Friday June 7, 2013

Spring NEBAS Coaches, Managers and Town Contacts,

I feel that we need to send out the following message to everyone. Please do not forfeit unplayed games.

When we outlined a 10 game NEBAS Spring season it was done to allow the players in our league to enjoy a Spring  NEBAS Season that would give them the most number of games against superior competition. The weather this season was not as accommodating as we would have liked where we lost at least 3 weeks of play on Sundays, maybe not in every region where our teams are but in enough of them to have an effect on many of the games in our league.

We try to begin each Spring season at least a few weeks before local Rec Leagues or Little Leagues begin to give the travel player a head start because once his/her town season begins there will be at least another 2 days per week of a commitment.

We are now at a point where Town Rec Leagues are in full swing with regular season games, their own makeup games and town playoffs.

Nearly every makeup game for Spring  NEBAS / Bergen All Stars , yesterday, was either canceled before the game began or canceled after the game began and there will be no games played today as well. Many of the towns have taken the pressure off of coaches and have already closed their fields/parks for tomorrow, and some of the low lying areas will not be ready for Sunday either.

The goal/mission statement of our league is to get games played. A travel league should not be a league that the results are negotiated to a forfeit because of a conflict on a replay OR because there are too many games to be made up. I cannot tell any of you what to do but can only make a suggestion. Each of you gives up your time to your players and associations selflessly and should be commended for that. The many veteran coaches who have been doing this for years get those lost games played the very next week so they do not back up and even those coaches ran out of time this year because of our weather and many non games related reasons.

We are extending the day to get all of your Spring regular season games in until Saturday June 15. Please try your best to get your full slate of games in that were originally scheduled. We do not want people to feel the pressure to get games in, coaches feeling they have to forfeit a game to accommodate a team who is trying to get into the playoffs. This is about playing the games. I do not think there is a coach in the league who does not have at least 1 game to be replayed and some as many as 5 games to be played. Please play these games, do not forfeit them.  A playoff this year is simply not going to work this year. I am sure some of you will agree and some of you will not. I do believe the decision will best benefit the league and the players in it.  You may not get ALL of your games unplayed in, but you will get some of them in. For our older players, in grades 6, 7 and 8 we do not want players to have to choose between a game and a final exam, a game and family graduation party. The 2013 Summer NEBAS  season begins on June 17 and if you are in another league or Williamsport you are also beginning then. Please do your utmost to get whatever games you can get in between now and June 16. As always thank you for your support of Spring  NEBAS / Bergen All Stars. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email or call.

Moving forward, Spring  NEBAS Fall 2013 season and Spring  NEBAS Spring 2014 season and all future NEBAS seasons moving forward will have an 8 game regular season with 2 weeks built in for makeup games which will be better and easier for you. We do not want Spring or Fall  NEBAS/Bergen All Stars to be an annoyance or a burden to you or your players but more so something to look forward to. Overall this will be better for everyone.

Respectfully,

Peter Soumas

Spring NEBAS Trustee

Summer NEBAS Trustee

Fall NEBAS Trustee

Bergen All Stars Board of Trustees

NEBAS Announcement, June 7, 2013

Related articles

• 2013 Summer Updates NEBAS /Bergen All Stars (bergenallstars.wordpress.com)