Air Academy readies to host Kadet Classic

For the 15th year in a row, the Kadet Kickoff Classic will be an opportunity for a couple of area boys soccer teams to jump-start their seasons.

"This year, we've played a couple teams already, but normally these games in the tournament are either the first or some of the first games that a team will play," Kadets coach Espen Hosoien said. "It's a good way to see what you're working with early on in the season, and work with your depth a little."

In addition to Air Academy, the tournament will include Widefield, and several Denver area teams. It begins Friday afternoon, with the championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The Kadets, who have hosted the tournament in various incarnations more than 21 times, have not won since 2004, although they lost to Pine Creek in the final last year.

Each participating team is guaranteed to play at least three games, and often will face teams that they would not see until the playoffs, if at all.

"We've been playing the tournament for the past two years at least, and it's always a good chance for us to see some of the big teams that will be competing in the state tournament," Widefield coach Monte Kelly said. "We get to put some guys at positions where we're kind of trying them out, but also see what we'll be facing at the next level."

At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Widefield faces Denver South. The Gladiators hope to face the winner of the Air Academy-Montrose game (3:30 p.m. Friday) in a 10 a.m. semifinal on Saturday.

"The last year or two have been a little rough for us, just with rebuilding and things like that," Kelly said. "But this year, we've been doing well and we have a lot of seniors coming back. We'll see what we can do."

Although the tournament is a great opportunity for teams to work out some of their preconference-season kinks, the games do count.

"We can only play 15 games total," Hosoien said. "So teams are careful with who they play in those 15 games. And these games will count for playoff seeding. So we can't just come in and lose games this weekend and think it won't matter."

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Schedule

Friday
2:30 p.m., Denver South vs. Widefield (soccer field) 3:30 p.m., Air Academy vs. Montrose (football stadium) 4:30 p.m., Lincoln vs. Green Mountain, (soccer) 5:30 p.m., Fruita Monument vs. Hinkley, 5:30 p.m. (football)

Saturday
8 a.m., consolation play (both fields) 10 a.m., semifinals (bothfiields) 12:30 p.m., seventh-place game (soccer) 1 p.m., fifth-place game (football) 2:30 p.m., third-place game (soccer) 3 p.m., championship game (football)

Listed as shown on bracket