In the American Youth Soccer Organization's National Games, players win by just showing up.

The tournament begins tomorrow with the championship games on Sunday. All games will be held at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park. Seventeen states — including Hawai'i — are represented, with 49 of the 181 teams from Hawai'i.

It is the second major youth soccer tournament held in Hawai'i in the past month. In June, the U.S. Youth Soccer Far West Regionals featured some of the nation's top talent.

"The level of competition is pretty good," said Alan Heu, the AYSO National Games 2008 Venue Chair. "I'm not going to say we're at the level of (the U.S. Youth Soccer Association), but any time you put these kids on the field, they are competitive."

The AYSO Games are held every other year, and for this tournament they incorporated a system where teams are chosen by lottery. They don't need to qualify, which is why they don't call the winners of the tournament "national champions."

Following the philosophy of AYSO, which embraces participation and sportsmanship, the National Games also feature Soccerfest as part of the tournament's festivities.

In Soccerfest — which will be held today — players in each division are mixed randomly to form teams and play against each other. While it is not mandatory to participate, playing in it is worth just as much as a win in pool play.

In pool play, teams earn six points for a win, three for a tie, one for a shutout and one point for goal differential up to three.

"Someone who doesn't participate (in Soccerfest) is already way behind," Heu said.

Out of the 181 teams, only two said they wouldn't be participating in Soccerfest as of late last week.

Shanrae Santiago, a 12-year-old who plays for Na Hoku, an under-12 girls team from La'ie, said she is excited for the Games to start and feels "good that I'm going to be playing against teams from other states and I can know how other people play and I can play my favorite sport."

She expects her competition to "bring all they can and they are going to be good, so I want to play as hard as I can."

Her older sister, Zhane, won as a part of the 12-under girls team Na Wahine Koa in 2006 and Shanrae said that experience "made me want to play just like her."

Zhane said playing in and winning the 2006 Games "was pretty good. It felt very successful because we went through a lot of work to do it."

She is not playing in this year's AYSO tournament because she is in Boise, Idaho for the U.S. Club Soccer Region G National Cup with the Hawaii Rush Soccer Club.

"It would have been a good opportunity to do it again," Zhane said. "It feels junk because we would have tried to take it again and it would have been nice if we did."

She said her advice for her sister is: "The games were pretty challenging, you would have to communicate a lot. Just pull through and never give up."

Hawai'i last hosted in 2002, and 'Aiea coach Conrad Shiroma is again entering a team.

"Hopefully, they get to meet the other players and we can compare the abilities of how we've coached them so far and how the other AYSO regions have developed," said Shiroma, who is coaching an under-16 boys team. "At this age group it's all about controlling their emotions and keep them from bouncing off each other."

His team is one of several asked to fill in for Mainland teams unable to make the trip because of rising costs of airfare.

Shiroma found out in May that he would be entering a team, and since then "it's been a scramble."

He said the team has prepared "as best as we can. The main thing is we're hopefully in condition enough to last two games a day. The first couple of days it's OK, but once you get to the semifinals Sunday morning, that's when you can see the effects of it."

With each team playing two games a day, organizers shortened pool play and quarterfinal games to 30-minute halves for the 14-, 16- and 19-under age groups, and 25-minute halves for 12-under.

The semifinals and championship games are a little longer with 12-under extended to 30-minutes halves, 14-under 35-minute halves, 16-under 40-minute halves and 19-under 45-minute halves.