Announcing soccer’s new roster of fearless leaders

In case you all have not heard, the 2018 NIRSA National Soccer Tournament will be held in Foley, Alabama from November 28 to December 1. It is my pleasure to announce the 2018 directors for the NIRSA National Soccer Tournament.

The Tournament Directors we have working on this year’s tournament are a sensational team. Every year the tournament directors are comprised of co-directors of competition, director of officials, official’s assignor, director of operations, assistant director of operations, and the tournament director. All of these leadership positions are occupied by NIRSA members this year and we are very optimistic that they will work together to make the tournament even better than ever. It is the work of these individuals, and many other volunteers, that help the tournament continue to be a leader in premiere collegiate soccer tournaments across the nation. Here is this year’s tournament director roster:

• Danny Feitel, Co-Director of Competition, University of California, Merced
• Chris McAlpine, Co-Director of Competition, University of Texas at Dallas
• Erik Jaeke, Director of Official’s, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Kevin Maurer, Official’s Assignor, Winston-Salem State University
• Kristi Levanduski, Director of Operations
• Phil Carter, Assistant Director of Operations, Arizona State University
• Valerie McCutchan, Tournament Director, NIRSA HQ
• Nicole Jackson, Assistant Tournament Director, NIRSA HQ

The entire team is already working on projects this summer to ensure success for the tournament. The operations team is working on solidifying facilities and food for the staff. The official’s team is working on ensuring we bring the best NISOA officials  to our premier tournament. The co-directors of competition are exploring ways to better support the regional coordinators throughout the season. And headquarters and the soccer work team are busy reviewing processes and ways we can better serve the student athletes before, during, and after the tournament.

We’d like to welcome the new members of the team, Phil Carter and Chris McAlpine. Phil has worked with the operations crew during many different tournaments in the Championship Series, including soccer. He is excited to get to see behind the scenes more in this new role. We also welcome Chris McAlpine into a new role within NIRSA Soccer. Chris has served as a work team member for the last two years and as a volunteer for many different regional and national tournaments over the years. The NIRSA Soccer Work Team is sad to lose a valued member in Chris, but we can’t wait to see what a great impact Chris makes with this new position.

Now that we have all the team of Tournament Directors solidified, we will turn our efforts to further preparations for the tournament and the soccer season as a whole. We are hosting the first-ever regional coordinator orientation call later this month. We will be opening national and regional staff applications in August as well. Finally, we will have all the regional host sites confirmed later this month so look out for that announcement. If you’d like to get involved with soccer, please let me, Laura Thomas know!