The sun hadn’t yet cleared the trees when the first games of the President’s Cup began on Sunday morning.

Groggy eyes gradually gave way to hearty cheers, and the steam of a second or third cup of coffee disappeared with the morning fog as the smell of frying bacon drifted from the concession stand.

For some people, getting to a soccer game at 7:30 on a Sunday morning would be a nightmare. For the parents and players who actually had to do it this weekend, it was something else.

“We’ve got some diehard parents, as you can tell by the enthusiasm. That’s not a punishment, that’s a treat,” Jackson resident Al Hairston said as he sipped on a cup of coffee and watched his son, Marlon, play in a U-11 boys game at the Vicksburg Soccer Organization Complex in Bovina. “You have the ones who are high-octane. You send them in first to get the kids going.

“Then you have the slow ones like me, who need some coffee to get going.”

The second day of the Mississippi Youth Soccer Association’s President’s Cup dawned, appropriately, with the dawn on Sunday. The first game of the day began at 7 a.m. – a U-12 boys contest between Clinton and Hattiesburg that had been rained out the night before – and 18 more games were scheduled to start at 7:30.

On Saturday, 20 games had the 7:30 start. It’s not unusual for large tournaments to have early starts, and with 141 teams in 14 age groups, it was unavoidable at the President’s Cup.

Still, getting an early wake-up call is never easy. Through trial and error, soccer parents have found a few tricks to make it through the long morning.

“It’s the love of the game – and Red Bull,” joked Steve Bodin, referring to the potent energy drink. Bodin was watching his twin daughters, Katie and Emily, play for the Gulf Coast United West U-11 girls team.

Coffee also seemed to be a favorite stimulant. Hairston was one of a half-dozen supporters of the Central Jackson Soccer Organization team sporting a cup of coffee. They needed it after arriving for their game at 6:30 a.m. At that time, the sun hadn’t risen yet.

“Certainly, for the parents, we need that. Coffee is good,” Hairston said with a laugh.

A sense of humor is also a big help. As the Jackson Futbol Club’s U-11 boys team played Gulf Coast West, Paula Boulanger alternately cheered for her son, Michael Thomas Boulanger, and cracked jokes with her fellow sleep-deprived soccer parents.

“The boys are fine. It’s the parents that have to get up,” Paula Boulanger said. “We have fun. It’s a good time for the parents. We’re just hanging out together.”

They got to hang out for a long time. The U-11 boys and U-11 girls divisions, which played in eight of the 10 early contests, didn’t play their championship games until 6 p.m. Sunday night. Several parents said they also had children playing on different teams.

There was plenty of downtime to rest during the day, but it still made for a long afternoon – and an even longer morning today.

“You’re exhausted,” Paula Boulanger said with a laugh. “Monday morning, when you have to go to work, it’s ugly because you’re so tired.”