BARBOURSVILLE -- Need a dinner reservation and directions to a restaurant? Want some extra water while you're waiting to get into the game?

Volunteers will be on hand to help parents, coaches and players perform those tasks and many others as 5,000 soccer players battle it out for top spots in the 2009 US Youth Soccer Region I Championships.

About 280 soccer teams from 13 states are competing in the six-day event. Among the states represented are New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware.

Games will be played at the Barboursville Soccer Complex in the Barboursville City Park and the Scott Orthopedic Soccer Complex at the Huntington YMCA Kennedy Center on W.Va. 2.

When in need, tournament-goers are encouraged to look for the volunteers in the colored tournament T-shirts, according to volunteer coordinator Kheng Yap-McGuire. Each color will represent the job of a different volunteer. Field volunteers will wear lime green shirts and medical personnel will wear red shirts.

There are two sets of volunteers -- hospitality volunteers and tournament volunteers -- each with very different tasks.

The Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau will have a station set up at each field and at their headquarters in downtown Huntington to assist with any Tri-State related questions.

Tasks for hospitality volunteers include placing dinner reservations, giving directions around the Tri-State and suggesting activities and day-trips. Craig Warner, the chairman of the tournament host committee, said he expects hospitality volunteers to be wearing a uniformed shirt so that they can be spotted.

Tournament volunteers can be found stationed around the fields and soccer complexes. These volunteers will maintain the fields, assist those who need transportation from the parking areas to fields, fill and monitor all water and Gatorade coolers and report game progress and scores with the area coordinator.

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