Open Letter to Tournament Directors

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LMAO.... buy a car or get towed... is that the concept?

yeah, but tell anyone...

 

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I did notice the car lot had a DJ from one of the Cincy radio stations and had a sale going on though

 

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I've actually thought about putting water in the dugout for the girls ... but not the "team type" of big jugs .. just bottles of water in ice and keep replenishing during the tournament in each dugout.

Bottle water is cheap enough.

Thought about it .. still checking on the liability issue...

We were at a tourney in Georgetown KY this weekend, and the TD had a giant jug of ice water (with cups) in the dugout for the girls that was replenished after each game. Extremely helpful and appreciated for the effort and thought.

 

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I would do the same .. and Expressway did at one time... then they saw hands taking off the lids and grabbing ice..... so that stopped.

Sadly to say, now it becomes a liability.

 

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Fastpitch & Fireworks Tourney-July 1-3(rain date of July 4)

-Pool arrangements.This I felt was crucial.With 4 pools,I arranged all the presumed A's,B's,C's and D's accordingly.They were grouped to play teams comparable to thier caliber as much as I could figure on records/season.Not arrang all the presumed #1's seperately in pool play but have them play each other and so on.Why just hand out trophies wthout playing the games?Why have a presumed #1 seed playing in a 'community based' pool?

Overall, this was an outstanding tournament. The logistics and facilities were first class. However, I have to disagree on the pool pairings, at least at 12U. 3 of 4 semi finalists came out of one pool and surprisingly the sponsor, who has two strong 12 U teams ('99 & '98) were not in that pool. These four teams had to beat the **** out of each other in pool play only to find three of them waiting in the semi's?

 

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Yes, I had a problem with the description of the pool play, at least if I was understanding it to say that the perceived best teams were in one pool, the perceived worst teams in another, and the middling teams in their own pools but a number 1 bracket seed would have come out of each of the pools. Maybe that's not how the bracket seeding actually worked? Or would have worked without the rain?

 

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I hate when they seed all the top teams in 1 bracket. You want to see 2 top teams in championship play, not the best of the mediocre teams and a top team. Had that happen a few times this year, be fair and let the best go to top.

 

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Well, wildfire... have you ever left Expressway and then come back ?

Parking spot is of course gone and when they (teams) are all there... parking in the "boonies" come to mind or illegally in the car lot to the front.

Parking spots are usually gone no matter where you are and I don't have problem parking in the "boonies". Never been to Expressway and problaby never will for the record. It was more a comment about tourneys in general than any any particular location.

Tourneys/complexes that don't allow a "team" cooler in the dugout would get crossed off my list pretty quickly.

 

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Dear Tournament Directors: Don't cancel a day of play at 11 a.m. just because you had a 30 minute down pour. Check the forecast, if it's going to be 90 degree, humid weather, there's a pretty good chance there's going to be fields that can be played on eventually....on the note about not bringing in coolers with drinks and food--we bring in ham, turkey, cheese, pickles, etc., and I don't care how much food I bring in, after a while, you just get tired of what's in your cooler, so we ALWAYS end up going to the concession stand for something different, like a walking taco or a shredded chicken sandwich.

 

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Fastpitch & Fireworks Tourney-July 1-3(rain date of July 4)

I think I finally got it right.Friday,saturday pool play with sunday elimination.Rain day fell on Monday(Holiday).Very important this year!

-Took requests and played pool play friday for local teams and with requests,played teams that traveled from out of town to play thier pool play games saturday as late as I could.Helped prevent a night of hotel was the plan.

-Pool arrangements.This I felt was crucial.With 4 pools,I arranged all the presumed A's,B's,C's and D's accordingly.They were grouped to play teams comparable to thier caliber as much as I could figure on records/season.Not arrang all the presumed #1's seperately in pool play but have them play each other and so on.Why just hand out trophies wthout playing the games?Why have a presumed #1 seed playing in a 'community based' pool?

-Rain line was personal phone.Had message there but shocked and impressed people when they got a live person when they called.

-Friday went fine.Saturday,I moved 8am games back to 9:30 am.Rain started at 8am and didn't stop til 1:00pm.Rewrote the brackets twice,then cancelled saturday and moved everything to sunday/monday.If we were to play the remainder pool games saturday-they were to start around 2:30 and we were to drop on pool play game and give a refund for each game not played in the guarantee of games offered.Glad we cancelled the day-schedule back to regular with adding the rain day.Every hour of constant rain seems to need 1 hour of drying/prepping for game readiness.Had a coach updating OFC and website constantly with all updates.Coaches using those tools reduced phone calls.

-Out of 50 teams,only 1 team not able for bracket play.In that age group,all #1's were to have a bye.The missing team was a #1 seed.Re-wrote bracket with the 3 #1's and gave the new #4 and #5 a bye but play each other in the last #1 seeds spot.Informed coaches ahead of time and discussed solutions to make all happy instead of just laying it out there.

-Posted over-sized brackets instead of the normal 8x11 size.

-Run our tourney at 2 facilities with 4 fenced in fields.The fields we use host most of the OHSAA sectional,regional and district games.

-Almost all games had 15 minutes before the next games and fields were drug and re-lined between every game.2 umpires for every game.UIC at BOTH facilities-not a TD acting as a UIC but actual TD's.

-50 teams.No Bracket play had #1 seeds playing 8am games.I added 30 minutes down time into every day at 2:00 to be sure to get back on time.

