Friendship Cup Full of Top-Ranked Teams

03.26.2026HS Boys, HS Girls

Charlotte Cardinals Girls and Cavemen Boys will be at the Friendship Cup.

Author: Alex Goff

The Friendship Cup tournament fires up Friday and will run for three days in Nashville with an impressive list of HS clubs in action.

Girls Division

We won’t call this a bracket because the Friendship Cup is more about getting the games in rather than a pool-knockout format with a final.

Still, everyone loves a winner … or at least everyone loves to know who the winner is. So pretty much every player and coach will be looking at the win-loss record.

For the girls, United out of Utah, The Woodlands out of Texas, Charlotte Cardinals, Pendleton out of Indiana, and from Tennessee Father Ryan and Columbia Central all compete. These are strong clubs throughout the girls’ sphere, and this is a huge test for all of them.

United brings a deep squad and will play two games on the Friday (all games are shortened), and two on Saturday, choosing, naturally, to avoid playing on Sunday.

Pendleton, fresh off their tour of Ireland, will be one of United’s opponents on Friday, play two on Saturday, and one more on Sunday.

Current Schedule:

Friday, March 27
United vs Pendleton 5PM CT
United vs Father Ryan 7PM CT

Saturday, March 28
United vs Charlotte Cardinals 8AM CT
Columbia Central vs Pendleton 9AM CT
Columbia Central vs Charlotte Cardinals 1PM CT
United vs The Woodlands 1PM CT
Father Ryan vs Pendleton 2PM CT
Father Ryan vs The Woodlands 6PM CT

Sunday, March 29
Columbia Central vs The Woodlands 9AM CT
Charlotte Cardinals vs Pendleton 10AM CT
Charlotte Cardinals vs The Woodlands 1PM CT

Boys Division

This is the division that lit things up last year as several highly-ranked teams embraced the concept. Cavemen got an invitation to the Boys HS National Championships based heavily on their performance in in the 2025 Friendship Cup.

That Utah side is back for four games over three days. Currently ranked #2 among HS Clubs by GRR, the Cavemen out of American Fork will play Pendleton (ranked #18), The Woodlands (#14), #9-ranked Charlotte Tigers, and #1 Charlotte Cardinals.

Yes, they are shortened games (22.5-minute halves), but even so the #1 ranking may well be on the line.

That’s just the beginning. SC Barbarians and Woodlands, at least, may well be ranked lower than they deserve mostly because of lack of opposition. The Woodlands has had a couple of teams cancel on them, and a flight cancelation killed their California trip, which was a big part of their schedule. SC Barbarians play essentially an independent club schedule, but that carried with it some travel demands.

The story among most of these teams is the same—high-level clubs that are somewhat isolated from frequent challenging opposition. Both Charlotte teams are in Nashville because, while they play each other, and they do have clubs in Raleigh and Clayton to face, this is another level entirely.

Current Schedule:

Friday, March 27
Cavemen vs Pendleton 6PM CT

Saturday, March 28
SC Barbarians(#49) vs Pendleton 8AM CT
The Woodlands vs Charlotte Tigers 9AM CT
Charlotte Cardinals vs Cavement 10AM CT
Raptors TN vs SC Barbarians 12PM CT
Charlotte Cardinals vs Pendleton 2PM CT
Raptors TN vs Charlotte Tigers 4PM CT
Cavemen vs The Woodlands 5PM CT

Sunday, March 29
Charlotte Cardinals vs SC Barbarians 8AM CT
Raptors TN vs The Woodlands 8AM CT
Cavemen vs Charlotte Tigers 10AM CT
Charlotte Cardinals vs The Woodlands 12PM CT

There will also be several B-side games throughout the weekend, and clubs from Knoxville and the St. Louis Jets will be in that bracket, as they continue to build and grow competitively.

It’s interesting to note that three clubs are sending a boys and a girls team to this event.

GRR will be there for on-site coverage, and there will be a live stream (link coming).

Links

The History of Friendship Cup