ATTENTION ALL ATHLETES!

ATTENTION ALL ATHLETES!  Have I got news for you...

Last week I gave you all some information on summer camps for individual sports running in the area throughout this summer.  However, I understand that many of us have a competitive streak in us, and some people would rather compete than learn.  Therefore, I set out to find some events and leagues for all you athletes who are craving some competitive spirit this summer.  Instead, however, I found an incredibly helpful website that I believe all serious (and not so serious) athletes should know about.

The site is called www.sportsvite.com.  In this case, the name truly says it all.  It is a website designed specifically to invite players and teams to join leagues or events in a vast array of sports, all through the country.  When you first enter the site, your first stp will be to select a region.  I obviously chose New Hampshire for my own purposes, but if you are going away on vacation for the summer you are welcome to search states and cities all across the country.  Next, a box will appear in the upper right hand corner of your screen.  First you must choose whether you are looking for a player, event, team, or league.  Next you will choose a sport, which can be as basic as baseball to as obscure as inner tube water polo. 

For my first search I decided to keep in basic.  I searched for teams in need of a soccer player.  Right away I found seven teams in New Hampshire or Northern Massachusetts looking for players to join their teams. To inquire about joining the team, your next step is to simply send a message to the team captain.  Feel free to inquire about when games are held, what skill level the team is at, and how long the season runs.  If it seems to be a match, congratulations, you have found a team to play on.

Now, if you are already a member of a team, this website can also work for you.  Say you are playing in a lacrosse league this summer.  One day you are playing the No 1 seeded team in the league, who is known to play dirty.  One of your starting players goes down halfway through the game, and is sent to the hospital.  A few hours later you find out he has a broken ankle and can not play the rest of the season.  Now you are one player down and in need of a replacment.  Simply head to sportsvite.com, and click selections player and lacrosse.  My search resulted in 21 possibilities.  I can from there narrow down my results by gender, age range, location, skill, availability, playing frequency, and interest until I find the appropriate match for my team.  Simple.

Sportsvite.com also allows you to search for upcoming games and events for your team to enter in your area.  So, in this case, if I search Games and Events for Soccer, my search will show me that there is a soccer tournament on August 1st called the One Lowell World Cup in Lowell, MA.  I can then click on the event to get more information, such as location, time, and registration information.  This particular event has little information, but a quick google search provided me with all the information I needed.  Can't find an event in the sport you are looking for?  Well you can set up your own.  Get some friends together, rally a couple teams, and then search for other players and/or teams who are looking to play in a tournament in that sport.  There are thousands of people registered to this website, so with a little planning and recruiting you should have an event on your hands in no time.

I believe that is all the information you need.  Anymore questions feel free to email me, but for now I'm going to go find a inner tube water polo team to play on.  Until then, see you on the fields.