PORT ANGELES — Keeping with late-April tradition, Wally Sigmar Field will rumble this Saturday when Peninsula College hosts some of the top soccer teams in the Pacific Northwest.
The annual Rumble in the Rainforest soccer exhibition extravaganza features a full day of games and entertainment.
The Rumble benefits the Peninsula College athletic program and helps raise money to support the 60 athletic scholarships the school provides to student-athletes each year.
The event kicks off Saturday at 10 a.m. at Wally Sigmar Field with a match between the Peninsula College men’s team and the Olympic Force.
That will be followed by an exhibition match between the Saint Martin’s University men and the Kitsap Pumas at 11:20 a.m.
At 12:40 p.m., the Peninsula women will face off against the Saint Martin’s women.
Men’s soccer dominates the rest of the day.
At 2:30 p.m., the Peninsula College men’s team goes up against the Kitsap Pumas.
At 3:50 p.m., the Olympic Force will face off against St. Martin’s University.
In addition to the games, there will be other free events at Peninsula College’s Port Angeles campus, including a car show hosted by the Peninsula College Auto Shop, Ruddell Automall, Price Ford and Wilder Auto.
For children, there will be a special Kids Zone, featuring a bouncy house sponsored Storm King Soccer.
There also will be food and drink options from Next Door Gastropub and the Pirate Cove Café, available at the field.
Admission is $10 for those 18 and older and $5 for ages 7 to 17 ($2.50 if wearing an academy or area club soccer jersey) and seniors and current members of the military. Kids 6 and under get in free.
A family of five or more is $30.
Admission includes in /out privileges throughout the day and access to the Kids Zone.
No outside food or beverages are allowed.
About the teams
The Peninsula College women’s and men’s teams are powerhouse programs in the Northwest Athletic Conference.
They play their regular season in the fall and are allowed a short exhibition season each spring.
The Pirate women ranked seventh in the nation last year, while the men ranked 19th.
They are the first NWAC programs from the same school to win back-to-back championships, having done so in 2012 and 2013.
In total, the men have three conference championships and the women have two.
■ The Kitsap Pumas are a professional team based in Bremerton.
Ash Apollon, who helped Peninsula win its most recent men’s championship in 2013, joined the Pumas last month after a year playing professionally in Thailand.
Founded in 2008, the team is part of the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.
The Pumas were 2011 PDL Champions.
■ The Saint Martin’s men’s and women’s teams participate in the NCAA’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference at the Division II level.
In 2009, the men’s soccer team seized the first team title in any sport for Saint Martin’s University, winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference
■ Olympic Force is the newest addition to the Evergreen Premiere League.
Many of the players in the EPL have competed at the collegiate level and professional level with several players having played in U.S. professional indoor soccer leagues.
