home to some of the most beautiful beaches on the Gulf. This tournament will look to attract teams from across the Midwest, Midsouth and South each year to come play great competitive early spring season matches while enjoying time at the beach!
Come join us for a great weekend of soccer and fun at the beach in Panama City!
Event Highlights:
-
- Come kick off your spring season with us in beautiful Panama City Beach!
- Club friendly event for all levels of teams from a club to attend. Great for directors to see all teams from a club in one location!
- Multiple divisions in an age group/gender to promote competitive balance.
- Publix Sports Park used as the main site. 13 high-quality fields at one of the best facilities in the country in one location to help with coach conflicts!
- Enjoy time at the beautiful white beaches of Panama City Beach before and after matches!
- USSF Certified Referees.
- Awards to champions and finalists in each age group.
- GotSport scheduler used to avoid coaching conflicts.
Fees
Early registration discount of $50 available now through December 15th!
7v7: $700
9v9: $725
11v11 (U12-U14): $775
11v11 (U15-U19): $825
For the Fall 2024-Spring 2025 playing season the event did not raise team entry fees.
All teams Must pay by credit card.
Clubs who are sending 5 or more teams to an event may contact the Event Director to inquire about a check payment option for the club.
A 3.25% credit card processing fee will be applied to all applications using a credit card for payment.
A $20 Gotsport Software Fee will be added to the final amount for both credit card and check options.
Early Registration Discount cannot be used with any other discounts.
All fees include referee fees.
Contacts
Tournament Director:
southeastevents@kingshammersbd.com
Housing/Hotels: Site Search
502-292-3198
support@sitesearchllc.com
Referee Assignor: Chris Curran
mcrorlando3@gmail.com
Sponsorship Opportunities: Brent Paulson
bpaulson@kingshammersbd.com
Important Links
ONLINE CHECK IN
All teams paperwork will be due on the Monday prior to the event by 5:00pm (EST).
Please upload the following three (3) documents into via GOTSPORT:
- Roster: Copy of your team’s official roster. Please cross off players who WILL NOT be attending. This document needs to be a single file PDF document, no photo images.
- Player Passes:Copies of validated player/coach/manager passes issued by USYSA or US Club Soccer (rostered players and guest players) as they are listed on your tournament roster. ALL CARDS MUST BE BY THE SAME GOVERNING BODY. This document needs to be a single file PDF document, no other formats will be approved.
- Travel Paperwork: USYSA Teams traveling from outside the state the event is hosted in must get this form from their state office. US Club teams do not need travel paperwork. This document needs to be a single file PDF document, no photo images.
Guest Players:
- The player(s) must be added to the bottom of the PDF roster used for the player profiles. The team is required to have the player’s “player card” and the player(s) card must be uploaded.
- If adding guest players within 72 hours prior to the start of the tournament, you must notify the tournament staff via the event email that you added a guest player so that player can be approved. You must also submit/upload the guest player’s player pass online 1 hour prior to the start of your first game
The event will begin to review all information at the close of Online Check-In. You will only receive communication if there are issues with your check-in documents.
Please note: If you do not complete online check in your team will be held in poor standing and may be disqualified from the tournament per the posted tournament rules. There will be a $50 fee assessed at 8pm on Friday night for all teams who have not completed the check in process. Teams must go to headquarters to pay the administrative fee and complete the check in process before competing in any game.
Our travel partner Site Search is committed to providing you with the most memorable experience possible. Realizing hotel accommodations play a major role in your experience, we have partnered with area hotels to offer you the best options and prices.
Our housing manager will reach out to you within two (2) business days of applying to the event with a housing link to book reservations.
Each family from your team will then have 5 days within creating your block to guarantee all reservations.
If you are a local club (within 90 miles) and do not require any accommodations, please let me know. Please understand commuting teams will not receive special scheduling requests based on commute distance.
** The event uses the office address for the club to determine the distance of travel for the team.
Your team is NOT in compliance with the Stay to Play policy until a minimum of 7 reservations are made for all U8-U12 teams and 10 reservations are made for all U13-U19 teams.
For your team to be in compliance with the tournament rules, your team would need to meet the minimum housing requirement.
Teams may be conditionally accepted prior to their housing being booked.
If you have any questions or want to book immediately please contact
support@SiteSearchLLC.com or
call 502-292-3198
REFEREE ASSIGNOR
FLIGHTS CRITERIA
Please make sure that your GotSport information is correct- your head coach (the one coaching the games) and your team name. You can log into GotSport to change what you need. This will ensure that we can try to accommodate any coaching conflicts. This MUST be completed before flights are posted.
Please click here to assign your primary coaching assignments: Coaching Conflicts
Before you request a change in flight placement, please note that the tournament committee has done their due diligence in researching the following:
- Current Registered League play
- Current/Past League play results
- Past Tournament results
- Comparison to other teams in Event
- Application information
- Requested bracket
If you believe your team has been bracketed incorrectly, please email the event staff with specific results that support your argument by our deadline stated in the flight email. Please include the following in the email:
- Team name, age group/gender and current flight.
- Scores against other teams in the event or scores from leagues or recent tournaments.
Please don’t include anything with “rankings”. We especially look at actual scores and events that teams have attended this fall/winter/spring. These are the most accurate indicators of your team’s level. Again, be specific please. It is not our goal to set anyone up for failure or to stack the deck in any team’s favor, we want the best competition for all of the teams in our event.
*Please note this does NOT guarantee a change in flight, the final decision is at the discretion of the tournament committee
SCHEDULE CRITERIA
Please let the event staff know by submitting an email if any of the following have a appeared on your schedule:
- A direct coaching conflict within this event for coaches who coach multiple teams (up to two (2) teams). If you are coaching more than two (2) teams you must have an assistant coach.
- A major mistake ( a team playing two games at the same time or back to back games).
Although we know life happens but we simply cannot honor requests for the following reason as there are just too many:
- Travel Distance: Event staff will attempt to accommodate a teams traveling distance to and from the event, it is not guaranteed.
- Personal reasons (weddings, etc).
- Non-event specific coaching conflicts not related to this event (another team you are coaching is playing elsewhere).
All support ticket emails must be made before schedules become final.
Sponsors
