First and foremost, our volunteer base at Ohio Elite is incredible. We implemented a policy that each family must volunteer 10 hours across the year, but it still impresses me how the membership stepped up to make the event a huge success. On the two weekends we had nearly 300 volunteer slots that were filled. It was cold and yet our volunteers, including my wife who took two shifts at Turpin, braved the temperatures admirably.
On behalf of the Directors, THANK YOU!!
My first official event as a member of Ohio Elite was the 2008 Men's weekend. I knew at that time that I wanted a larger role in the men's weekend itself, but had no idea I would assume the role of Tournament Director for the club as a whole.
Nick Flohre was our Tournament Director, but when he assumed a larger role in the facility the time he was able to commit to the various events was limited. Doug, Tim and I discussed it and I assumed the role. There wasn't a series of meetings or discussion at the board level. We just decided what needed to be done and we did it. In fact, I'm not even sure if all our board members know I am the Tournament Director.
I tell that story because it relates directly to the event itself and how we handle various decisions within the event.
The most difficult part of the team selection and scheduling process is avoiding coaching conflicts. We had planned on identifying facilities for each age group/level to make it easier for college coaches to find the appropriate groups for them. Unfortunately, in order to help coaches of multiple teams, we had to move teams to other sites. Town & Country was the only facility where with the exception of 1 game on Friday night of the girls event we held true to our plans.
Our tournament committee does a great job of handling volunteers, hospitality and registration making it much easier to handle the other areas of need. I greatly appreciate everyone's role within the committee.
We have two challenges in the event, both of which are largely out of our control: (1) college coach attendance, (2) weather.
The women's event was very well attended by college coaches with overflow seating in the T&C observation area for most of the event as well as college coaches traveling to other sites. The men's coaching list increased from a year ago, but with fewer schools combined with a later and more defined recruiting calendar attendance was less than the women. That said, it is the player's responsibility to communicate with coaches regarding their schedule. Simply attending a Showcase does not necessarily lead to getting recruited. Too few clubs educate their families on their role in the recruiting process. If you are good and you do the work, coaches will see you play.
As a side note, one of the concerns with the Development Academy is the opportunity to attend Showcases and get exposure for our players. Most forward-thinking Showcase events (e.g. CASL, Disney, Dallas Cup) have reached out to the Development Academy and received approval for DA teams to attend. Others have simply allowed league matches to be played in conjunction with the event as a win-win for the teams and the event itself. (OE hosted 4 matches at the OE Showcase, Carmel will host 4 at the Crossroads, Strikers will host 4 at the Jeff Cup, Sockers will host 4 at the NIKE Showcase, Surf hosted several at the Surf Cup, etc...).
By having the event the last two weekends in February, weather is certainly a challenge. (It shocks me that teams would register for an event and then complain of the cold. ITS FEBRUARY, of course its going to be cold.) Cincinnati is blessed with many turf fields. It also appears to often be on the lower edge on inclement weather patterns.
The last few days leading up to the event are the most stressful. Once the event kicks off you hope its boring for the Directors of the event. The 2008 event was battered with snow and ice. On the Monday leading into the 2009 women's event the forecast wasn't much better. It improved as the week went along, but as late as Friday morning there was still some doubt about getting the games played. I received multiple phone calls from teams expecting the event to be canceled, but we weren't going to cancel because it might snow.
As the event got underway, the forecast seemed to improve every hour. From a 100% chance of 2-3 inches by 8am on Saturday to scattered snow on Saturday evening. Here is a timeline of weather v. decisions.
Girls Weekend
- Friday, 10pm - weather for Saturday morning looks promising, no reason for change
- Saturday, 5am - radar looks clear, temperatures cooperate, game on
- Saturday, 10am - radar remains remarkably clear
- Saturday, 1pm - light rain begins, temperature begin to fall
- Saturday, 4pm - cold and wet (this was probably the worst of the weekend)
- Saturday, 5pm - changes to snow (reports from UC, Madeira of field concerns), send Marc Sabin to Madeira, Fred Lee is at UC, Tim Lesiak is at Anderson HS
- Saturday, 6:30pm - close Maderia, last two games canceled, Anderson continues play in snow (coaches and players had a blast), UC shortens games as water begins to ice over, Sumitt's last game completed (don't have access to lights on weekends), all other fields remain playable
- Saturday, 9pm - reschedule two games from Saturday, affecting 10 games in total to get 2 played
- Saturday, 10pm - field inspections, Tim and I went to every site to assess the damage for Sunday morning. It is hard to explain what we saw. For example, Town & Country was completely clear, while Anderson only 7 miles away was unplayable for Sunday. Sumitt had 2-3 inches of snow on it while Walnut Hills, just a couple miles away was clear. Xavier - clear, UC - unplayable due to ice
- Sunday, 12am - field inspections complete: unplayable - UC, Anderson, Madeira, Summit; questionable - Turpin, Princeton, Walnut Hills; playable - Town & Country, Xavier, Withrow
We knew we had 3 fields that were unplayable, but I decided not to make a backup plan at that time and contact the teams because the forecast made it impossible to predict any other changes. Staying up another couple hours to make a plan that was likely to change was pointless when we expected there would be much work to do in the morning. We simply didn't know what to expect over the next few hours.
