Director ready for it again

There are moments that Kirk McIntosh dreads when the Daily Pilot Cup comes around.

But once the huge youth soccer tournament is in action and later when the champions are honored, McIntosh can’t deny the impact the event makes on child’s lives and the community. That’s why he continues to direct the monstrous tournament.

This year, its 10th, it’s bigger than ever.

The Daily Pilot Cup, which starts today at the Costa Mesa Farm Complex, Costa Mesa High and Davis Elementary, features 191 teams, 27 more than last year. There are 31 elementary schools represented and for the first time, every public school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will be competing.

The teams, third-and fourth-graders, fifth- and sixth-graders, boys and girls, playing in gold, bronze and silver divisions will be vying to play in the championship games Sunday.

The Daily Pilot will have coverage throughout the week — online at www.dailypilot.com/pilot_cup — and a recap of Championship Sunday on June 2.

McIntosh recently took some time out from tournament planning for an interview with the Daily Pilot.

Question: Did you ever think the Daily Pilot Cup was going to get this big?

Answer: Well, I knew it would grow because there are so many soccer kids. And, it can still grow. The problem is coaching. Some of these schools just don’t have any coaching, especially over on the Westside. We really don’t have that much room to grow because we don’t have any fields. We’re getting some resistance from Costa Mesa High School. But we need to use their fields. The football team is in spring ball, so they don’t get off their fields until 5. So that impacts the football field. And this year, the softball team would not take down their fence, so we lost a field that way. So what we did is we went over to Davis. We could use those, but now we’re off site. We like to have it all at one location. There could be a lot of problems if we’re not all at the same site.

Q: What do you like about the tournament?

A: Honestly I almost regret it now. There’s so much time. It’s haunting you. ‘Oh God, the Pilot Cup is coming up!’ It’s so much time during the week. I’m there every day ... My wife is the funny one. She quits every year. But she comes back again ... I really like the tradition. I’m proud of the fact that it’s so widely accepted now. It wasn’t that way originally. It was a battle.

Q: What were the battles?

A: There was this perception from the city that this is my tournament. They were even asking me, ‘How much are you charging? What are you making?’ They wanted to know how I was getting paid. I don’t get paid anything. It was hard to get through to the city and school districts. This isn’t for me. It’s the schools’ tournament. It’s the community’s.

We can’t say it belongs to Costa Mesa because half the teams are from Newport Beach. It’s a joint effort. Newport Beach city and Costa Mesa city, it should be their tournament.

Q: If you don’t get paid, why do you do this tournament?

A: I don’t know. I started it, so I feel compelled to continue it. When I first started it I had kids who were playing. I wanted my kids to be able to play for their school. I thought it was a great thing. And, now I don’t have any kids playing in it, but I feel like I have to continue to run it. If I don’t do it, will it die? It probably wouldn’t. Somebody would step up. But everyone looks to me, so I do it.