Gahanna tourney torture

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Member

• Jul 20, 2009

• #21

We played 8 games on Sunday after falling into the 14u losers bracket in the first round and made it to the finals. You won't hear any complaints from us. Our girls, actually had fun with it.

I guess I am never sure how sitting at home beats playing but I guess not showing up is always an option for teams that don't want to play regardless of the format.

Every tournament has in its rules that the format can change based upon weather. And, most tournaments say you won't get a refund if you get in at least a couple of games and the format changes. Gahanna could have saved (made) some easy money in unused umpire fees if they would have killed the loser's bracket. Probably more than they made from concessions by playing the games. Of course, somebody would have figured that out and accused them of only being in it for the money and not the girls.

For those who think everything can be scripted in advance, your kidding yourself and you should really try running a tournament some time.

Thanks Gahanna for getting games played.

Mike Wilson
Lasers Black
GAPSS TD

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #22

Tangy-Mike said:

We played 8 games on Sunday after falling into the 14u losers bracket in the first round and made it to the finals. You won't hear any complaints from us. Our girls, actually had fun with it.

I guess I am never sure how sitting at home beats playing but I guess not showing up is always an option for teams that don't want to play regardless of the format.

Every tournament has in its rules that the format can change based upon weather. And, most tournaments say you won't get a refund if you get in at least a couple of games and the format changes. Gahanna could have saved (made) some easy money in unused umpire fees if they would have killed the loser's bracket. Probably more than they made from concessions by playing the games. Of course, somebody would have figured that out and accused them of only being in it for the money and not the girls.

For those who think everything can be scripted in advance, your kidding yourself and you should really try running a tournament some time.

Thanks Gahanna for getting games played.

Mike Wilson
Lasers Black
GAPSS TD

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Its funny that most of the complaints come from people who never tried to run a tournament and put in the time and effort for about 10 months and not just that weekend.

A special thanks from the Gahanna staff to Mike Wilson and the GAPSS Tournament for getting us some more Diamond Pro after we ran thru our supply.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #23

When rain intercedes into a tournament, no true course of action can be taken until:

1. the rain stops
2. the field conditions are determined.

We can look at radar and try to determine when the rain might stop, but in the case at Stingrays, the radar initially showed a 40 minute rain until the storms started to build right on top of us, lasting 4 hours and 2+ inches of rain.

In my short experience, the teams will deal with just about any decision IF they have a good communication flow.

So, every rain delay will have it's own solution . It can not be a cookie-cutter approach. To all the TDs out there, I live and feel your pain when rain hits. I'm with ya'll on this.

Everyone has their own opinion about time-shortened games. Maybe we can do an opinion poll here on OFC to see just what the concensus is so that TDs have a better idea of just what everyone wants?

I will tell everyone this. The Ohio, Indiana, and PA girls can play some quick innings. We were getting a lot 6 and 7 innings completed with a 1 hour, 20 minute game (even a 9 inning game). We were down south this last weekend with a 1 hour 25 minute drop-dead, revert back games and those southern teams just drag the game out. Very painful.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #24

I'm with Mike, I'd rather play than sit at home. Playing 29 innings in one day is a lot, regardless of time limits, but our girls had a great time.

I felt (at least for the 12's), the folks at Gahanna did a great job--except for not being able to rig the final in our favor.

Thanks Eric and the rest of your crew for what is usually a thankless task.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #25

It's funny how all the complaints about the US government come from people who have never been president. All the complaints about a school district come from people who have never been superintendent.

Agreed TD's can have a tough haul when weather interferes with their plans but they can state up front how they MIGHT handle situations, like dropping losers bracket before shortening games or the opposite. Some would rather play shortened games but at what point would your opinion change. What if they were 10 minute games? What if they only gave batters one strike?

Whatever, everybody is never going to be happy. Can't please them all. This is a discussion on the subject and the right place for one. Whatever a TD decides at the time is the way it is and everybody should make the best of it then discuss it later, like on OFC. Throw out different ideas and see if there is a better way. JMHO

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #26

Thanks for the positive words Mike. We at Gahanna try to always be about the girls first and in our opinion it was better to play it out than send them home. It killed us with the work but we saw a lot of girls with smiling faces on Saturday and Sunday, making it all worth it. Please don't loose site of that. The only complaints herd at our site was the porta pots. If some one knows how to get these cleaned early Sunday morning please let us know.

