It is shaping up to be one of the busiest weekends of the year for the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association.

No worries, says technical director Tom McManus, "the only thing we can't control is the weather."

Kamloops and KYSA will play host to the provincial A Cup youth soccer championships this weekend. The tournament, featuring girls and boys competition in the under-13, U14, U15, U16 and U18 divisions, will start Thursday at McArthur Island.

Each of the 10 divisions comprises four teams - each pool will play a round-robin, with the top two teams in each moving into finals. The gold-medal matches are scheduled for Sunday, 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.

It's going to be a busy time for all the organizers, with 80 games packed into four days, but KYSA is prepared.

"It's a heck of a lot of work," McManus said. "Our office staff has done a lot of great work so far. And the fields are in great shape."

There is a wet spot near McArthur Island Field 8, which will be used for two Thursday games, but everything else looks excellent - including the forecast, which is calling for sunny skies and 30-degree temperatures by Saturday.

"We're hoping for a lot of heat," said McManus, with a chuckle.

McManus is obviously thinking that Kamloops teams might have an upper hand on squads from Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland when the mercury rises.

And the Blaze squads that qualified - there is one in every division but the U16 girls - will take any help they can against the best teams from around the province.

But the Kamloops teams should be used to tough competition by now. Throughout the Thompson-Okanagan Youth Soccer League season, the Kamloops A teams played in older divisions, meaning a U13 team, for instance, played against U14 competition.

The only teams that didn't play in older divisions were Kamloops' U18 squads, because there wasn't an older division in which to play.

"They've all done well, and they should be very prepared," McManus said. "The teams from the Coast are always good . . . it will be a really good test."

The tournament will take advantage of eight of McArthur Island's nine fields on opening Thursday, with eight games to be played at 10 a.m., and eight more at noon. There also will be four games at 2 p.m.

On Friday and Saturday, there will be six games at 9:30 a.m., and 11:30 a.m., before four are played at 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. The younger age groups will play in the earlier games.

McManus knows he'll be "running around a bit," trying to catch as many of the Blaze's games as he can, and maybe offering some tips to the teams' coaches.

"There'll be some great competition," he said. "I'm looking forward to watching a lot of soccer."

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca