Emphasis here: Girls Class AA Tournament organizers did precisely the right thing, spot on, in cancelling Tuesday's round-robin play and seeding the playoffs the way they did.
Better that than to send the teams and players splishing and splashing through the rain and goo, where hamstrings and ankles should never roam.
No one method of seeding will please everybody, even if all the pool-play matches are complete.
Here's hoping for beautiful weather the rest of the week (forecasts call for it) and exciting playoff action. That's what it's about. And if we get all that, the memories of rainy days and Mondays and Tuesdays will long be forgotten.
Elsewhere, one defending champion down as Derek Becker and Osan American's cadre of freshmen took down E.J. King in the Boys Class A Tournament quarterfinals.
Kadena 1, Yokota 0. Kubasaki 1, CAJ 0. A Boys Class AA Final Four preview, Ornauer shouted.
Playoff time is here. Let's get it on!
Outstanding Match
Just wanted to comment on what a pleasure it was to watch the Kinnick-Kadena Girls match on Monday. It was the most physical and hard fought game of the AA tournament so far, but at the same time a very clean match. The girls from both teams left it all on the field...and settled it on the field. There was great sportsmanship both before and after the match, and both teams left the field realizing that while Kadena in general had the better run of play and ultimately emerged the victor, if a few lucky breaks had gone the other way, the 2-1 final score could very easily have also gone the other way. The other great thing about the match was that there were no individual players dominating the match as in days gone by, but rather two total team efforts. Bravo Zulu to the players and coaches of both teams, and thanks for putting on such a great show for the fans!
Catch 22
So what you're saying is that the folks at Iwakuni and Kadena made poor choices to play day 1?
[good] Weather or not...
...Tournaments on a tight game schedule should really try to stick to the agenda unless the actual weather itself can hurt players [i.e. lightning, hail, yellow dust, etc]
That's great if the weather cooperates with the tournament for the rest of the week. But even so, players at FE should keep playing even if it's raining... in my opinion. We can't do anything about the weather and yet at players' regular seasons and home conferences [KAIAC, etc.] we play on, unless there's thunder and lightning [for obvious safety hazards]. I mean at KAIAC this year, I heard the first afternoon was supposedly played on with HAIL... Two years ago Class A Far East was played on while it was raining more when the fields were already flooded.
It would be a little unfair to rob the participants of all the game-time they are supposed to get/earn due to fear of some slip and slide. Besides, those games can be some of the most memorable x)
Weather and playing
This is total arm chair post and I don't know what the conditions of the fields, but by noon Yokota had partly cloudy/sunny skies and they lasted all day and night. So last night I went over to the high school in hope that the games would be on, but no games...hummm...makes you wonder about the thought process.
Nail Biter
Yokota just beat Guam on PK's, what a good game. They better step their game up or Kadena is going to give them a royal butt-whooping in a few hours!
The conditions were pretty
The conditions were pretty awful when we checked. There was standing water all over the place, the goal areas were reduced to mud pits, and it seemed pretty clear that any attempt to play would have put the teams at risk of injury. It may have been okay later that afternoon, but considering the logistic process involved in getting all the teams to and from the fields, I doubt that would have been possible anyway.