The Calgary board wish to start a discussion on setting a North American tournament schedule for 2009 in place.

Considerations for setting a schedule include:
a) the distance clubs need to travel to play matches;
b) weather conditions for northern clubs preventing training early in the year; and
c) the USA tour of Australia in 2009.

As it stands, we would like to put forward two ideas for tournaments outside Nationals for 2009:
1) an Eastern and a Western Regionals tournament. Could be one or two legs, and rotate tournaments around clubs in each half of the continent. An example tournament for 2009 could be Arizona in February (first-leg) and Calgary in July (second) with Denver and Vancouver attending. The following year Denver and Vancouver would host the legs.

2) a national 9's carnival, somewhere central like Milwaukee in July. Encourage established clubs to send two teams, and new clubs to send one team. Can be split into two divisions, where new clubs play established clubs' seconds. Would encourage smaller groups of girls to field teams and would develop newer players at established clubs by allowing them greater opportunity in the seconds. Might be more feasible in years when the USA squad is travelling for those who don't make the squad.

Please add comments and criticisms. We're crying out for some competition up here!

Jake

Most might know Im not a great advocate for tournaments. Its been clearly evident in the mens game here in the US travel to more games than you play at home is a real issue for players and for maintaining interest in developing teams.

I know travel cant be avoided if we want competition and tournaments give the chance (on occasions) for more game time but playing games at home is just as important I believe to the games development.

Added to that many of the players are playing more than one travel sport. Having three more games away and only one at home each year just doesnt work.

So sorry for not giving a more positive spin on your ideas. As I suggested sometimes there are no options and tournaments can be ok...and I can be swayed sometimes with beer.!..

Cheers

Yeah, I realize that Wayne. We're just in a situation now where we're growing so large that we need an outlet to provide a next level of competition for our girls during the season... one weekend a year at Nationals won't cut it. Our intra-club women's league has grown to 15 matches this year, and next year we'll be forced to add two more 9-a-side teams to cope with our numbers. A good situation to be in, no doubt, but our best girls are complaining that they don't get to play together against outside opposition, which is a fair gripe. Hopefully we can arrange something with Arizona and Denver to provide some regular competition.