NSA May 31 NSA Columbus Invitational start times

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Member

• May 23, 2008

• #1

Hi Coaches,

The schedules are completed. If you follow this link and then click on your age bracket, you will have the Pool Play schedule; http://www.columbusnsa.com/fastpitch2008infopage.html .

Team check-in will start at 6:45 AM at the small pavilion by the playground. Please GIVE consideration to coaches with early games when checking in. Please have a signed copy of your roster and a copy of your team insurance to turn in. If you have multiple teams, please submit an insurance copy for each team. We do not have a way to make copies at the tournament site so the insurance copy has to be left. We can not allow a team to participate with out this insurance copy or a roster.

There will be a coaches meeting to go over rules and procedures for the tournament. Teams with the 8 AM game time, the meeting will be at 7:15 AM under the large pavilion by fields 10-13. Teams with the remaining start times will have their meeting at 8:45 AM in the same location.

The weather hotline for the tournament will be 614-895-2253. This is a dedicated voicemail and can be updated very quickly. Please only have 1 person contact the number so this can be updated quicker (the system makes me clear the voicemails before I can update it).

The City of Columbus Parks and Recreation charges a $3 per car parking fee. They charge everyone who comes into the complex. The NSA nor do the tournament directors profit in any way, shape, or form from this fee. This fee is used for field maintenance and park upkeep. Please inform your parents and spectators of this fee so as to avoid any embarrassing moments.

If you have roster questions or website issues, please contact Ohio NSA Asst. State Fastpitch Director, Lisa Simpson, at 330-825-7010 for help.

Thanks and we will see you next weekend at the tournament,

Mike Craig
Columbus NSA Area Director
614) 895-2253
www.columbusnsa.com

 

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Member

• May 23, 2008

• #2

Hey Mike: Just a quick question - You have the Extreme ( team # 9 ) listed and do not have the Ashland Blaze listed. Is this correct?

Thanks
Brian

 

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Member

• May 23, 2008

• #3

Excellent catch.

I have updated that team name to Ashland Blaze and updated the website.

Please feel free if you catch anymore errors, to send me an e-mail or respond.

There have also been a couple of e-mails asking if there will be any elimination games on Saturday evening. In the 14 and 16-U bracket there will be one game for each team in the elimination bracket on Saturday In the 12-u, two of the teams will play Saturday evening with the rest starting back up on Sunday morning.

Thanks,

Mike Craig

mike@columbusnsa.com

 

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Member

• May 25, 2008

• #4

How come this weekend at Berliner they had mens slow pitch tournaments going on in which there were alot of teams and they don't charge them to enter the park? I say if you are going to charge the girls then every weekend when there are mens tournaments going on they should charge them too. Why is it the girls only?

 

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Member

• May 25, 2008

• #5

I do not run the complex nor work for the city of Columbus. Every slow-pitch tournament that I have ran in the last 5 years at Berliner they have charged the adults to get in the complex. If they did not this weekend, I would contact CRPD and find out the reason why. 614-645-3366.

Once again we (NSA) do not set the policy or profit from this in any way , shape, or form. I pay full price for my fields and lights like any organization down there and have no say over the gate.

Mike Craig

 

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Member

• May 26, 2008

• #6

We were briefly at the Men's tournament this past weekend, and we did have to pay $3 to get into the park. That was about 1:00 pm on Saturday.

 

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Member

• May 26, 2008

• #7

The CRPD is using the parking fee as a way to offset budget cuts to their department. How a city department can charge to use a city park, I dont know. I thought that was why we pay taxes.

They were charging the $3 fee this past weekend for the Firefighters Tournament.

They charge for every big event at Berliner, not just the girls tournament. If you are going to alot of events at Berliner, you can buy a pass from the CRPD which covers the entire summer. I think it is like $25.

 

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Member

• May 26, 2008

• #8

For years the only slow-pitch tournament that charged a gate was the 4th of July event (Christopher Columbus). This was the main fund raiser for the non-for-profit group BATS, which provided the field maintenance for the 12 fenced fields near the front of the complex.

