Sugar and Spice Middle Schools Girls Festival returns Jan. 17 for 17th edition

[January 15, 2026 – Harmon, Guam] Over 300 players and coaches from 16 middle schools are expected to take part in the 17^th Annual Sugar and Spice Middle School Girls Festival Saturday at the Guam Football Association National Training Center beginning at 8 a.m.

The tournament, supported by Japan Football Association, will now be a pre-season festival ahead of the IIAAG Girls Middle School Soccer League and ISA Girls Middle School Soccer League seasons, in place of a season-ending event, said Sam San Gil, GFA Football Events Director.

“In previous years, the Sugar and Spice festival was held in March following the conclusion of the two interscholastic middle school leagues, but this year we wanted to give the schools an additional opportunity to test their skills against actual opponents before their respective seasons begin,” San Gil said. “Additionally, more exclusive focus can be placed on this popular festival, as the March time frame coincided with several other events and leagues at GFA. We’ve received good feedback on the event schedule change so far.”

The 16 schools participating are three-time defending champions St. John’s School, last year’s runner up Astumbo Middle School, Andersen Middle School, Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School, Cmdr. William C. McCool Elementary & Middle School, F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School, Guahan Academy Charter School, Harvest Christian Academy,  Inarajan Middle School, Jose L.G. Rios Middle School, L.P. Untalan Middle School, Oceanview Middle School, Santa Barbara Catholic School, SIFA Learning Academy Charter School, St. Anthony Catholic School, and Vicente S.A. Benavente Middle School.

The teams will be placed into four groups and play three 30-minute round robin matches. Group winners will be determined by best records after three round-robin matches. The winner of Group A will play against the winner of Group C in one semifinal match and the winner of Group B will play against the winner of Group D in the other semifinal match. Semifinal matches will kick off simultaneously at 2 p.m.

The semifinal match winners will play in the championship match beginning at 3 p.m. There is no fee to watch the matches at GFA.

During the festival, FIFA Talent Coach Ryan Lazaroe will be meeting school coaches and players and handing out information about the upcoming GFA National Academy Trial Sessions for players in the U15 and U13 age divisions.

Players interested in selection to the 2026 GFA National Academy are encouraged to register for upcoming trial sessions later this month. The trial sessions for the U15 age division for both boys and girls will be held Jan. 26 and Jan. 28. The trial sessions for the U13 age division for both boys and girls will be held Jan. 27 and Jan. 29. Participants must attend at least one tryout date; however, attending both is strongly encouraged for the best evaluation.

The registration links for the trial sessions are:

• U13 Registration link: https://form.jotform.com/GFAJotforms/GFA-U13Trials
• U15 Registration link: https://form.jotform.com/GFAJotforms/GFA-U15Trials

All school coaches also are invited to sign up the attend the upcoming four-day GFA/FIFA Talent Identification Coaches Workshop, scheduled for Jan. 22-25. The workshop will focus on seven main topics, including answering the questions, “Why talent identification?”, “What is talent?”, “Performance vs Potential”, among others.

Registration for the Talent ID workshop is online at https://form.jotform.com/253208102392852