News story

To All Managers and Players!

Dec. 1, 2003 – Terry Hennessy CEO

Dear Managers and Players,

We would like to thank you for participating in Senior Softball-USA's 2003 Winter Worlds in Las Vegas or the 2003 Winter Nationals in Ft. Myers and wish you a happy Holiday Season!!!!

As you know, very little in the world is perfect – including Senior Softball tournaments – and we appreciate your support and participation despite the glitches. We are very thankful for the several calls that have come into Senior Softball-USA about improving the tournament.

Even more important, I'd like you to know the changes we have planned to improve the Winter Worlds/Winter Nationals next year based on those comments:

Scheduling:

We have heard from several teams who did not care for the 5-game, single elimination schedule, which included consolation games later on Sunday.

We originally scheduled the tournament this way in order to get in 5 games in 2 days (for the 50, 55 and Women) without going too late on Saturday and allowing teams to finish at a reasonable time on Sunday.

Next year, we will probably do a 2-game round robin into a double-elimination tournament. The double-elimination adds about as many games as the schedule we used this year. The other option we have is to extend the tournament to 3-days and add a third round robin game – but most 50, 55 and women's teams don't like this option. Let us know what you think.

Team Ratings:

We had a major computer glitch and, in addition, missed the corrected ratings on a number of teams, which caused some problems in individual brackets.

The computer glitch, fortunately, is a one-time event caused by a major re-design and overhaul of our website. We have also changed our internal team-rating system so that we will be verifying ratings with teams before the tournament to avoid miscommunication and mistakes in our scheduling.

Awards:

We originally announced in January that the first place individual prizes would be DeMarini Tote Bags. Unfortunately, the Tote Bags were not available from DeMarini for the tournament so we purchased polo shirts (that were close to the same value as the tote bags) for first place awards.

Although the prize change was posted on the bottom of the schedules, managers should have been informed of the change before the tournament. I apologize; it will not happen again.

It is our goal to produce the best Senior Softball tournaments anywhere. In December, the key people involved with Senior Softball-USA will be getting together in Florida for our first convention. At the top of the agenda is establishing a priority for the most important elements for running tournaments.

I feel that if we have a clear set of priorities, we can consistently provide excellent tournaments for you and your team. Thank you, again, for your support and I look forward to seeing you at Senior Softball-USA Qualifiers and Championship Tournaments – both in America and abroad – in 2004.

Best Regards,

Terry Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer

Senior Softball-USA