-Not to toot my own horn but I think I planned/ran the Xtreme's tourney better and better every year.No matter how experienced,we can always improve.

-However,I should have had walking taco's.Had concessions at both sites and added icecream stand and airbrushing at one of the sites.

Let me help you tape that target on your back.

 

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Let me help you tape that target on your back.

Brought my first real smile of the day. Thanks Mike.

 

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Dear Tournament Directors: Don't cancel a day of play at 11 a.m. just because you had a 30 minute down pour. Check the forecast, if it's going to be 90 degree, humid weather, there's a pretty good chance there's going to be fields that can be played on eventually....on the note about not bringing in coolers with drinks and food--we bring in ham, turkey, cheese, pickles, etc., and I don't care how much food I bring in, after a while, you just get tired of what's in your cooler, so we ALWAYS end up going to the concession stand for something different, like a walking taco or a shredded chicken sandwich.

If you are talking about the shreaded chicken sandwich at the Marysville event with Heart of Ohio... that was a great sandwich !!!!

 

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Seems like there are at least 2 schools of thought about seeding pools. I was surprised when I read posts a couple months ago about pools being formed unevenly (i.e. with teams of similar strength) because I was accustomed to pools being seeded to spread top teams across pools, but I appreciate the other approach. I'd say the favored approach depends on whether you entered the tourney to earn a berth or to improve by playing teams that challenge you.

A consolation about having strong teams in your pool is you won't face them early in elim brackets (if they're set up correctly).

JMO - TDs will catch flak from some people no matter how they set up pools - even if it was by blind draw.

 

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Oh yeah, the chicken sandwich at Marysville Heart of Ohio was excellent. But I'd still rate the one at Faben Park in Huron a little higher.

 

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Yes I did put a target on my back-basically for opinions on what people think we should do to run a tournament to everyones satisfation.Duh,it can't happen but I do put myself out there to improve evry year.

Last year I had a disaster with rain and put it out there then to see where I can improve and did the same this year.This year I had rain and only problems from 3 out of 50 teams.Impossible to please all but I'm getting damn close.

Klump,CGS and Eagle eye questioned seeding for pools.

12u division I grouped:
MOV Flamin Fury
Championship
Stingrays '98
Buckeye Heat '99


They all played each other in pool play and 3 of the 4 in 12's were in the semi's.Thought it worked out perfect,almost?


14u division
Buckey Heat(#1 seed,played #4 seed in elimination,10u team?!,then a #3 and 2#2's)
MOV (#4 seed went to Championship game)
Road Runners(played #3 then #4 seed in elimination)
PC Sting(played #3 then #4 seed in elimination)

14's ended with MOV and Buckeye Heat in championship

I thought I was doing favors by having teams considered 'elite' to play each other in pool play and not having to face each other immediatley in elimination.

They all played each other in pool play and 3 of the 4 in 12's were in the semi's.Thought it worked out perfect,almost?

Should I place all the predicted final 4 in seperate brackets to play inferior competition all the way through?No knock on the lesser but why not play to your caliber?

Teams going to nationals don't need to go trophy hunting-I thought I was helping them prepare and giving others 3 pool play games of thier caliber?

16 teams in 12's and 14's.Non qualifier-if complaining now,hate to see your seeding in Nationals.No disrespect,but thought I was helping everyone and put on a great tourney?

My 15's were put in a tough bracket-went 0fer.Had to play #1 overall seed in elimination who won the division.

 

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Let me help you tape that target on your back.

I opened the door,but in a non qualifier,who would YOU want to play-1st or worst?I think i know the answer...but if I'm wrong,I could just up the fee $35 and give all a 1st place trophy?Bet you enjoy not being criticized this year?haha!Got love for ya Mike.

 

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I opened the door,but in a non qualifier,who would YOU want to play-1st or worst?I think i know the answer...but if I'm wrong,I could just up the fee $35 and give all a 1st place trophy?Bet you enjoy not being criticized this year?haha!Got love for ya Mike.

Panther

If your goal was to get these elite teams to the finals, good job. My ? Was why wasn't there an Xtreme heat team in that pool. Your 99 team has been very successfull against some of the teams in this pool. Shouldn't they have had had the opportunity to take on the tough competition all weekend?

 

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@ohioquakerman - great thoughts and feedback. I liked your story about the "parental issue". My oldest daughter is playing for a different organization than where I coach and it will be a "one and done" with that organization because of the embarassing behavior of the so-called adults; honestly the girls on the team display more maturity than the parents. I rarely issue ultimatums (sp?), but I informed the coach that he needs to "sit on" a couple of parents or we are out of there. Win or lose, I want to play with class and character; it is literally to a point where I will not wear the team's spirit wear in public.

 

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Here's the story.. years ago when I was a kid.. there was a guy who ran the concession stand. Always cussing and thinking younger kids wasn't hearing him.

One day my Father ( who was a coach ) went up to him and asked him to quit cussing around the kids.

"They hear it at school all the time", he said.

My Father replied, " That may be so.. but they are not going to hear it around the ballfield"


I guess I am indeed, my Father's son when it comes to this issue.

At my events, you will be asked just once to contain yourself.

The second time you are in a car.. either yours or the police cruiser.. Your choice.

 

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Panther-Tiger, you ran a fantastic tournament. Lots of comments from parents I heard
was very much in favor of what was going on. It could have not ran much smoother...


well except for the outcome