I agree with you VS. It seems that the fastpitch community has taken to whing and crying about everything possible. **** it up, play the game and let the results speak for themselves.
Doug and crew, in my opinion it was a very well run tournament. Had good umpiring, fields for the most part were good, and the organization was tremendous. The number of conveniences you added, such as the one call, were top notch. It seemed to me that you used the funds to better the tournament for the girls.
Thank you Greg... we did many new things this year that we have not done in the past - we got the city to put up fences, yes, only 3 when we had asked for 4-6 but they were there. We did the one call (I am sorry if I overused it). When we found out Thursday that the main 5 dia complex would be avail Sat/Sun we took it - even though we had already contracted with Delco Park for the 14u all weekend .. we paid Delco AND we paid the Men's TD that had the complex his $250 deposit that he had forfeited to the city and we paid the city - it cost us over $800 to move the 14u from Delco over to the Complex when everyone else was and the college coaches were.
We did have the city line/rake fields some Friday, I know at Delco we raked between games Fri, and Sat they and our folks raked / lined every 3 games at least. Sunday -I KNOW we raked the complex and quad after every game - and lined after every game - I personally raked from 10am forward every hour.
Restrooms / PortaPots - unacceptable ... actually restrooms ran out of TP once but they were clean - Rumpke PPots - bad - we called the City/Rec Dept Sat and Sun - they never came to clean them - we will be calling the City today on that.
Scoreboards - we paid Jeremy to run the score board at the quad, Friday we did not do a good enough job, I agree (BTW: when we showed up Fri and field 5 was unplayable (it was in the same condition as wed night when I went there and checked on the progress and they were working on it) - we had to move games to K15 (which we left K15 and K4 open on the schedule (instead of allowing more teams in) for rain/issues - thank God we did)) - we kept the brackets up to date Sat and Sun at both locations once all teams / schedules settled down. Fri was shaky, I admit.
Scores - I don't know why but we did not get scores / texts .. I thought for sure that would be easy way to get scores .. we got maybe 40% texted to us...
College Coaches - I might have missed it but I dont see any comments that all the local and some not local colleges attended - I know somewhere around 40 schools made it over to watch games this weekend - Miami, UD, Wright State, Urbana, Hillsdale, OU, to name a few came ... yet none of the complainers here have stopped for a second to say, thanks for reaching out to the schools for my DD, - our girls appreciated that. I saw many college coaches talking to head coaches and players - I know of 2 schools that told me they 'found' players they are going to talk further too.
Those that know me, know I pour myself into this for my team, my org and for the softball community at large. for our SWO teams to be able to go 30 min and play in a national qualifier, play top teams from all over the state - is a great opportunity. I hear one phrase every year from the 'new' teams that come - 'it is an eye opener to see such talent' ...
I will say this I am encouraged by comments from long time OFC'rs like Greg and the many, many comments I got from others like Rex (Lasers Orange), Christy (Doom Gold), Dink (Nitro), Kavin (Static), Shane (Ohio Wave) and more... one of them said something to me this weekend that I appreciated, he said. It was, "Doug, There are Orgs, teams and coaches that go around playing like they are owed something. They give very little back to the softball community, they just take for themselves and are concerned only with their team and their players. They want everything perfect for them, every call to go their way, and they act like this is more than youth girls fastpitch. Ignore them, do what you are doing and remember the 95% of all the others that do appreciate what you are doing...".
Kavin, great job this weekend, well earned Championship... your comment at the awards presentation also hit home. Kavin thanked me and the org for the tourney and said that "he appreciates the Hawks for doing this, because he / Static in no way would ever take something like this on..." ... I hear you, maybe are actually smarter than me
With that, I want to thank all those that played. There was some great softball this weekend. I hope the City will one day realize that and help us out more. We did decide one thing for next year - NO GATE! I never liked it, but with us getting no concessions we need it. We are not going to charge a gate in 2013 and slightly raise the team fee instead.
I hope everyone has a safe and rewarding summer...
Doug
