The Harvest Foundation Awards PUP grant to PHCC

The Harvest Foundation is signed on to support Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) and its partners in bringing a national soccer tournament to Martinsville and Henry County.

PHCC is the recipient of a $10,000 Pick Up the Pace! (PUP) grant for the 2015 NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) National Division I Men’s Soccer Championship, coming to the Smith River Sports Complex Nov. 16-21. Twelve teams are participating in this year’s tournament.

“The Harvest Foundation is pleased to be one of the many partners with PHCC in hosting the NJCAA tournament,” said DeWitt House, program officer with Harvest Foundation. “This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our community.”

PHCC, the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation Tourism Division, and the Smith River Sports Complex partnered up to bring this national tournament to the area.

Christopher Parker, vice president of Institutional Advancement and senior athletics administrator at PHCC, said the college “is very grateful to the Harvest Foundation for its support of this tournament. Managing and organizing this event has been a complete team effort in making this tournament a reality for our community. PHCC thanks Harvest for believing in team efforts and financially supporting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our community.”

Billy Russo, director of operations at SRSC, said the sports complex was built just for events like the NJCAA national soccer tournament.

“The collaboration between the SRSC, PHCC, EDC’s Tourism Division and the support of Harvest is a prime example of a community-wide effort in sports tourism development,” Russo said. “It’s something we should all be proud and grateful for.”

Tickets for the 2015 NJCAA National Division I Men’s Soccer Championship are available now. Visit the official event website at www.njcaasoccer.com for additional information.