Eric
TD

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #27

Check with Tangy Mike. Sunday morning at GAPSS they were there to clean out the port a johns. Can't recall the time, but I was very surprised to see them. This was at Olentangy HS.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #28

Fantastic job by the crew at the 12U site. I also thought the comunication was great.
Kudos to the Classics for coming back Sunday to finish our game with only 10 minutes left.
This was my 6th year at this tourney.
Sad to see the old Cub Cadet retired. Oh well, guess we are all getting older.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #29

Where can we find final results for all of the age groups ?? Does anyone have that information ??

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #30

We did have it in our rules rain shorten possibilities but as someone else mentioned it is hard to have a cookie cutter plan before the tournament starts. It depends when the rain comes, where you are at in the brackets. You just have to think on your feet and get a plan together quickly cause everyone wants and needs to know the plan. My cell phone got burned up Saturday night.

In the 16u division with 45 min drop dead every game played at least 4 complete innings and some got 5 in. We also had about 4-5 games tied at time and 4 innings and we let them finish in ITB which pushed us farther behind but we just beat the dark by about 20 minutes. The Championship games were a 5 inning run rule and the final game was 6 innings. Following what others said as a coach I would rather play a 4-5 inning game then get eliminated over the phone. There were no National berths on the line just girls playing good softball and having fun. I would also like to compliment all the 16u coaches for hustling their teams and not one stalling tactic that I saw to get the games in on Sunday.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #31

Just to be clear, I wasn't there and didn't mean to be critical of the TD or staff there ... sounds like they did a great job considering the circumstances. I know that is a quality organization. I just shudder at the thought of that short of games and drop dead, but I do understand why that might be a viable option in some cases. While rain commonly plays havoc with tournaments, it's seldom planned for in the schedule due to the number of teams allowed to enter vs. the number of fields to use. Another possible option might be to rank teams somehow based on how they did in pool play, and then only invite back those you have enough room for on Sunday. Again, no criticism intended for the Gahanna folks here ... just using it as an opportunity to discuss a problem I know many TD's face.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #32

I believe the final results were going to be posted today. Here are the bracket result links. Sorry scores were not reported.

10U - http://www.allprosoftware.net/Gahanna/1/aptschart.htm

12U - http://www.allprosoftware.net/Gahanna_12U/1/aptschart.htm

14U - http://www.allprosoftware.net/Gahanna_14U/1/aptschart.htm

16U - http://www.allprosoftware.net/Gahanna_16U/1/aptschart.htm

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #33

I checked the 14U. Unless I need new contacts - the score of every game was 1-0.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #34

johnnies said:

I checked the 14U. Unless I need new contacts - the score of every game was 1-0.

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LoL Jim.........I saw that too

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #35

johnnies said:

I checked the 14U. Unless I need new contacts - the score of every game was 1-0.

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This was our 1st year with the on line brackets and with the weather and everyone doing field work it was all we could do to relay winner let alone scores. You must put a score in to move the brackets along so he just put in 1-0 scores.

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #36

We were at the 12u site and I thought this tournament was extremely well run, especially considering the weather. The 12u games went to a 1 hour time limit, I heard no complaints from any coaches there. After the rain saturday night, Eric gave us a phone number to reach him at later that evening and we were able to contact all team members that night. We were also told that some fields may have additional delays because of their condition. Eric, Thanks for a well run tournament. Jim Rothwell, Central Ohio Nightmare

 

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• Jul 20, 2009

• #37

wgman21 said:

Check with Tangy Mike. Sunday morning at GAPSS they were there to clean out the port a johns. Can't recall the time, but I was very surprised to see them. This was at Olentangy HS.

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Took Flanagan to raise H*LL because they didn't clean them on Saturday. Said they were "too busy with red, white and boom".

 

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• Jul 21, 2009

• #38

Yea, raised some HELL. Couldn't believe that they took Red White Boom as a priority over GAPSS. Jeez.

 

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• Jul 21, 2009

• #39

I am not being critical here and mean no disrespect. However, could you please explain the logic behind the 1 hour time limits at the 12u sight with two empty diamonds and 4 umpires sitting in the parking lot waiting to rotate games on the three fields in play while teams are sitting and waiting to play as well?

 

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• Jul 21, 2009

• #40

I'm not sure if this has ever been done, but I would liked to have seen partial elimination of the losers bracket and have longer games than 45 min. Meaning drop the first tier of the losers bracket and the second tier if need be. Other words if you were a winner's bracket first round loser you would be out because of weather and time constraints. You had little chance to win at that point anyway. Yes bad luck, but the tourney could then be played out in a more normal fashion.