Last year, as the country began to shake itself of many of the worst impacts of the Covid pandemic, Philadelphia’s biggest soccer league (actually one of the largest amateur soccer leagues in the country) partnered with local kit manufacturer Icarus to launch a massive 7v7 tournament in July, the Icarus Cup. That league, CASA Soccer, serves the greater Philadelphia area and creating yet another way for local, regional, and even remote teams to come together and play in a fun tournament just made sense. It might have seemed a little ambitious, given the situation on the ground, but for Charlie Shea, CASA’s Tournament Director, the risk was worth the reward, but not without a massive amount of planning and concern.

“It gave us a lot of pause! We had to commit to planning the event, and all that entails, before we had any idea whether it'd actually be possible to play. Planning for July 2021 began in November 2020, in a time before vaccines, when most of the world did not know what the future would hold. But we stuck to our guns and continued planning a landmark event to be the pinnacle of return to play for many following the end of most restrictions in May 2021. It ended up being exactly that.”

Last year’s tournament was a massive success, with 41 teams playing in kits designed by the Cup’s sponsor, Icarus. Robby Smukler, no stranger to the lower league scene in the United States, is invested in the success of his local league and sees the Icarus Cup is a chance to put his money where his mouth is. “Working with leagues is tough because we’re not offering things for free. It’s hard to give any real discounts beyond a small percentage off, and our pricing is as low as we can and still make it. So working with leagues is a lot more work for us. I don’t make much money on it, but I love the league, I play in the league, I want to support the league.”

Action from last year’s Icarus Cup. Photo credit: Pete Bonilla

Each team in the competition gets an individually designed kit that is covered by the cost of the entry fee. This year Icarus designed 80 options for the teams to pick from. Because of this, the field of this tournament may be the best dressed in the entire country. Smukler relishes this part of the process the most. “Designing is by far the most fun aspect of the process for me. It definitely takes awhile, but we knew once the tournament ended last year we'd be running it again, so we had a ton of time to build these.”

For the 2022 edition of the Icarus Cup, Smukler and his team at Icarus developed a plan for the jersey designs. “There are 8 different styles in 10 colorways each. Each style has a specific meaning to the city of Philadelphia or Icarus.” Those styles are College (Robby made sure to mention that this included “a Skidmore one in there for my Alma Mater. Up the T-Breds!”), Greek, Liberty, Lotus, Philly, Schuykill (“An ode to the river that runs through the city. How you pronounce the river is a good way to find out immediately if that person is from Philly.”), SEPTA, and Tiger (2022 is the year of the Tiger).

The strength of the Icarus Cup is reflective of the strength of CASA, a league that weathered the pandemic in impressive form. Shea highlighted the league’s rapid recovery. “Following a complete shut down in March 2020, CASA was able to resume play in August 2020 (before many other leagues resumed) in accordance with CDC guidelines. CASA held strict testing protocols, and when necessary, mask mandates on the field of play to ensure that all participants felt safe while playing. CASA struck to its core values and continued to offer affordable soccer for all, despite being forced to use more expensive facilities outside the city limits in order to maintain play. Despite hard times initially, the league was set up to flourish in the post COVID sports era boom, and now has an incredible 16,000 member base in both Philadelphia and Boston.”

Even as last year’s Icarus Cup was kicking off, it was a no-brainer for Shea that the Cup would be back this year. “Once we were there and felt the energy, and saw what we'd planned come to fruition in real life, we knew we'd have to run it back. And there was an immediate appetite from the players to go again too, which was great.” With the energy and desire there, the CASA team worked to add aspects to the tournament to make it even better, including finding and including neighborhood and corporate partners to expand the Cup, as well as live streaming this year’s playoffs.

This year’s Icarus Cup is set to kick off next weekend (July 8-10th) with Opening Ceremonies on the night of the 8th, Group Play on the 9th, and Playoffs on the 10th. The Cup will be returning to Drexel University's Vidas Athletic Complex, while Temple University is prepared to serve as an overflow site, depending on need. While last year’s iteration featured 41 teams, the 2022 edition will feature over 60 teams, playing in multiple categories of play including Men's D1, D2, D3. Co-ed D1 and D2, and a Women's and Non-Binary Division. While most of the teams will be from the Philadelphia area, there’s teams from Seattle, Maine, New York and the DMV. To increase the interaction between the players, the tournament includes evening events that allows for clubs to build relationships with each other beyond the field.

For Shea, the Icarus Cup represents “the power of the grassroots soccer scene.” It’s a beautiful combination of a company dedicated to making great soccer shirts working with an organized and passionate local soccer league. The Philadelphia soccer scene is one of the best in the country and the Icarus Cup only makes it better.

The tournament kicks off in a week! For more details about the tournament, here’s the site.

by Dan Vaughn