DC Metro Corporate and Legal Communities Face Off For DC Public School Students

The clouds broke this past Saturday to make way for sunny skies and the opening rounds of the 2nd annual Sharks vs. Suits Shootout, a 7-on-7 coed soccer tournament benefiting DC SCORES, a local non-profit that provides afterschool soccer and creative writing programs in 21 DC public elementary schools. Held at Trinity College, this tournament brought out teams from DC area businesses and law firms for a day of friendly competition for a great cause for DC youth.

In the end, Whole Foods Market was crowned the 2004 Sharks vs. Suits Shootout champion after an exciting 4-3 victory over U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Other tournament participants included Marriott; AOL; Venable; PricewaterhouseCoopers; Hogan & Hartson LLP; Pepco; Holland & Knight LLP; Zuckerman Spaeder LLP; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP; John Snow Inc.; Advisory Board; Corporate Executive Board; D.C. United (Corporate) and Nathan Associates; Inc. The finalist received official D.C. United jerseys and the winners will take part in the championship trophy presentation on Saturday, July 17th at RFK Stadium during D.C. United's home game.

This year's tournament featured a poetry performance by DC SCORES kids and raised over $40,000 for DC SCORES' continued support of over 600 student-athletes.

"We were very impressed with the level of play of all of the competitors," said Holly O'Donnell, Executive Director of DC SCORES. "We believe that the Sharks vs. Suits Shootout is a great way to get the corporate and legal communities involved in improving the lives of D.C. public school children."

The 2nd Annual Sharks vs. Suits Shootout was sponsored by D.C. United; Merrill Lynch; Drink More Water; UPS; U.S. Soccer Foundation; LexisNexis; Whole Foods Market; Washington Sports Club; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP; Balance Bars and Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, LLP.

DC SCORES is an affiliate of AMERICA SCORES, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening urban public school communities through soccer, literacy and community service. SCORES affiliate programs are located in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Cleveland and Washington, D.C. For more information, log onto http://www.dcscores.org.

Contact: Erika Lewis
DC SCORES
(202) 548-0101  ext. 303
elewis@americascores.org