Nation,
No Borders celebrated its 25 anniversary this weekend, and it seemed like this year might be the best run and best played tournament of all time.
With Rogers TV coverage of both men's and womens finals, newspapers and TV stations sending reporters to the field throughout the weekend, and an excellent field of men's and women's teams, the only thing that could go wrong was the weather. With our UPI fields, it would takes weeks of constant rain to cause trouble.
We got constant rain. Fields that were perfect mid week now had standing water on Friday. City fields were shut down. With teams already having flown in from Boston/New York/ Vermont/Halifax/Winnipeg things were bleak. We had to take care of these teams, the intrests of the tournament and the interest of the local league and field owners.
Well, thanks to the tremedous help of local league OCUA's management team, we were able to take the necessary steps to work with our field specialists, assess all fields and make sure we had a proper plan to move forward. Myself and two other schedulers (Kevin Korecki and Carl Sharpe) designed full schedules for different scenarios of fields until the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning. 42 teams is hard to plan out when you were already at virtual capcity with 19 fields.
Due to all of this work, we were able to get all Saturday games in with 6 less fields and one extra time slot. Teams helped ensure we preserved the fields as best we could. Pool play in men's and women's was excellent and showcase games in power pool play were entertaining for fans.
With 100 millimeters of rain during the weekend in the city, a day of field use and forecasted Thunder and Lightning called for Sunday, I had to make a very tough decision- Cancellation of all games, cancellation of all games except top 8 men's and womens.. or sit in a corner and cry.
For the sake of the No Borders history, we worked out a schedule for top men's and women's play and cancelled Sunday games for all else. Response from the fields and the party (Try being the TD at a party when you just said almost everyone's games are cancelled)
Yes, some rare people were major jerks all weekend, but that was about 1% of the all players. I was amazed by the support and response from teams regarding these decisions,. I am thankful. It made every hour without sleep spent trying to work out a way to ensure play worth it.
In summary, the tournament went on as best it could, my faith in ultimate teams and players is unchanged and healthy, and a huge thank you to everyone involved.
Next post focuses on the good stuff.
Steven
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4 comments:
Great job, Had tonnes of fun.
Thanks!
Having just TD'ed a tournament where the threat of rain was making me lose sleep, I would like to echo the previous post and tip my hat to yet another greatly run No Borders.
thanks!
sonia k
I think teams can understand that you cannot wreck your fields for many weeks (or years) for only one week-end of ultimate. We are sure you did the best you can. Good job, see you next year!
PP for Magma
Steven, I've never been a TD but have been a captain for a few years... that alone can sometimes feel like being a parent for 20+ kids. Being a TD must be like that times 20+ teams, plus a whole different set of responsibilities.
Props to you and everyone else who's ever been a TD, it's a helluva lot of work and largely a thankless task... taken for granted by a lot of players but without a TD there is no tournament.
I'll be sure to thank the TD at the next tourney I go to... recommend others do the same!
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