British referees stay with Lake Highlands families during Dallas Cup soccer tournament

Touring the School Book Depository

As the Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup kicks off the first games of its week-long international youth soccer tournament today, participation from Lake Highlands will once again be strong. The matches are no longer held at Wildcat Stadium as they once were (they are now played at Richland College, the Cotton Bowl, MoneyGram Park and Toyota Stadium), but many of the 100,000 spectators, 2000 players and 1000 volunteers hail from LH. In particular, several, such as my family, are acting as “homestays” for British (or other international) referees here for the tournament.

It’s the highlight of the year for the Toler clan.

Twelve refs and their coaches from the British Isles are bunking with 9 LH families for two weeks – the week of the tourney plus one week prior to acclimate themselves to Texas and see a little of Dallas as tourists. They trained each morning at the LHHS ‘B’ field. (Refs must be able to run with the high level, international athletes who’ve made the cut for Dallas Cup, so they must be in shape themselves. Oh, and shout out to LHHS Principal Frank Miller, LHHS Head Coach Lonnie Jordan and RISD Athletic Director Bob Dubey for permitting them to use the field for work outs.) After a daily, post-workout breakfast a Chubby’s, they toured such Dallas standards as the Sixth Floor Museum (they’re split on one shooter versus conspiracy theories), AT&T Cowboy Stadium (the giant TV screen rocked their world) and The Ticket radio station (are these guys crazy?!?). They spoke to children at Wallace Elementary, served lunch to the homeless at the Stewpot and spent a few minutes at the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

But today they get serious.

Once the opening ceremonies begin and the 180 teams accepted into Dallas Cup kickoff play, the referees are all business. They’re learning to control the game and be a commanding presence on the field even when they don’t speak the same language as the players. At Dallas Cup, they’ll get plenty of practice. Since the tournament began in 1980, Dallas Cup has hosted teams from 47 U.S. states and more than 100 countries from across 6 continents.

If you’d like to catch a match, the schedule is here. Tickets are available on the Dallas Cup website, or you can purchase them at ticket windows at the stadiums. Games continue Sunday through Saturday, with the final game of the U19 Gordon Jago Super Group being played at 6 p.m. at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.