Maintaining Tournament level integrity

I know the fall is tough with teams moving up and other staying down but what is the role of the tournament director in making sure teams aren't getting in over their heads? We just played an A tournament with 7 teams. 6 were legit A teams, 1 was a new team, but will get to A level, but the last team was at best a low B 10U team playing up in a 12U tournament. We didn't play them but it certainly helped the other teams with seeding, but was really a waste of time for these teams.

To make matter worse one team got to play 4 games which is pretty standard, but it was determined before play that the fourth game did not matter. I've never seen it done before play started. Has anyone ever seen that before?

We are playing fall ball this year, my dds first time playing in the fall. Its supposed to be hs aged kids, most of the teams are 16u or 18u travel teams. First team we played this year a 14u eligible team, in their first year, that would struggle to beat an average 12u team. It was a waste of time and money to play them. Their fielders would stand with both feet on the base waiting for the ball, they had 2 pitchers who weren't within 12 MPH of our 4th pitcher, and we aren't a superstar team. It wasn't helpful for either team.

canyonjoe said:

To make matter worse one team got to play 4 games which is pretty standard, but it was determined before play that the fourth game did not matter. I've never seen it done before play started. Has anyone ever seen that before?

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I've seen both blind draw for which game get's tossed for seeding and I've seen where the 4th game is automatically thrown out for seeding.

I don't really like the second method because one team is essentially knows it is playing a scrimage game while the other team knows the game counts for seeding.

canyonjoe said:

I know the fall is tough with teams moving up and other staying down but what is the role of the tournament director in making sure teams aren't getting in over their heads? ?

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How I see it good TD's do the following....

GOLDEN RULE: Follow the rules and use some common sense. Be consistent and communicate well.

IN terms of teams.

#1 They need to make sure every division has enough teams in to make it meaningful to everyone. If that means some better teams get mixed in with some not so great teams, so be it. If you have 2 'A' teams and 6 'B' teams - that is one division. Sorry B teams

#2 If there is ENOUGH teams to break up a division they should do it. So if there is 4 'A' teams, 2 'High B' teams and '6' B teams then that is 2 divisions of 6 teams. Sorry High B teams - though I have seen some mixed flight elimination days even though the pool day was technically 'open'

#3 If someone is clearly registered in the wrong division or is going to end up in a class they shouldn't because of number of teams they should be contacting the team to discover why. If a 14U team is INSISTING they play 16U when you know they aren't competitive, you can only tell them they shouldn't so many times. If a BEAST team is turning up and trying to play down and trophy hunt then don't let them unless they have a valid reason (one tourney we thought this was happening and it turned out the BEAST team had lost both their star pitchers due to injury as well as their best hitter - they needed to play down) . At that time the TD needs to decide whether they include them or exclude them (normally it is 'IN' and let them get their butt kicked).



How many do this? About 1 in 10 if you are lucky.