Good evening everyone,

1. Memorial Wristbands.  Our Lady of Fatima will be ordering wristbands to wear the rest of their season to wear in Samantha Persuitte’s memory.  If anyone else would like to order wristbands for your players/coaches to wear during this season’s games, please reach out to Mike Grayson at [email protected] to coordinate your school’s order.  I have attached an image of the design for your reference and the cost is $2 per wristband.
   
2. Developmental Tournament/All Girls JV/V Tournament.  This year’s DSL Developmental Tournament (Grades 1-4) and All Girls JV/Varsity Tournament will take place on Saturday, May 21st.  The Tournament will again be held at No Off Season in Russellton PA.  Registration opens on April 21st and closes on May 6th and it is on a first come, first serve basis.  Any registrations received after May 6th are considered late and depending on where we are at creating the event’s schedule, might not be accepted.When registering, the Soccer Coordinator or Athletic Director for each school should let me know how many teams total they are registering, the grade brackets (We have brackets for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade (and most years 1/2 and 3/4 combined grades) and JV Girls and Varsity Girls (but depending on numbers those JV/V Girls brackets might have to be combined), and the names of the coaches.  Please do not have individual coaches register their team as it makes it difficult to organize and could result in teams being entered twice (once by the coach and once by the coordinator).  I’ll be travelling the first week of registration so please email me all registrations; that will allow me to easily timestamp each entry when received so I can better adhere to the first come, first serve policy.Each grade bracket is capped at a maximum of 16 teams. We had a great response for spring teams registering in our league for the regular season this year so there is a chance that we fill up in several age brackets for this tournament.    Accordingly, and in anticipation that we may have more teams interested in the tournament than spots available, for the first week of registration, (April 21-28), preference will be given to the schools/teams that are currently registered for the the Spring 22 Season, (so if your school has 2 first grade teams and you register 3 for the tournament on April 22, I will would hold those first two spots for you until April 29, and then on/after April 29th, if that first grade bracket has capacity, I’d enter the third team).

   Registration fees continue to be $100 per team entered and are payable the day of the tournament.  I will circulate the rules of the venue and the tournament at a later date, but there will be two big changes this year — First, due to the number and size of fields and general space limitations, no school tents are permitted, we will be using almost all available field space to play our matches on so other than the registration tent we won’t have room for any other ones.  Second, due to the issues we had with people leaving food on the field last fall, no food is permitted on the fields.  There will be plenty of places to eat outside of the fenced in fields and concessions will be available.

3. Cancellations and Reschedules.  As you all know, these first few weeks have not been kind to us weather-wise.  Safety is paramount, so it is understandable that so many cancellations have occurred.  I would like to remind everyone of the correct cancellation procedures as some coaches are not following them.  They are below (cut and pasted from my 3/24 email), note that at the JV/Varsity level it is not adequate to just let the opposing coach know of the cancellation.  You need to notify Chuck Pruss and myself as well (and if it’s less than 48 hours notice Chuck must be called or texted to ensure that he receives it).  If these guidelines are not followed and the referees show up for a match, the home team is responsible for paying the referee fees for that day even if the game is not played.Also, with respect to reschedules, those should be made within 1 week of the original date of the game.  Given that weeks 1, 2 and 3 of our season were pretty much a wash, the schedule for remakes is going to get very busy, very quickly.  And as a reminder, if games are not played they won’t count for standings at the end of the season for JV and Varsity and those teams will be at a disadvantage for qualifying for playoffs– there are no pro-rated standing determinations.  If a game isn’t played both teams would likely get a “0” point entry for standings for that game.  There is an expectation that both teams will work in good faith with one another to determine reschedule games and then let Chuck and me know if the dates/times of the rematch and then Chuck will confirm referee availability.  If there are problems between the two teams in selecting a date, feel free to involve me in the discussion.  Finally, depending on the circumstances, I reserve the right to award forfeit wins/losses if one team is not working in good faith for the reschedule.  Forfeit wins and forfeit losses are scored at a +2 and -2 respectively for standing points.
   Excerpted from my 3/24 email:
   “Cancellation protocol.  ***
   Developmental League – If you have determined that a game needs to be cancelled please reach out to the opposing coach ASAP.  If the cancellation is due to field conditions and the call is being made on game day be cognizant of the fact that between early arrivals and travel time, all such calls should be made as early in the day as possible and the opposing team should be given at least two hours notice (but preferably much more).  Home team should also remember to notify the referees and if you are using the PIAA referees provided by Chuck for developmental games, see the applicable comments on referee notice below in the JV/Varsity section. My contact information, Chuck’s contact information, and the coaches contact information are all contained in the attachment.
   JV/Varsity Games — If you have determined that a game needs to be cancelled please reach out to the opposing coach ASAP.  If the cancellation is due to field conditions and the call is being made on game day be cognizant of the fact that between early arrivals and travel time, all such calls should be made as early in the day as possible and the opposing team should be given at least two hours notice (but preferably much more).  If the cancellation is more than 48 hours in advance the Home team should notify Chuck Pruss by email.  If the cancellation is less than 48 hours in advance you should also text/call Chuck Pruss.  In both instances Chuck will respond and confirm cancellation.  Please note though that if the notice for cancellation is too short or if you don’t get an acknowledgment from Chuck and the referees aren’t given adequate notice, the home team may still be responsible for the referee fees for the scheduled games.  If you are in a jam and aren’t getting responses I can be reached via cell.  My contact information, Chuck’s contact information, and the coaches contact information are all contained in the attachment.” 

4. Updated Contact information.  Please see attached for a further revised updated contact information sheet.  The attachment reflects corrections to the Second Grade North Bracket that involve the St. Kilian 2nd grade Black and Green teams and the Holy Cross team.