A Graduation and a Tournament

This past weekend, we traveled to Virginia to attend Cousin B's high school graduation.  Along the way, we stopped to visit some friends in North Carolina.  We hadn't seen them since September, so it was nice getting to spend a little time with them and catch up.  We spent the night at their house and continued on our way to Virginia Friday morning, arriving at my aunt's home shortly before 5:00.  She had gotten tickets for my dad, hubby, J, and Cousin M to attend the Yankees/Nationals game that evening, so they left for the metro station shortly after we arrived.  Much to J and my dad's delight, the Yankees beat the Nationals; in fact, they swept the entire three game series of the weekend.  Saturday morning Cousin B graduated, a fact which is hard to wrap my mind around.  She, cousin M, and J are all one year apart in age; she's 18, M is 17, and J is 16, all with February birthdays.  Her graduation marks the beginning of a three year period where we'll have a graduation every spring.  They've all grown up so fast.  I can still picture them as toddlers, ages, 1, 2, and 3 playing together.  They've always been extremely close and I hope that closeness continues as they move into adulthood.  I'm glad we made the trip up to share in B's special day.  I only wish we could have stayed longer.  J, hubby, and I came home Monday.  N and A stayed behind to go to Ocean City, New Jersey for the rest of the week with my parents and the rest of the family.

Which brings me to the second part of this post.  A recap of TP's tournament in Boca Raton.  Obviously we missed this one and from what I've since been told by Coach C, that's not a bad thing.  To call this tournament a disaster is putting it mildly.  The trouble began early in the week.  By Tuesday night, we still had no game schedule for a tournament that was supposed to begin Thursday.  Wednesday Coach C finally heard from the director.  The tournament start date had been pushed back to Saturday and the end date extended from Sunday to Monday.  Right away this caused problems, since everyone had planned their hotel stay around the original dates.  Several parents also had to work on Monday and were unable to stay past Sunday evening.  A call to the hotel solved the lodging issue.  The sales manager there was extremely understanding and wiling to do whatever he could to accommodate everyone.  Games were scheduled for Sat(two games) and Sunday, with Monday being dependent on how they did in those games.  However, by the end of the day Friday the schedule had been changed to one game Saturday, one Sunday, and one Monday morning.  Saturday afternoon I got a text from one of the other moms that they lost 5-2.  Then Sunday morning, I texted  Coach C and told him to be sure to let us know how that mornings game went.  He replied that the game had now been moved to 6:00 in the evening and a couple of our players were going to have to leave, which left the team severely short staffed.  That's when the fun really began.  Following that game I got a phone call from Coach C and he was seriously riled up at the tournament director.  The man had apparently been misrepresenting the tournament to everyone.  It was supposed to have been held at Florida Atlantic University, but had been moved to some high school fields.  Why?  The director owes FAU money from a previous tournament.  Needless to say they weren't allowing the use of their fields.  After Sunday evenings game, the director again tried changing the remaining game schedule.  By that point, Coach C was fed up and began questioning him as to why all these changes were necessary.  He tried explaining that players were having to leave due to parents having work and other obligations.  The director's response?  He threw TP out of the tournament.   From what Coach C told me, other teams were having the same issues with this director.  If you want my opinion, I think he's shady and is pocketing the entry fees.  Each team paid a pretty heft entry fee, yet many teams never played the minimum of guaranteed games.  My guess is he was inventing reasons to cancel games so he didn't have to pay the field fees and pocketing the money instead.  I would also wonder if the games were ever actually booked to begin with.    The very idea of this guy profiting off the backs of young players makes my blood boil.  We all know there is craziness and dishonesty in youth sports unfortunately.  But this level of corruption is a new low.  He misrepresented the tournament from the start by affiliating it with FAU, and likely has pocketed money from numerous teams.  I don't know if anything can be done to stop this guy.  But you can bet that Coach C and every TP parent will be certain to tell this story to anyone who might be considering registering a team for any tournament being run by this jackass.        

So what's next for TP?  We've decided to chalk this tournament up to crazy and move onto the biggest, best tournament of the summer.  We leave Friday to travel down to Jupiter for the USA baseball 17U East Championships.  Seven game guarantee, scout test day, and an opportunity for our boys to really shine.  I'll update from the road for this one since there will be a lot going on.  And let's hope TP brings home the trophy at the end!