Tournament Suggestions for Next Year

[KnoxVegas]

Entering them into the system rather than on notecards stuffed in Ethan's pack. (ha ha! who said bush-league? That's how the NFL does it!)

Dave,
I filled out the sheets when the game was over, what is done with the stats after that is not up to me. If you want to take shots at my profession, please PM me or better yet call me, rather than taking shots on this board.

And for true accuracy, I suggest that anyone keeping stats during the game spend some time with the rule book. I like the idea of the lap top, but I still think you need a spotter.

[Pinball]

Kind of a slap in the face that A div teams had locker rooms for the semi-final games and the B Div teams did not.

Great Tourney though, 1000 times better then last year.

[bhsvideodad]

I thought at the end of the championship games, it would have been good to acknowledge the accomplishment of the runner ups, at least by the announcer.

Overall, I thought the tournament was great. The audience for the finals was smaller than the semis and this just reflects that MCLA is of greatest interest to the the fans that are a part of the MCLA family. By Saturday, many of the team fans were on their way home. As lacrosse grows across the nation, I think the fan base will grow. If the video from the semi and finals can be distributed this will help.

The website and efforts by Sonny and his staff were a great addition.

bhsvideodad

[MountaineerLax]

Ethan,

Relax... I was kidding.

Your system of keeping stats is great. I was only commenting on the fact that there was no system setup for your stats after you left the table.

It was not an insult towards you or your occupation.

The laptop is already there - the spotters are already there - why not utilize that and make it accessible to coaches especially?

[fsusg]

The laptop is already there - the spotters are already there - why not utilize that and make it accessible to coaches especially?

I believe the program BYU and CSU use is Stat Crew/The Automated Scorebook. Stat Crew is definitely an easy program to learn and comes in handy with stats. You can have overall game stats as well as cumulative stats for the tournament (as long as the game files are all stored in one location) and create HTML box scores.

There are a couple of key things that would have to be done. One would be to make sure all the statisticians are comfortable doing in-game stats. With other sports I've worked with, Stat Crew is easy once you know the quick keys and, if needed (which lacrosse would), a good spotter that knows the game. You can manually enter in stats after the game, but that would be extremely time-consuming. One way to get statisticians familiar with in-game stats is to have them watch a VHS or DVD of a game and have them stat the game (you can stop the film if you make a mistake or are searching for the right key). However, when would this training be available? With most of the staff arriving at various times the day before the tournament starts, the earliest time the training could take place would be a couple of hours before the first games....

Another thing would be making sure the rosters in the computer match the jersey numbers the players are wearing on the field (i.e. if #25 on the roster is John Doe, but on the field John Doe is wearing #20). The program recognizes what number is on the roster and the player's name that is with that number, but there are a couple of ways to get around that situation (the spotter calling #25 instead of #20, making the adjustment in the stored roster). The spotter and the statistician would have to be on top of that change, especially if #20 is Jim Smith in the stored roster.

I think this would be a great program to use for future tournaments. Maybe someone from BYU, CSU, or Michigan could add something about their usage with Stat Crew/The Automated Scorebook...I'm most familiar with the program with several other sports, but the two things I described above were just stuff that I ran into this year.

[onpoint]

I recommended that the Dallas people get Statcrew last year, but they didn't really want to make the investment. Besides the ability to keep all tournament stats in one easy place and keep historical records of tournament games from now until eternity, it also allows users to automatically upload running stats to the web (a la Michigan). For less than $500, I think this is a no-brainer, but apparently, not enough. The stats at this year's tourney did not have goalie saves or groundballs, or really anything else besides goals and assists.

In Vail, we use Statcrew (not even to its full capabilities) and it's a great and easy way to keep detailed stats. You need three people to run a good table. A stats person; a caller; and a timekeeper. From what I saw in Dallas this year, there are people to do these jobs.

[bste_lax]

I was an online/live stats person this year so I can chime in on this.

The program we used does have a place for quarter stats for ground balls, saves and shots. I know for myself and after talking to the other people who did the same job as me, we did at the beginning get the official stats from the "Ethan's" at the table for each quarter and inserted them into the system. But then we noticed they were not showing up anywhere on the in-game page so we stopped collecting it.

For instance, if you look back through one of the game threads for the Northeastern/UCSB game, you can see I even took time to post halftime stats on the message board. I also know Danny posted quarter by quarter stats for whatever semifinal game he did.

Sonny/Dan already have asked the crews for our advice for next year and I know one thing I brought up was allowing this data to be shown on the page. It's just a matter for whoever did the original programming for this system (or someone new) to add it to the site which I think can be done somewhat easily.

Statcrew would be nice but the system they currently have is not too shabby either for how basic it is, it just needs to be implemented better by a programmer and the people who are working at the table between the online stats guy and collecting the info from the official stats keeper at each table.

[bste_lax]

Another thing, teams need to make sure they have up-to-date rosters on the MCLA.us site. This stat program took the roster info off that and there were a lot of errors including wrong numbers and players missing. It is hard to give someone a goal when they are not listed in the database.

[Daniel Morris]

We are looking hard at StatsCrew for next year. We needed to make sure we came in under budget for this tournament and just getting PHP squared away was a monster of a task. But for coming years, JP, myself, and I think even Sonny believe StatsCrew would be a worthwhile investment.

[Sonny]

StatCrew is probably the answer.....

However, as outlined above, a huge issue is accurate roster information. The roster information on MCLA.us is incorrect way too often! And that is problematic on many different levels:
Live Statistical Game Reporting
Reporters trying to write articles
Audio radio broadcasts
Video (TV) broadcasts
Tournament Staff Trying to Pull together the tournament program
etc....

We shouldn't be fielding multiple e-mails through out the week from parents and fans back at home saying No. 3 is Mike Smith (not John Jones). And I shouldn't have to "continually massage the roster data" up to faceoff when trying to get ready for a radio broadcast in the press box.

[Daniel Morris]

StatCrew is probably the answer.....

However, as outlined above, a huge issue is accurate roster information. The roster information on MCLA.us is incorrect way too often! And that is problematic on many different levels:
Live Statistical Game Reporting
Reporters trying to write articles
Audio radio broadcasts
Video (TV) broadcasts
Tournament Staff Trying to Pull together the tournament program
etc....

We shouldn't be fielding multiple e-mails through out the week from parents and fans back at home saying No. 3 is Mike Smith (not John Jones). And I shouldn't have to "continually massage the roster data" up to faceoff when trying to get ready for a radio broadcast in the press box.

I am with Sonny on this. For all the suggestions I have seen regarding the tournament, not one was "Teams really need to get their act together." Mind you, some programs are top notch, they are responsive, they have rosers posted correctly and they if there are changes, have them made quickly, etc. But for every one team that is on the ball, two are a mess (speaking of teams that had tournament responsibilties), of those, two out of every three programs happaned to be Division B teams (not condemming Div. B, but those are the facts). Take a look at the tourament program for instance. See all those sections where info was blank, or a photo wasn't submitted? Or where players' numbers were wrong or there were people listed that had quit the team? Those things are on the teams themselves.

Everyone was sent roster requests, then they were sent pages to proof, there were numerous emails and requests, there were weeks to get this done in some cases, less time for others, but eveyone was provided the chances to make corrections/additions/changes. It still doesn't happen. So yes, we would love StatCrew, but if the rosters we are working with are incorrect, it will still result in stats being attributed to the wrong players.

We can't hand hold all 28 teams at the tournament. We don't have a staff bigger than 10 people pre-tournament, and none of us are full time. I think four of us single-handedly put together the program, and we waited until the final minutes hoping we would hear back from some of the teams. I made myself available to any coach or player rep that wanted to contact me. I had multiple conversations with Charlie Mark, Jason Lamb, Joe Kerwin, Mickey-Miles, and other coaches and assistants who cared enough to prepare their teams in a professional manner. What are the suggestions for the others? How should we handle teams that can't even verify a roster? Or don't want take a photo for the tournament program. We can only do so much in organizing the tournament. It can look as good as NCAA Championship weekend, but if teams aren't willing to improve and take those steps along with the league, we are always going to be held back. You are only as strong as your weakest link.

[Danny Hogan]

i could be wrong, but i do believe in previous years, the quarter stats did spit out somewhere on the live box-score. included shots/saves/gbs/faceoffs. the current system we have would be fine if the all the input turns to published output.

[MountaineerLax]

Take a look at the tourament program for instance. See all those sections where info was blank, or a photo wasn't submitted?

Question... in this year's program if a team didn't submit a photo it simply said "photo not submitted". Why?

In years past photos were placed in that spot of at least a couple of the players... at least something to fill the spot. This year it was just left blank.

Sure it reflects the team and their neglecting responsibilities - but it also reflects the league; as it is a product of the league.

Suggestion - no more blank spots. At least use a couple game photos like it has been done in the past.

[PigPen]

There was no publicity for the vent in the local media. A friend of mine who lives across the street from the stadium said that he hadn't heard anything about it and would have went if he knew about it. As for the club comment. That is partially, but not entirely true. I think the local kids know about the CSUs, and BYUs, etc, but like everywhere else, but especially in Dallas at the high school level there's seems to be more snobbery about DI vs. MCLA. This comes from the coaches, not the kids. Most of these coaches know the sport and are from the East Coast and of course have that bias. I am sure that is not the message that the North TX chapter of USL is sending. So-if we could get the word out at the grassroots level, with a couple of radio spots or local media coverage, I am sure that attendence will increase. Here's an idea-free entry, but pay to park and concessions. Also have the local USL chapter really hit the local scholstic programs early and hard during the meat of the spring season and spread the word. Get a company (Warrior, STX) to bring a big name celebrity for the semis for Friday night. Like the Kyle Harrison last year (which really needs to be hyped-not like last year where the vast majority of kids were like wow that's a treat-didn't know he was here, they were also still in school at the time).

Have some of the MCLA teams give a break out sessions for rising juniors and their parents about the MCLA and how recruiting works. That'll definitely hook them (of course this would probably best be done on the rest day, or by coaches whose teams have already been eliminated. The Verizon club looked like a nice venue for that. It's money-but an idea-see if Warrior would set up something like they used to for MLL games-an inflatible play area for the kids and an adult only section. Make it more of celebration. Get a local BBQ place to sponsor a telegate contest with prizes-prizes worth having some local people actual set up and tailgate. Hit the local youth soccer clubs-they will be some crossover interest. Cross market with FC Dallas-have the players out for training (if theri schedule allows) and have them watch one of the games on Weds.

Here's the big one. The MCLA needs to set up with a big time travel agency and set up packages for parents and general fans and advertise it. I think if people saw that they could fly in on Friday afternoon and leave Sunday morning for a good deal. The average lax junkie might take that offer. The MCLA has to target the 22-35 demographic, that onced played in the league and has the money and desire to come back see this type of ball. If you take the leg work out of setting up the travel, more people might come. You'll never get the hard core purist snobs-they'll be at the NCAA quarters.

Wow that could be my longest post ever-but I was insprired after consuming some adult frosty beverages. I also say we have a halftime show. Dan can do the Macarena at the X and get the whole crowd to join in. Better yet we could get Mosh to do it.

[Texas Logger]

Watching the FC Dallas-LA Galaxy game tonight, PHP replaced the areas of their pitch where the grass got destroyed by lacrosse games (face-off x and the creases).

They cut out those areas and re-sodded them. That might give cause for them to be a little hesitant in the future.