Tom,
First off, yes we were on a 2 hour rain delay, we have over 10 people working on the fields trying to get one field done at a time to get the games started. We had ALL intentiions to play ALL pool play games which is why we were brroming the water off of the fields, raking, and putting diamond dry on the field. We were able to get an umpire to clear one field in which we started a game. we were working on two other fields, figuring the 4th fiel might be done for the day. I had already canceled two 14u elimination games for Saturday night and pushed them to Sunday morning (with the initial plan to push two fields schedules back). I failed to look at the entire 18u bracket when I made that hasty decision because it was not possible to do so.
The other 3 fields, outside of the one playing, was deemed unplayble by the other umpires and several coaches, then and only then with met with Lisa Simpson and the umpires and it was suggested to us to cancel the 3rd pool play game. Lisa said we would be playing into the very late hours to turnaround and come back. Thre was also more rain in the forecast for about 9:30pm, whichwuld hve made things even worse.
We held a coaches meeting by the brackets and explained what the plan was, when Lisa came down with the brackets she found the discrepancy with the 18U games, causing us to relook at the game times. We made it clear to all coaches that we will call, email, and post on the website. We did all three, although rather late, since i didn't even get home from the fields until 11:30 and had 36 teams to call. I was unaware that someone did not go to the field that was playing to let those coaches know, i will take full responsibilty for that. Every step I took, Parents and coaches were stopping me, my cell phone rang every 2 seconds, and I was being pulled in 10 different directions. Again, that is not your problem, but I would hope ev eryone would understand. it became very chaotic trying to play and making the decision to cancel the pool play games.
However, for you to say the tournament was a joke is offensive. The threat of rain was immediate from the onset and even told all coaches what the weather report was on Thursday afternoon. We made the decsion immediately to cut games to one hour 10 minutes and get games started early. I think it is commendable from my entire staff that out of 56 pool play games we only canceled 14! Everyone got 2 pool play games. did you have ONE complaint before the rain, if you did, you never said one word to anyone! Bottom line is we had rain, unpopular decisions were made and late phone calls were made because the first thing I needed to do was make sure we can still get games in on Sunday,
I tried to have a normal conversation on the phone with you, but you hung up on me. You asked for a full refund, I said you played 2 games and chose not to play an elimination game, while I would have come to an agreement on some kind of refund if you would have discussed things with me, but you chose not to want to discuss it.
I bet if you would have made those unpopular calls, your parents would probably not be happy, but I bet your kids would have been ready to go, you made a decision to drop out because I had to change the schedule to male everything work for tomorrow. You are entitled to your opinion and I cannot stop people bashing us on OFC, but everyone including my team wanted to play as long as it was safe to, it was not on 3 fields. My communication about the change of the schedule took longer than i wanted, hindsight I should have asked more people to help call. I cannot apologize for than I have.
