June 8th, 2016
TSSA Parents and players,
We have received several emails and calls over the last 72 hours regarding the decisions we made with
respect to the D2 State Cup and postponement of the D1 State Cup. As a result, we felt it was
important to address these matters in an open letter.
Unfortunately, the weather last weekend did not allow the tournament to be completed as planned.
Prior to the event, we evaluated the weekend weather with a local meteorologist. The forecast at that
time called for intermittent scattered rain and thunderstorms. As the day progressed Friday, the
forecast was updated to predict rain on Saturday, but still no firm prediction on how much rain would
fall.
We will address some of the inquiries we received:
1. Why didn't you have a contingency plan in place to move the games elsewhere across
the city?
The contingency plan for the mid-state area with respect to our state tournament presents many
challenges. Our state only has 2 complexes capable of hosting the volume of games for our events;
Siegel Park in Murfreesboro and Mike Rose in Memphis. Siegel Park is the logical complex due to its
geographic location. We have held our events at Mike Rose soccer complex. It is not the most ideal
geographic location, especially for our members in the easts part of the state. However, Mike Rose
will continue to be considered for all future events.
When the rain came Saturday morning we were not sure what decision the Murfreesboro City Parks
Department would give us. The Parks Department makes the final decision as to field closures and/or
playability.
Summary of Contingency Planning prior to the State Cup weekend:
A) If we had access to any of the fields at Siegel Park we would shorten the halves and continue as
close to the original schedule as possible. This included logistics involving fields with lights.
B) If the Parks Department closed the park, we evaluated what turf fields we had access to and how
many we needed to complete the remaining games. There are 8 turf fields in the mid-state area
(Vanderbilt University, Father Ryan, Franklin Road Academy, Ensworth, MBA, Harpeth Hall, Pope
John Paul II, and Rose Park). Our staff has a significant experience with these facilities for other TSSA
events (ODP, state tournaments, state league, adult events). We know which of these locations we can
and cannot access. At best, we had access to 4 turf fields. There were approximately 100 games left to
be played
between D1 and D2. Logistically, we could not play 25 games per field (with 20 minute halves) and
complete the remaining schedule for both or either division.
As it relates to other parks with soccer fields, Downs Blvd. complex in Franklin, Crockett Park in
Brentwood, Moss Wright Park in Goodlettsville, and Ted Rhodes Park in Nashville were not available
to us.
Summary of Events at State Cup:
At noon on Saturday, we were told a decision would be handed down to us at 2pm. We began to
discuss the importance of games and where we needed to place priority if we lost the complex
completely. This initiated our discussion of moving D1 State Cup to the following weekend. We have
had many comments suggesting we valued the D1 play over D2 and that's why they will get to play full
games.
Rationale for postponing the D1 State Cup to the following weekend:
There are two United States Youth Soccer (USYS) Regional Tournaments scheduled in the month of
June, President's Cup (D2) and Southern Regionals (D1). TN Soccer is required to register the teams
who will represent TN in each of these tournaments. Region III provides a deadline to register teams
for each of these tournaments. The deadline for President' Cup (D2) was June 7th, 2016 with a roster
freeze of June 1oth, 2016. The deadline for Southern Regionals (D1) is Monday, June 13th,
2016. Given that we had an additional week before the Southern Regional's (D1) deadline, we decided
to delay the D1 tournament until next weekend.
After making the decision to move D1 State Cup, we began to work on how we could complete the
remaining 42 D2 games (32 pool games and 10 knockout round games). We evaluated the feasibility
of moving the 32 pool games to the 4 turf fields on Saturday. Baring no further weather delays or
injuries, we needed 7 hours per field to complete these games (20 minute halves). By the time we
could get the logistics, teams, and referees to their fields, kickoff could not begin before 4:00 pm.
Baring no delays, the final game would end at 11:00 p.m. We also had to consider the unpredictable
weather and not being able to access some of the turf fields beyond a certain time due to
neighborhood restrictions. In hindsight, we now know the correct decision was made based on the
weather Saturday night and we stand by our decision.
Other considerations:
If there was a break in the weather for Sunday afternoon, could we continue the tournament Sunday
with the completion of the 32 pool games and move semi-finals and finals to Monday? The difficulty
in this was not being able to predict the weather and having access to Siegel Park on Monday. We also
verified that we would not have an adequate number and appropriate grade level referees for games to
be played on Monday. The last factor in our decision not to play on Monday included losing access to
two (2) of our turf fields on Sunday as those schools do not allow any outside athletic events on
Sunday.
After weighing all of the options from contingency planning, we were left with 2 options:
1. Coin toss
2. Penalty Kicks (PKs).
Faced with this decision we agreed, coaches would rather let the players, keepers, the goal, and the
ball be involved in winning and losing. At the highest level in the world when games can't be
completed, PK’s are the standard to complete the game.
2. Why don't you play the event earlier in the year:
Dates for the D2 Tournament. From a scheduling perspective, the spring season presents the
greatest challenge for state league games and the state tournament due to spring breaks, proms,
graduations and rain. Some age groups finish their SL games earlier in the spring season than
others. Coaches have all stated the preference to have state events at the end of the season when their
team is best prepared. All of these factors minimize our scheduling options for the D2 State
Tournament given the President’s Cup registration deadlines. Region 3 reserves the right to levy
heavy fines on TSSA and our teams if we do not have our teams in on time. This is the same for D1 as
well. There has been resistance from the membership to schedule the State Cup on Memorial Day
weekend. We are strongly considering holding State Cups on Memorial Day weekend going forward
to allow for a back-up weekend.
3. Why were games played in lightning Friday night if fields were deemed unplayable
and unsafe Saturday? Is lightning safe?
We have a lightning monitoring system as do the trainers. We followed the storm and the lightning
tracker on the radar and when within range, we suspended play. We followed that protocol all night
Friday night and monitored the situation closely. The rain that fell Friday night added to the previous
rain in the week. The 4-day total rainfall as of Sunday morning was 4.68 inches. There are few
complexes that will allow play on fields after this amount rain. Player safety is one of our chief
concerns and to suggest otherwise is simply unjust and incorrect.
4. Why don't we hold the tournament in Gatlinburg on their turf fields?
Unfortunately, the number of fields in Gatlinburg cannot support the volume of games to be played.
In addition, the size of those fields do not meet the US Soccer mandates for field size relative to age
group. We will consider the option of Gatlinburg going forward if we deem it possible for a smaller
number of teams, but only a few fields meet the minimum field size needed.
5. Other Issues
There were other specific in-game issues we have dealt with as well and we can look at those decisions
moving forward. Our rules in black and white must be followed and they were deemed sufficient by
our technical committee of coaches. We will address some of the situations that arose and determine
if rule changes during the event can, or need to be made.
We certainly understand and acknowledge the hard work, time, and commitment each player makes
for their team. We also understand the time and financial commitment parents make for recreational
and competitive soccer.
Respectfully,
TSSA Staff and Board of Directors