Event Preview: Top Gun Lone Star Invitational… First Year Event is “Small & Intimate” But Loaded with Talented Teams

Robb Behymer knows how to run an event.

The owner and founder of Top Gun Events started off with his first event, Top Gun Invitational, close to 10 years ago and by the end of 2021 will have produced 32 tourneys including high-profile ones such as the flagship Top Gun Invitational (held annually in June), the PGF Regional Championship (July) and the PGF Qualifier (end of October); note that all Top Gun Events are PGF-sanctioned.

Most of his events, however, are 60 teams or smaller and that is the case for this weekend’s Top Gun Lone Star Invite that is a first-year tournament that will host 38 teams from four states: Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The Lone Star Invite will be held at the Gene Campbell Sports Complex in Conroe, Texas, about a half our north of Houston and, with six fields all together, will be the way Robb likes it with the complex fields all being in one location.

Based in Shawnee, Kansas, the event director has only produced one other tournament in Texas so the question inevitably comes up; why do another one there?

“I was asked to come down and host a tournament,” he responds simply. “Some of the top clubs in Texas and other places wanted a small, more intimate tournament.”

Looking over the tourney list (below), you’ll quickly notice some impressive team names in the Lone Star State and outside of it; prestigious programs like Sudden Impact, Hotshots, Athletics, Riptide, Buzz, Dirt Divas, Suncats, Arizona Storm and Newtown Rock Gold.

So how do you go about throwing an event where you really haven’t been before?

“It’s the relationships,” he says simply. “I acknowledge I was once that parent who wants to go to events where there will be college coaches or other things like competition that will be beneficial in some way.”

“People don’t realize the amount of time it takes to get the trust of coaches and then deliver with quality events,” the Top Gun founder explains. “Or how much time it takes to make it a quality, high-end tournament. One of the reasons we have a rapport with teams and coaches across the nation is our constant communication with them all-year round.”

Two organizations that are coming in from out of state are because of the relationships and regular communication Robb has with coaches across the country.

How did you get a team Newtown Rock Gold from Pennsylvania? Robb says it was simple.

“I just called Dan Santelli asked him and Newtown Rock to come,” he says. “I’d always tried to get them to come to Top Gun and they’ve wanted to but had commitments and couldn’t. This year, I called and said we had something different, the Lone Star Invitational, and asked if they’d like to come. Dan said, ‘Yea, we’ll go!’ It was all about having that ongoing relationship and this year it finally worked out.”

Santelli, who is the Associate Head Coach for the strong team from PA, says one attractive aspect of the event–though across state lines–was the opportunity to play high-caliber competition elsewhere.

We are headed to the Lone Star Invite since it provides us an opportunity to compete against some of the top 18u teams from outside of our region early in the Fall,” he says.

“Up to now, we have played friendlies against other Northeast teams but now it is time to see how our players will respond and compete at the National Level. We will then evaluate what areas we need to work on in preparation for other national events later this Fall such as the Florida PGF Showcase and the Surf City Early Thanksgiving Showcase.

Format was another reason cited by some of the coaches including Santelli.

“The format also attracted us since it is a competitive tournament as opposed to a showcase which is the format for most Fall events,” the coach added. “We feel our team needs to learn how to compete to win in order to have success next summer at the major National Tournaments..

A similar situation is how Corey Mathis and his talent-laden Arizona Storm teams decided to make the trip Eastward into Texas.

“Corey couldn’t make the Top Gun Invitational over the Summer but I talk to him regularly,” says Robb, “and when he found out about the event (Lone Star) being next door in Texas, he said he’d like to attend. We’ll have three Storm teams coming this weekend, two in 18U and one in the 16U division.”

In-state, Steve Jones and his title contending Impact Gold 16U team sees the value of the competition the event is fielding.

“Robb has always put on great events and the field in this event was diverse with high level talent,” explains Jones.

“Unlike some of the other events, Top Gun appears to organize their events with the teams and players and coaches in mind. The schedule is focused on making it easier for college coaches to see the teams/talent they are most interested in and they have attempted to schedule to avoid unnecessarily imbalanced playing fields as best they can.”

“Their events are not solely focused on making money and the needs of the players and their interest seem to take precedent.”

Robb says a big reason for Top Gun’s success has also been that he hasn’t tried to go too big too fast… and top programs have taken notice.

“It’s building small,” he continues, “and not trying to be a big dog every weekend. It’s been about building intimate events that have grown over time.”

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Here’s the list of the nearly three dozen teams that will compete this week in Conroe, Texas…

TOP GUN LONE STAR INVITE – TEAMS