Back in July, Mark wrote about the tournament system here in Northern California and then today (8/23), I wrote over on the ning community site in the Rookie Coach forum   ” ….we are in planning stages now for between 12 and 15 first level FLL Tournaments (we have a few already confirmed but are holding off putting them on the gofll site) …. “

Generally, we have published dates for tournaments after the vast majority (all but one or two) are confirmed, typically in September.   Why?

Waiting to publish the set of tournaments gives coaches and teams good visibility on all of their options before they start figuring out which one(s) will work for their schedules, location, etc.    Most coaches start this conversation with their teams (and team parents) typically sometime around mid to late September.

 

Also, we open FLL tournament registration AFTER FLL team registration closes, so all teams have equal opportunity for a specific tournament “slot”. Tournament registration typically opens in early October.

Previously, publishing the early few tournaments led people to the wrong conclusion that the list was complete and final versus a work in progress.

 

Since all first level tournaments will be in November, the overwhelming majority will be either the weekend of the 14th/15th or the 21st/22nd. We to hope to have at least one during the weekend of November 7th/8th as well as at least one on November 28th/29th. We are open to scheduling a “weekday” afternoon tournament – we have a willing group at the SF Randall Museum – if we get  12 teams interested in this option (Email if you are).

We expect most 2008 tournament sites to happen in the same location this year just earlier – but we already know of 2 “first level” tournaments (San Ramon and Valley Christian) that won’t be.  We have some new sites coming as well…  

We will look this week to see what “tentative” info that could be published on the gofll event reg site.

We are open to feedback.   I will publish a blog post on this topic over on the ning site so that we have a “place” for comments and interaction.