Illinois Clubs at the Midwest Youth Cup

Illinois is the home market of the Midwest Youth Cup. The tournament's bracket structure is designed to fit cleanly with the Illinois Youth Soccer competitive landscape, Premier through Bronze divisions map to the most common league placements families already know.

Common Illinois club regions at the Cup

• Chicago city and Near North/West/South suburbs: Strong Premier and Gold representation in older age groups, deep Silver and Bronze brackets in younger ages
• DuPage County (Naperville, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Aurora): Strong YSSL representation across most age groups
• North suburbs (Lake County, McHenry): IWSL Premier and Gold teams in deeper U13-U15 brackets
• South suburbs (Will County, Mokena, Frankfort, Tinley): Close to the complex, often Friday kickoffs
• Downstate (Champaign, Peoria, Bloomington): State-cup level teams in the older Premier brackets

Friday kickoffs for local teams

Local teams within roughly an hour of the complex may be scheduled for Friday kickoffs as early as 5:30 PM. This optimizes the tournament schedule and gives traveling teams a clean Saturday start. Local teams are notified of their Friday slot when schedules post on March 12.

League landscape

The Midwest Youth Cup recognizes the following Illinois league frameworks as primary context for seeding:

• YSSL: Premier, Division 1, Division 2
• IWSL: Premier, Gold, Silver
• MYSL: Gold, Silver, Bronze
• IYS State Cup tier (for top-level seeding context)

If your team's primary league isn't on this list, email the director when registering with a brief description of recent competitive results. Seeding adapts to the team's actual competition level.

Stay-to-play

Illinois teams within the 90-mile radius are exempt from stay-to-play. Most Chicago-area teams fit within that radius. Teams from Rockford, Champaign-Urbana, and Peoria typically fall outside it and book through the official hotel block.