SANTA ANA : Soccer Tournament Returning to Centennial Park

Thousands of soccer players are expected to gather in the city’s Centennial Park this evening to kick off the Copa Budweiser, a 14-week soccer tournament that will raise money for the National Hispanic Scholarship Foundation.

The event, which starts at 6:45 p.m., will include entertainment, raffles and an introduction of the 32 predominantly Latino soccer teams that will participate in the tournament. The first games begin Wednesday, and the finals will be played in Santa Ana Stadium on June 18.

Straub Distributing Co., the brewery’s Orange County wholesaler, is sponsoring the event again this year after taking a year off in 1994, its coffers exhausted by World Cup promotions. The sponsor also wanted the group of Latino leagues to better organize its players.

Now ADELA--the Associacion Deportiva Latinoamericana-- is in the process of gaining nonprofit status and has managed to secure greater community support. The group of leagues boasts about 19,000 players.

“We will draw the teams and introduce everybody, and present the tournament queen,” said Fred Arriaga, special markets manager for Straub Distributing Co.

Humberto Lopez, president of one of the ADELA leagues, said the event is expected to draw thousands of players and will include entertainment and prize giveaways. Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido Jr. is expected to attend.

The last tournaments in 1992 and 1993 drew more than 5,000 fans a year to the finals at Santa Ana Stadium.