Free Bucks Adidas College Cup  T-shirt to the first 500 youth fans

Pontiac, MI (March 16, 2009) - The Michigan Bucks will once again be hosting some of the top collegiate soccer talent in the country when they host the 2009 Michigan Bucks College Cup Classic Presented by Adidas on Saturday, March 28.  The one price ticket event allows all fans to see FOUR great NCAA college games between 12-6 PM at Ultimate Soccer Arenas.  As this year’s College Cup sponsor, Adidas will be giving away Michigan Bucks College Cup T-shirts to the first 500 youth fans in attendance (15 and under).   Tickets for the day’s events are only $10 Adult (16 and over) and $6 Youth.  All Students (high school and college) get in for only $6 with their student ID.  All fans 5 and under are free to all Bucks games and will also be eligible for the free t-shirt.

This year’s event brings in four top NCAA Division one teams, who all participated in last year’s NCAA men’s soccer tournament, including the two local teams from Oakland University and the University of Michigan.   Notre Dame and the University of Akron are both top 20 ranked teams from last year and expected to be powerhouses this fall.  Akron won the Mid American Conference title and finished the season ranked #7 in the country and will probably be rated higher this year, as many experts have them gaining the top freshman class in the country.  Notre Dame finished #17 in the country last year and is returning a talented squad that should be favored to retain their Big East Conference Title again this fall.

Closer to home, Steve Burns’ Michigan Wolverines finished one of their best seasons ever ranked #9 in the country and had a nice run in the NCAA tournament before being bounced by Indiana in the round of 16.  Even after having two of his top starters (Buck’s star Mike Holody and Peri Marosevic) drafted to Major League Soccer, Burns is confident that this year’s team is deep enough to challenge for the Big Ten title.

Oakland University will see a new head coach for the first time in nearly three decades, as Gary Parsons retirement from college soccer paved the way for his assistant coach and former Michigan Bucks star goalkeeper Eric Pogue to taste life as the head coach of a NCAA Division 1 soccer team.  Pogue, who has been largely responsible for recruitment at Oakland the past few seasons, will lead his young team to defend their Summit League title from last year in hopes of getting back into the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row. 

Parsons has taken the role of Bucks Director of Coaching and will work with head coach Dan Fitzgerald this year building a team that is shaping up to be one of the best teams in Michigan Bucks history.  The Bucks team, which begins training on May 2, could include players from all four of the participating schools in this years College Cup Classic.  The Bucks begin their 14^th season in the United Soccer League’s (USL) Premier Development League (PDL) when they host the Kalamazoo Outrage on Saturday, May 16 at Ultimate Soccer Arenas.

In addition to free t-shirts to the first 500 kids in attendance, Adidas is also donating the game balls, souvenirs for fans of all ages and will be giving away replica soccer jerseys between games from some of the world’s top teams, like Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc.  All fans entering the arena will be given a free drawing ticket for the jerseys and other great prizes to be given away between each of the four games.  For more information on the 2009 Michigan Bucks College Cup Classic Presented by Adidas, please visit our web site at www.buckssoccer.com or call the Bucks office at 248-334-7460.