(Photo by Bob White)

SALT LAKE CITY – The 2018 MCLA National Championships powered by Under Armour is coming to Salt Lake City and it will mark the first time a skills competition will be part of the week-long event.

The skills competition, which will be held on Tuesday afternoon after the consolation games and before the quarterfinals, will take place at the Salt Lake City Regional Athletic Complex – the site of championships – and will be open to players from the 32 teams that qualified for nationals.

“We’ve got some highly-skilled players in the MCLA and this will be a fun and competitive way to put them on display,” said MCLA president Ken Lovic. “There will be a lot of smiles before the event starts, but I promise you the competition will be very real between our players and teams.”

The skills competition will consist of three events that will allow all positions to be involved if they are selected to compete.

The competition will open with a “Gilman Goal” event where goalies will be challenged to score as many full-field goals from behind their own goal-line-extended in 30 seconds.

The second skill on display will be for hardest shot. Competitors will get two shots from 12 yards (run up from 15 yards) and the ball must go in the net. No misses or pipes counted!

The third skill tested will be the Full Field Challenge where competitors will have to run an obstacle course over the length of the field to see who can post the fastest time.

Each winner will receive an award for their accomplishment and a team score will be kept for bragging rights.

Every team, whether they played in the consolation round or if they have quarterfinal later that evening, will be able to enter one player per event. Only participants on teams that qualified for nationals are eligible for the Skills Competition.

Tickets for the 2018 MCLA National Championships powered by Under Armour are on sale now and can be ordered online at our Championships website.