Tournament directors

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Jun 12, 2015
3,848
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This year I've noticed more than before how different tournament directors are. We've been playing a wide variety of organizations and I thought it might be interesting to talk about some of our best and worst experiences.

Best:

A couple of weeks ago we played an ASA tournament. Around here ASA has fallen away a good bit but they had a decent number of teams so we signed up. I finished the weekend baffled as to why more teams don't play in this director's tournaments. The scheduled was out several days in advance. They had the score boards manned the whole day. They dragged and relined the fields between every game. Overall the umpires were good on all the fields we played on and I heard few complaints from anyone else. The championship was scheduled for 8 pm and started at 8:15. It was probably the best run tournament we've ever played in with any team.

Worst:

We played a USFA last month. The director emailed the coaches to say he wasn't going to be staying around for the tournament. He refuses to send out a schedule or bracket; you have to harass him to get a team list. He will send the coach the first game time and that's all. You have to harass him more to get who you're playing and any other information. Every person who asks, he says, "You're the first person who's ever asked me that." He said that to me and I know of at least 3 other people he's said that to. When you get there, the pool schedule and bracket are hand drawn on a sheet of paper. You have no way to plan or strategize in advance since you have no idea who you'll play against until you get there.

He had way too many teams for the number of fields and umpires he got. There was a point where teams had VERY long breaks (I'm talking 5 hours) with fields sitting there empty. The umpires (what umpires there were) were pretty bad on every field. They got way, way behind schedule. They had a gold and silver bracket, and we had to wait for the silver bracket championship to finish before we could play because they sent the umpires home, which took over an hour. I think we finished around 2am, IIRC something like 3 hours behind schedule.

Against our better judgment we played another of his yesterday. It was the only one we could find with good competition in a reasonable driving distance. Once again, they had long, long breaks with fields sitting empty. Once again, too many teams on too few fields. Once again the director didn't stay. All the same issues as the first one, only this one they also had a handwritten note under the bracket that due to weather, they were unable to get trophies. It rained a little bit Friday night; otherwise I have no idea what weather they were referring to. It's May in GA, not much extreme weather going on (no tornadoes recently that I know of, the main weather threat here this time of year). It was very strange to play in the championship then just shake hands and go home. DD really doesn't care much about the trophies but still, it's pretty bad to not have any for a tournament that's been scheduled for months.

What do you think makes a good tournament director or a bad one?
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
What do you think makes a good tournament director or a bad one?

Three words. Organized, Plans and Communication.

Was at a tournament this weekend. Schedules were sent out weeks in advance. Everything went off on time. Brackets filled as soon as pool play was over. If there were any changes everyone knew about them right away. It was a bit of drive, but would go back again.

And the best part. Two umpires per game in pool and bracket. All of them we ran into were consistent and knowledgeable. The only bad part. We didn't play as deep as I would have liked to.
 
May 4, 2016
200
28
How about holding the tournament at the fields where they are listed as being, instead of adding five more parks all over the metro after the entry deadline.
 
Jul 4, 2013
126
43
How about starting games, not field maintenance or prep, at game time for early morning starts.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
How about directors that force you to use "Stay/Play" for the local hotels acting like they are doing you a favor.
 
Nov 25, 2015
77
6
The Frozen Tundra
I help out with fields for our fund raiser tournament each summer. Even thou it is only a B/C 8u/10u/12u tourny we pride ourselves on prepping fields for each game and pay extra for experienced umps. Have had same teams come back year after year because they love how much effort we put in it for being a non berth lower level tourny.
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
The best ones locally are the USSSA ones in my opinion. The TD always runs a good, fun tournament. Pool play draws are competitive for all teams, almost all of the umpires (10U for me) are good (one or two shouldn't be doing this any more, they lack the mobility and/or have truly inconsistent strike zones); he cones off the outfield at 200 feet if we don't have portable fences, keeps the grounds in good shape all day, and stays pretty close to scheduling times. And he gets a good turnout for almost every tournament. USA/ASA is still fighting the past and still act too much like they're doing you a favor by allowing you to play in their tourneys (despite the fact that they're open to everyone who registers with USA. PGF is getting awfully full of themselves, and except for the big tournaments they are struggling to get teams to pay their ridiculous fees. NSA locally is just about dead, it's a shame too as I always thought they did a good job.
 
Jul 25, 2015
148
0
USFA it really was dependent on which TD but once the "good" TD left for USSSA, USFA absolutely died overnight in our area...

ASA/USA has been trying to break back into the tournament scene locally but they are having some serious problems getting teams - the one tournament DD#2 played with them in the fall was well run though...

NSA has been for as long as I have been around the "weak" tournament and the TD in the area pulled many teams and ran good tournaments for years... However, instead of being happy with what he had, he decided to expand and go head to head with USSSA in the area... This resulted in poorly run tournaments and when you have poor competition and poorly run tournaments it is probably the worst possible experience... So, NSA is dying a slow painful death and I will be surprised if there is any local game in town that is not USSSA going into the fall...

However, the TD with USSSA has built a very good team of folks and is often running two to three tournaments simultaneously with himself serving as TD at one site and his 2nd serving at another...
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
We have GSA here and they do a good job but the tournaments are really low level. They do no gate fees, schedule out early, tend to run well, but once you become halfway decent there's no competition. We played a GSA 12U this season. We were going to play their 10U state, because we couldn't find another good tourney that weekend, and they wouldn't let us. They said we were too good to play 10U and had to play 12U. We're a solid B team but nothing flashy. I guess they're really more C/All Stars. The couple we've done w/ them have been well run though. And it's great for playing up an age level, so you know you will get your players some experience without getting killed.
 

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