Detroit hosts 2004 Great Lakes Cup soccer tournament (06/27/04)

Detroit hosts 2004 Great Lakes Cup soccer tournament

by Marta Hnatiuk

WARREN, Mich. - On May 29 and 30 the Ukrainian Sport Club Chernyk was home to the ninth annual Great Lakes Cup soccer tournament. The games and festivities were held at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic School in Warren, Mich.

The Great Lakes Cup originated in 1995 when Vlodko Hnatiuk from Detroit's USC Chernyk proposed the idea of a soccer tournament to Lev Holubec of Cleveland's UASC Lviv and Bohdan Lypka from Toronto's Ukraina SA, thus forming the Great Lakes Cup committee. The Great Lakes Cup allows all North American Ukrainian Clubs to participate in a soccer tournament occurring over the Memorial Day weekend. In participating in three successive tournaments, the clubs that border the Great Lakes earn their spot in the organizational committee and clubs take turns hosting the tournament.

This year 13 teams competed in the Great Lakes Cup men's open and men's over-30 divisions. The men's open included soccer teams from the following clubs: Buffalo FC Ukraina, Cleveland UASC Lviv, Cleveland UAYA S.C. Nova, Chicago FC Ukraina, Detroit USC Chernyk, Yonkers UAYA Krylati, Toronto Ukraina SA, and Toronto USC Karpaty.

In the championship game of the men's open Toronto Ukraina faced Yonkers Krylati. The match ended in a 1-1 tie and continued through overtime.

Ultimately, the tie was resolved through penalty shots, which resulted in Krylati's victory.

Thus, for the second year in a row, Yonkers Krylati took home the Great Lakes Cup trophy for the men's open division. The most valuable player award was given to Bohdan Protas, the goalkeeper for the Krylati.

In the men's over-30 division, five teams competed for the Great Lakes Cup: Chicago FC Ukraina, Chicago UASC Lions, Cleveland UASC Lviv, Detroit USC Chernyk and Toronto Ukraina SA. In the final match Chicago Ukraina faced Cleveland Lviv in an exciting game. After most of the game being played with the score tied at 1-1, Chicago Ukraina scored with only a few minutes left in the game, defeating Cleveland Lviv by 2-1, to win the 2004 Great Lakes Cup in the Men's Over-30 division. Oleh Lehkiv of Chicago Ukraina was chosen as the MVP in the Over-30 division.

The Great Lakes Cup also featured a junior tournament with Toronto USC Karpaty and Detroit USC Chernyk in the Under-10 and Under-14 divisions.

For the first time this year, the Great Lakes Cup also hosted a volleyball competition. Although the only participants were from Detroit, plans are to incorporate volleyball into future Great Lakes Cup tournaments.

The host committee, USC Chernyk, under the leadership of Mr. Hnatiuk, extended a special thank-you to the sponsors of the 2004 Great Lakes Cup, the Ukrainian Future Credit Union and the Ukrainian Selfreliance Michigan Federal Credit Union. Sincere thanks also went to Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic School and Matthew Weigle for the use of the facilities, the Ukrainian Cultural Center for the evening social, and to UkrainaTV.com for providing the MVPs with authentic jerseys of Ukraine's Olympic team.

Thanks and best wishes were also extended to all the athletes, players, participants, match officials, volunteers, and family members who worked so hard in making the 2004 Great Lakes Cup soccer tournament so successful. For more details readers may log on to www.ukrainiansportclub.com.

The 10th anniversary of the Great Lakes Cup, will be celebrated next year during Memorial Day weekend in Toronto.

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