In 2003, they kept on charging after the 4th but neglected to tell anyone who had tournaments booked down there this important piece of information. I had a slow-pitch event down there a couple of weeks later and had angry players and coaches swarming me like bees at a honey festival, griping and throwing a fit about having to pay to get in a public complex. I had no clue this was even going to happen until I pulled in that morning and had the kid working the gate tell me to pay or leave the park. I had to inform him to let me pass or he would have no event to charge a gate from. They were charging our umpires, they were charging the guys who drive back there to dump in the far back, they were even charging folks who came down to run their dogs or hit golf balls in the back.

Trust me when I say, I don't like it anymore than you folks do. Now with this being said, they still give me and the tournament participants better service than the city of Westerville did when I started this tournament up there 9 years ago. It rained until 9 AM one year in Westerville and I could not get anyone from there maintenance staff to come back to the fields to even attempt to get them ready. I was told to cancel for the weekend at 9 am on Saturday morning!! Yeah that will fly. I went to Home Depot and bought several rakes and put my umpires and any willing parents to work and we still salvaged over half of the tournament that weekend. At least enough to decide berths.

Sorry for venting and writing a book. I just hope this past weekend's weather is indicative of what we get for this upcoming weekend downtown. Good luck to all!!

 

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Member

• May 27, 2008

• #9

Ohioquakerman > umpire with rake in case of rain.

Hoping for a warm and DRY weekend again.

 

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Member

• May 28, 2008

• #10

any idea when brackets for saturday night into sunday play will be posted. Trying to decide whether to stay on saturday on not depending on what schedule looks like

 

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Member

• May 28, 2008

• #11

packing are bag's just in case. would be nice to see tournament bracket

 

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Member

• May 29, 2008

• #12

I hope we miss the weather forecast of thunderstorms Saturday! At least it is to be warm both days.

 

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Member

• May 29, 2008

• #13

broncho_1992champs said:

any idea when brackets for saturday night into sunday play will be posted. ?Trying to decide whether to stay on saturday on not depending on what schedule looks like

Click to expand...

The brackets are online. Go to the website in the first post.

 

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Member

• May 30, 2008

• #14

Look forward to seeing everone there!!!

 

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Member

• May 30, 2008

• #15

Bink --look me up around the WT games MD

 

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Member

• May 31, 2008

• #16

Mike: Just curious; How much notice do you have on the Ashland Blaze dropping out and having to re-work all of the pool plays & Sunday brackets?? Just asking because I noticed that the Ashland Blaze did not make it onto the back of the tournament t-shirts :-?

 

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Member

• Jun 1, 2008

• #17

The coach had called me Tuesday and said he might have to drop because of player issues. I asked him when he was going to know for sure and he said Weds night. He called Thursday morning and caught me walking out the door for work in the morning and absolutely, positively, said they were in. Then. low and behold, ?he left a message on Friday mid- morning that they were out for good. ?>

I e-mailed the shirt people on Weds night because they were doing the printing in Owensboro and wanted to do it on Thursday so there person could take off Friday during the day and come up Friday night to stay and do his thing on the weekend. Since I never heard back from the coach, I didn't list him in the e-mail to the folks at Team IP.

I also figured as much as he jerked me around about being in one minute, then out the next, then back in, I would handle any objections if he was upset about being off the shirts.

How come no one asked me about this at the tournament site yesterday or today????

 

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Member

• Jun 2, 2008

• #18

Mike; Wasn't really an issue to bring up to you at the tourny - more important things for you to over see . Just curious !!. I do want to tell you that you guys did do a bang up job keeping that many teams & diamonds as organized as you did. Fresh boxes every few games would have been a nice touch but with that many diamonds being played on at all the same times I could see how much of an effort that would have taken. I do hope things got worked out with the Dragons Black coach about their game times on Sat : Although we did not make it to the final 4 - The Central Ohio Lady Vipers played 3 of the final 4 teams tough with those teams being The Classics - The Sting & The Wild Thangs.

Again
Good Job

 

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Member

• Jun 2, 2008

• #19

And I hope my response wasn't combative, just curious since I try to be as approachable as humanly possible.

I had a great idea this year and I was going to have one of the men's teams that play in some of my slow-pitch events, be my "touch up" grounds crew for Saturday as a fund raiser. I was going to pay for the chalk and rakes and let them go to town every couple of games.......until CRPD informed me that would be in violation of my agreement with them and I would forfeit my deposit for the season.

CRPD is very touchy about anyone working on those fields other than there folks. I do not know if it is due to union issues or they are just that serious about it. I would like to have some chalked batters boxes just one year.