NIRSA Puts FST on a National Stage

A November packed with championship soccer at Foley Sports Tourism (FST) is wrapping up with the NIRSA National Soccer Championships November 29 – December 1.

NIRSA, Leaders in Collegiate Recreation, will bring university- sport club teams from around the country to Foley. There will be 96 teams competing, 48 men’s and 48 women’s, all vying for the title of best in collegiate club soccer including Colorado State University, University of Minnesota, and Iowa State University just to name a few.

This won’t be the first time NIRSA has come to town. The event was held at FST in 2016 and NIRSA Director of National Sport Programs, Valerie McCutchan said the facilities were a big reason the tournament has come back.

“The number of fields and the ease of working with the City of Foley is why we chose to return,” McCutchan said.

Event Operations Manager, Angie Sullivan, said NIRSA is a national organization with a number of intricate moving parts that make planning it an enjoyable challenge.

“We’ve learned so much from Valarie and her team,” Sullivan said. “They know how to pull off a tournament of this size and it was a huge opportunity to host it in 2016 when FST was just starting out. Now having them back, we’re realizing how far we’ve come as an organization. NIRSA taught us a lot the first time, this time around we want to make it as easy as possible on them and really thank them for taking a chance on us two years ago.”

The NIRSA National Soccer Championships are open to the public. Admission is free. To learn more about this championship or any FST event visit our events page.