Nothing pressing in this week's email, just a few housekeeping items and an idea to bounce off you all for next spring:

1. Games/Make Up Games – No Games this Weekend for the Easter Break, please remember to make up any cancelled games from the last couple of weeks and for the game winners at the JV/V level, to post your results and a picture of the game card to the website as soon as the game ends (if its a tie the home team should post).  If you don't post to the website, you won't get credit for the win and that will impact your ability to qualify for the postseason.  Here is a link to the posting site-  https://pittdsl.org/report-score/

2. DSL Tournament – As a reminder, next Friday, April 15th, registration for the DSL Developmental and Girl JV/V Tournament will open.  For Developmental it is co-ed and is either 5v5 (for first and second grade) or 7v7 (for third and fourth grade).  For the All Girls JV/V it is 5v5.  Registration is open until Friday May 5th, but it is first come first serve and as many of our brackets had 16 teams, I expect some to fill up fairly quickly.  Please coordinate your registrations with your soccer coordinator and send them to me in one email so I don't get registrations for the same team from multiple people and double count them.

3. Updated contact list – another week, another updated contact list – This one reflects changes to the BTA Varsity Coach in the 7's league

4. Thoughts for Next Spring – As you have all witnessed this season, as well as previous seasons, trying to get games in early in the season is a challenge at best.  In week 1 no school that played on grass fields were able to get games in.  In Week 2, only one school was able to play on grass fields.  As a scheduler, this is tough situation–  I can't push the season up earlier and I can’t push the season back any further without shortening the season or making an already jammed pack schedule even worse, and the consensus from talking to people is that they think our season is already too short compared to other diocese sports and aren't interested in shortening it more.  

So that leaves us in our current situation of scheduling games for late March/early April knowing that there is a good chance those games will need to be rescheduled.  We do try to get turf fields utilized in the early part of our season as much as possible, but most schools play on grass.  In assessing this situation over a few beverages last friday evening as the rains came down, I realized that if we can't control the weather, and if shortening the season or backloading the season weren't ideal options, perhaps we can revisit where we play some of our games early in the season.  Specifically, the idea that I wanted to float by you all is what if we considered having some of our week 1 (and possibly week 2) games on a turf field?  My thought would be that for any school that was interested I can leverage our numbers and our contacts to rent some turf fields for a day or two.  I can have one field set up for 1/2 grade games and one field set up for 3/4 grade games and, if we wanted, either of those fields could be used for JV/V games.  Market rates for field rental vary a bit, from $75 an hour to $500 an hour, but I think I can easily get some ideal setups in the $100-150 range per hour.  At the JV/V level we'd pretty much have one field per one game for around 1 hour.  At the 3/4 grade I can try to organize it so up to 3 games happen simultaneously and at the 1/2 grade level I can try to organize it so up to 4 or 5 five games happen simultaneously.  We would take those costs and divide them up amongst the home teams playing (I wouldn't charge any premium on the fields, but the costs would have to be paid by the home field teams since they aren't free, it could result in getting the developmental games in at a cost of $25-50 a game with some luck). Home team would also be responsible for paying for refs and at the developmental level you can bring your own refs or I could arrange to have some there and you can pay them. I wouldn't do this all season, just in week 1 or 2, and no one is mandated to use it, it just adds a little more certainty and avoids the inconvenience of having to reschedule.  Aside from the cost, some of the negatives are you'd lose one truly “home” game since you'd be playing at another field.  The benefits though would be having some certainty with the early season games and avoiding the hassle of having to make up games.

Also, if anyone has a line on free turf fields that we could use for the same purposes for a day or two, that would be even better.  I'm just looking for a way to help you all get your games in because I know how frustrating it is to have to try to fit the reschedules in.  Think on this and let me know your thoughts.  No action needed on this now, but I do think it's worth looking into for next spring.  It probably comes down to whether the cost and inconvenience of playing on another turf field early in the season outweighs the inconvenience of having to reschedule games later in the spring.  This doesn't affect me as much as it affects you all, but if you think It could be helpful, I am willing to help coordinate.

Thanks, and best wishes to you and your families for a blessed easter.

Rob