NSA STOW INVITATIONAL MAY 16TH-18TH

its been raining in cleveland for about an hour at least :'(
I sure hope it's not raining in Stow

It has been raining in the Stow area since 3:00 am.

4 teams suppose to play at 8am at the HS...and only one shows up??? how does that happen...does the TD have it out for someone, not to notify everyone of a cancellation?? $3.96 a gallon..thanks Coach Jeff!

i know you cant controll weather...but you could handle things a little better...1st the 14's now this.

Just got call it is cancelled. thats to bad lloks like it will clear out in couple hrs. ? Fields must not have been able to take anymore rain

All of us who host a tourney know the rain cannot be stopped. However, cancelling the host team's games (in this case, all 12U pool games) would have gone a lot farther in the P.R. dept. than taking away the 14U where you did not have a team. We always sacrifice our own teams when hosting a tourney with rain.

well said "steeler"...the entire weekend was sort of a mess...absolutly NO communication...goodluck Stow "aka" dynamite on getting a 2009 tourny, or having anyone show up!

I am new to OFC and posting, so maybe someone can answer some questions
about what happened with the Stow tournament. Our family was really disappointed
with how things ended.

1. ? ?Who/what is running this tournament? The City of Stow or the NEO
Dynamite?

2. ? ?If you don?t have enough back up fields, why have so many divisions
(10U, 12U and 14U)?

3. ? ?Why no games scheduled later than 4:40 on Saturday, when it was
known that weather was to be a problem on Sunday? There was plenty of
time to reschedule teams to play at the High School fields into the
evening. Especially since the games were cut to one hour?

4. ? ?Why cancel the last day of the tournament without having a rain
delay to see how the weather might play out? ?At last week?s Diamond
Dogs they did their best to put the games on Sunday. We didn?t mind
waiting an extra hour to play.

5. ? ?Why no advance word on OFC of canceling Sunday? I saw an earlier
post that one team was called at 7:48 am and told it was canceled. That
was just 12 minutes before the first game was scheduled to start.

Any organization planning a tournament at this point in the season
should plan for the worst: RAIN. This apparently did not happen.

First a whole division is canceled, then the last day of the tournament
is canceled without having a rain delay to see how the weather might
play out. Obviously it?s a lot cheaper to toss a coin than to spend
money on field dry.

First off, I'm dumbfounded and secondly, it would be unfair to blame NSA for the tournament director's actions. Of course, anyone should contact any organization when it comes to concerns about a way a tournament is ran. But, sometimes when teams hold their own...... and believe me I know there are great team tournaments .... you have fair weathered tournament directors out of place when it rains. As decisions have to be made, weather radar watched and updated as well as the contact number you gave the teams having a message on it early for teams to contact and know what you, the tournament director, is thinking... so not to be left out in the cold. But, mostly... whether or not the field dry is going to be worth the tournament's money (this includes a portion team entry fee ) if it is going to rain in three hours AFTER you get the field dry enough to play on.
Sometimes you have to be realistical in your decisions based on safety for the girls as well. One rainy tournament might ruin a weekend of play but at least slipperty fields didn't have a player sidelined for the season based on wet fields and their conditions.

My question: when did the rain end on Sunday ? Could a delay and possible sunshine the rest of the afternoon occur ? Was it forecasted ?

I have a 14u NSA World Series qualifier in Wilmington on the last weekend in June, 28th and 29th. 14u `- 12u - 10u tournaments only. 7 diamonds with lights and 3 more with lights nine miles and one turn away as well if I needed them.

In Wilmington, there is no union problem. The park people are there taking care of the fields as well as me and a few others. Volunteers are welcome under their theory to help with the fields.

Now, Chillcothe, where I am having one in October... now there are union issues and I can't even as a tournament director put field dry on the field.... one of the employees must do it... line the fields.. etc ...

Hey, weather forecast for Memorial Weekend and Day .... sunshine, sunshine, sunshine ... Hitting 80 plus on Sunday and Monday. Has good weather finally come to the girls and parents of softball ? You know what they say, "When it rains on Easter Sunday it wil rain for the next seven Sundays. And in southwestern Ohio... it rained around 9 pm Easter Sunday night.

I'm in no way blaming the NSA. Your point about a fair weather TD is right on.

To answer your question. A rain delay was possible. It stopped raining and the sun came out about an hour after the first games were to start. Mind you it did rain a few minutes every hour or two for the rest of the day, but definitely not enough to make things worse.

The up side for our family is that we got a lot of much needed yard work done. Our place gets quite overgrown, since we are at tournaments most weekends.

Well, see this where you have to take the weather people word for it on the rain chances on Sunday. Occassional showers is one thing...lol.. another is "rain, heavy at times" ... is another...

The National Weather Service is here in Wilmington... actually 2 farm fields away from the park.

When are we getting our $$$$$$$$$$$ back?

OK, I held off for a while posting on this tournament. Yes I think there were some less than ideal things that happened and perhaps things could have been better. However, I know last year this tournament went off with out a single problem.

As far as no word from he tournament director on this posting, my guess is he is choosing the high road and trying to show some class by not posting. Congrats on that Jeff!

I think this tournament was handled a thousand times better than one just this weekend with far less rain. Take a look at the twisters summer blowout postings if you doubt this. This tournament director (Adam Goch) was not as smart as the Stow Director (Coach Jeff). Adam decided to post his thoughts on his own posting, bad idea! Good idea Jeff for staying away from the mud slinging. Adam also did not handle the rain or communications even remotely close to this tournament.

Tom Steiger
12U Tigerlillies
(I had to post on the twisters posting after such a bad job the TD did running it. The field crew did awesome at the twisters though.)