- Sunday, 4:45am - conference call with Tim and Doug. The radar looked OK, but we had serious concern over the temperatures. A decision simply couldn't be made until we revisited the fields and checked the temperature first hand
- Sunday, 5:15am - Doug, Tim, Nick and I dispatched to various fields to check the condition and decide on the temps. UC and Madeira were already eliminated. Sumitt was checked again, but also eliminated. Tim drew short straw and went to Princeton
- Sunday, 5:45am - heavy snow begins to fall, confirmation that crews were dispatched to clear Anderson. Turpin needs a quick brush to remove loose ice. The field was playable, but we were concerned for the safety of the player is she fell and hit some of the ice. Princeton closed due to snow accumulations
- Sunday, 6:30am - estimates on Anderson for 10am, Turpin for 12pm. First update to the weather hot line of a delay
- Sunday, 7:15am - the four of us stood at Xavier and watched it snow. Accumulations were well over an inch and the entire event was threatened
- Sunday, 7:45am - Hot line updated later than expected due to rapid change in field conditions at Xavier. Snow ended (we were probably 20 minutes at most away from cancelling the entire day) Xavier closed, remarkably this was the one field we were confident would be playable the night before. Even more remarkable, Walnut Hills and Withrow (each less than a few miles away) confirmed as open and playable. Town & Country confirmed playable. Estimates on Anderson moved to 8:30am, Turpin, 9:30am. Games at Town & Country, Walnut, Withrow to start at 8am. All games moved to 50 minutes.
This moment was the reason we decided not to communicate with the teams the night before, especially since we really didn't have good answers. By doing so, I believe we would have created more confusion and not been able to get teams to the appropriate fields to begin play. While it wasn't the most convenient for the teams, it was much easier to communicate through the field marshal to get them to another facility when they were already out of the hotel and ready to play than to get them together from the hotel to the site. That decision helped us get the day started on time and get all the games in.
- Sunday, 8:00am - Teams from Xavier and UC sent to T&C to play at 9am. Summit sent to Walnut. Princeton sent to Withrow. Madeira to Anderson. Teams at Anderson to start as soon as field playable. Teams at Turpin on delay until 10am.
- Sunday, 8:10am - Arrived at T&C to complete schedule. Internet access through Verizon inexplicably unavailable. Timing couldn't have been worse as we were unable to use the email and text functions within Soccer Scheduler to communicate directly with the teams. The 9:40am teams were most affected because the communication timeline was off by about a 1/2 hour. We relied on the Internet and should have had a few extra people available to contact teams directly via phone. (This was something that was addressed for the boys weekend and now part of our "emergency plan" for future events.)
- Sunday, 9:20am - Schedules finally posted, final hot line update made
- Sunday, various - four teams forfeited their game - 2 from Dynamo, 1 from FC Pride and 1 from Indianapolis Premier. One of our teams, a team from Columbus, one from Cleveland and one from Wisconsin affected.
Tim had an 8am game at Withrow and decided to stay between that site and Walnut Hills for the day. It allowed him the opportunity to talk with coaches from other teams a be the face of the club while Doug, Marc and I sorted out the schedules and communications. Nick was dispatched to get referee monies to the appropriate fields with the changes.
The rest of the day went without a hitch and quickly became boring for me, which was much appreciated. We didn't expect many college coaches, but they quickly came in droves and attended Sunday very well.
The 50-minute games were appropriate given the temperatures and the loss of fields. 94 of the 102 teams (4 teams that forfeited at the 4 opponents that were affected) played 210 of the 240 minutes originally scheduled. No team played less than 2 full games.
The men's weekend was much more relaxed. All games were played in full with very few delays. The weather, while still cold, cooperated. The greater challenge on the men's weekend is referees. We used many of the same referees that received high praise on the women's weekend. Unfortunately, managing the testosterone on the men's weekend is a greater challenge and one a few could not meet. That said, on the whole we received very good feedback on the officiating.
To summarize, the Ohio Elite College Showcase hosted 202 teams, used 11 turf fields, scheduled 303 games and approximately 100 referees, contracted 14 hotels and had almost 300 volunteers positions filled.
Thank you to everyone that helped make the 2009 Ohio Elite Showcase a success!
