April 24, 2018

Meet Jeffrey Sundy of Copa Cabana Sports in Santa Monica

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey Sundy.

Jeffrey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in South Africa where I was passionate about playing soccer every day from age five to eighteen. After joining the mandatory army training for two years in South West Africa (Namibia), my career began when I went to hotel school to study culinary arts and hotel management. After graduating, I traveled around the world working in different hotels and restaurants for four years where I discovered another passion for travel and food. At twenty-four, my friend opened up a restaurant on the Sunset Strip in LA and asked me to help him make it a success. I fell in love with Los Angeles and decided to open my own restaurant in Beverly Hills and a nightclub downtown. The only thing missing from my life at that time was a family, so I got married and had three beautiful daughters, who I introduced to soccer and they all loved the game as much as I did when I was a kid.

I started my company, Copa Cabana Beach Soccer in 2007, when I was coaching my daughters on Santa Monica beach, where I created the first beach soccer tournament for kids age seven to adults. Two years later, I expanded the tournaments by partnering up with another coach, Christiaan Wagner and we now have national and international tournaments that include beach soccer, futsal, 5V5 soccer and volleyball.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road to success has been challenging juggling my restaurant business with developing my sports business. I loved them both and created events utilizing both my catering skills and sports events with music, entertainment and great food.

Finally, I got out of the catering and restaurant business and decided to focus on my first passion, soccer and sports. Now, we have established partnerships with the MLS LA Galaxy professional soccer team, U.S. Futsal Federation, Copa USA 5V5 Youth National Tournament and Football 5 World Championship (world’s largest amateur soccer tournament).

Please tell us about Copa Cabana Sports.
I happily get up at the crack of dawn on weekends to make my way to one of beaches or soccer fields in LA, Huntington, Santa Monica, Malibu, El Segundo or Oxnard. With my team of a dozen people, we set up the event that can host a tournament from fifty teams to four hundred teams. And spectators can range from 1500 to 25,000 people.

Copa Cabana Beach Soccer is the largest 5V5 soccer/futsal tournament producers in the USA for youths and adults.

I also offer Copa Cabana branded unique merchandise such as: beach socks, beach soccer balls, sunscreen wristbands available as well as the hoodies and T-shirts at the tournaments and from my online store.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I believe that everything I did was a stepping-stone to where I am today, so I’m grateful for all of the challenges and my accomplishments, both big and small so far.

I have managed to balance my life with a profession that I love so much that I would not give it up, even if I won the lottery. I have a wonderful family and my three daughters are supportive of my passion, so I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Pricing: