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Will someone explain this crazy scheduling
process! It just seems nuts doesn't it. Why is the schedule available only at the last minute? It's frustrating for all of us. Most other sports are able to make schedules available weeks in advance. Why can't Midlakes Water Polo work the same way? Well, the answer is "it could". Last minute scheduling has provided a way to insure that every last kid that may want to play gets a chance, and that coaches get a chance to see their players before we actually seed the teams to set up the schedule. Participation has always been a guiding principle for Midlakes WP. This year we had several coaches at the last minute discover that they had enough players for two teams in a given age group. Breaking out the teams with 20+ kids makes for about double the playing time per each child. We also had kids play that otherwise could not because some clubs decided to combine for better playing opportunities, but forfeit the ability to progress in the tournament. All of these things get more kids in the water, and each for a greater amount of time. Still, it forces us into the position of delivering the schedule on Wednesday prior to Thursday morning games. This works if everyone is aware of this process and they check the website/email before bed Wednesday to ensure that they are up to date with the latest schedule. It's certainly a step forward from the insanity of millions of phone calls in a panic, but it does nothing for those that do not stay in touch electronically. It also does nothing for people trying to plan for the month of August. So what would have to happen to get advanced, completed schedules out for everyone? There are some requirements. The scheduler simply needs to know two things. How many teams in each age group will each club have, and what pools are willing to make time available for the games to be played? The sooner this information is available, the sooner the schedule can be completed. Pool reps have placed sign up sheets at the pools early, but members don't take these sign up sheets serious enough for coaches to make decisions from. So how can we get complete sign ups earlier? How can each pool know, reliably, what their numbers will be? Motivation must come both from the individual clubs and the league. I believe the most successful and fastest way to solve the problem would be hard dates. These would have to be established and enforced aggressively. An example would be July 7th cut off for club sign ups and a July 15th cut off for registration of teams with the league. Changes after these dates would not be allowed. Teams that may not come to fruition for whatever reason, causing forfeits in the schedule, would lose competition deposits. This approach gets us a schedule early, but people that miss the deadline are in jeopardy of not playing. Also, making schedule decisions without coach input as to ability makes for bad seeding of the teams. There are other options, and certainly each of you readers can think of one. The question really is are we at a point where we are prepared to make hard decisions that may be painful for a couple years? Or, do we feel like continuing down the current path is in the best interest of the league? We have had only a couple mishaps with the schedule this year, but even that is too much. I left status information on the front page of the website, but my mistake was not plastering UNOFFICIAL all over the schedules so that people know that they were still changing based on coaches input. Maybe that fix is all that is needed. Please speak with your reps or myself if you have any ideas regarding what you think is the best solution. Maybe the best one hasn't been heard yet? Tom Woods |