Thunderdome celebrates their 33rd annual tournament on March 13. Jesse Walls Photo Editor
Beginning at 4 pm on Friday, March 13, the 33rd annual Thunderdome will take place in Neosho, ending late Saturday night. Each year, the soccer team arranges the themed indoor tournament with this year’s theme being pi, 3.1415, coinciding with one of the days of the tournament.
The tournament will take place in three different locations, the Crowder’s Bob Sneller gymnasium, the Neosho Middle School’s gymnasium and the YMCA’s gymnasium. The event is free to attend, with concessions being provided courtesy of the College Assistance Migrant Program, and t-shirts will also be available to purchase. The tournament has forty teams in total, thirty-two male and eight female. All registration fees will go to the soccer fund.
At four pm on Saturday, there will be a Hall of Fame induction. Those eligible include players who have attended to ten consecutive years, and the current members vote to see who will be inducted.
Indoor soccer, or futsal, is played with teams of five in twelve minute halves. Seventy plus double-elimination games are to be played over the course of two days, the winning team receiving beer mugs inscribed with “Thunderdome Champions 2015”. The Most Valuable Persons will also receive a prize.
“We started this originally when guys were looking for things to do in the winter, and everybody seemed to have fun, so we just kept doing it,” Head Coach Brad Smith stated.
Since the event has been occurring for so many years, a lot of the returning teams are alumni. Although a lot of the alumni have moved away from Missouri, that does not hinder them from coming back to play with former teammates.
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