Click Master Field Schedule as of 26 March 2008 for a spread sheet of the "Final" Spring 2008 schedule or see below for the Preliminary Schedule.

WYSL contacts and organizers,

The Spring 2007 Westchester League Schedule is now posted. This spread sheet includes corrections which are not in the schedules handed out at the meeting on March 25th and *there will be more changes!* Emails will go out to affected clubs and teams with all changes.

Please check this Final as carefully as you did the Preliminary. About 280 games have changed since the prelim and co-lateral damage is very likely.  PLEASE if you find any problems with fields or prior requests, email me immediately. For a week or so, I will make corrections to the Final. (No new requests now.) 

After a week, we’ll have to live with some errors and make difficult adjustments to others. Please do all your proofing for the season NOW. This is a community task. Thanks for your help.

Terry Benson
WYSL Scheduler

                                                          PRELIMINARY Schedule Notes


WYSL Field contacts, Guest teams, and officials,

You may download the Spring 2008 Preliminary Master Field Schedule from this link.

                                            PRELIMINARY!! PRELIMINARY!!  Not final!!

"Old hands" know what this is: a bi-annual proof-reading job. For the newcomers, this is the PRELIMINARY schedule. Emphasize that to your teams, families, and coaches. Typically there are 100-200 changes between the Prelim and the final. No one should make any plans based on this schedule and we do not entertain any comments, questions, or criticism because something changed between prelim and final (unless it’s a mistake in which case you get high praise ;-)).

Nearly 1/3 of all teams have some scheduling "issue" so the bad news is that there are probably a lot of little errors in this schedule. It was very difficult to manage the field restrictions and team requests this season even with the extra daylight of spring. The good news is that this is out two weeks earlier than usual so you’ll have over a week (until the close of business Thursday March 13) to get me any corrections, questions, etc.

This is a picky, difficult job. But only you - collectively - can do it. Your teams and your fields have dozens of little issues which occupy several pages in my work sheet. Finding all the mistakes now will save hours for you, me and your teams this season. You owe it to them. A list of your tasks is further on. 

Please read this email completely. If you have a question, check this email again before emailing me. (A little computer trick: use the search function to find the topic.) You are the final inspector on the assembly line.

If you have trouble opening the attached schedule, it is posted and downloadable on the website. Note that from an excel file you can generate a field list or a schedule for your club ordered however you like by using the "Sort" feature of Excel.

ALL communication with me about the schedule (now and during the season) must be sent to: terrybenson@nyc.rr.com. It’s the only address to use if you want to reach me. Do not call. All schedule issues which do not involve Sunday games i.e. all the make up games, non-Sunday state cup games, etc. go to Lee D’Argenio at the league office. I am not trying to list the non-Sunday Premier games on the web site. (It’s just too hard to keep up.)  It’s a good idea to copy both Lee and I on any schedule questions.

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The WYSL has grown another 5% (depending on how you measure it). Last spring we had 465 WYSL league teams, 13 guests, and 34 teams playing premier (512 total) and 2487 games. This spring we have 2606 Sunday games, 515 teams playing in the WYSL divisions (including 5 guests) and 44 teams playing in USYSA Premier leagues (554 teams total - B255,G299; 65 divisions B35, B34).  This includes 5 girls guest teams (Brooklyn Patriots, BW Gottschee, Asphalt Green).  There are also a few other teams from WYSL clubs playing US Soccer and Academy.

We are no bigger geographically than last fall but that’s good. We need to grown into our new skin and get used to dealing with the issues of urban parking and distant suburban fields.

Spring is easier to schedule because of the added daylight but more difficult with 20% more games and many more field and coach issues. In particular last spring there were 77 teams with shared coaches. This season there are 130 (and some of those include specific date and general schedule requests)!!  I’ve done what I can with the coaches and the requests but it is far from perfect.  There were a total of 182 requests of some kind. (130 coach, 21 relating to fields and schedules, 21 general requests, 10 date specific requests.)  And there were a dozen improper coach requests. (We only attempt to coordinate the schedule for someone who is the sole, officially listed head coach of two or more teams.  We do not coordinate for co-head coaches or assistants or paid trainers or anyone else.)

An important note: Do NOT make any new schedule requests of any kind NOW.  By the time you read this, it’s too late. Every club was contacted and given a chance to put in requests. It’s up to the clubs to make sure that their teams’ requests reach me. Teams have contacted me with requests for months. If your teams or coaches ask you to make a new request, DO NOT ask me. Tell them "It’s too late. Remember earlier next season."  Do not waste my time so you can say "Well I asked and he said no." We expect you to tell your teams the bad news.

Coordination is a service the league provides but it’s not easy to accommodate. We ask the clubs and teams not to abuse it. I will do everything I can to honor any timely request. So if you made a specific request and there’s a problem with the schedule, PLEASE send me an email asking about it. I am sure I missed or forgot at least one.  Or I may not have been able to do it. I am happy to check about requests you made earlier. Don’t suffer in silence.

However if you forgot to make a request, silence is golden. Put it on your checklist for next season.

Since the coach coordination is important to so many teams let me explain a bit.

I try to give a coach enough time to get from the *end* of one game to the *kickoff time* of the next. That is a little over half an hour within the core of the county and 45 minutes or an hour from the northern to southern fields. I gave more when I could but don’t complain if the minimums are met. Coaches will miss some post game and pre game talks.

If I missed a coordination or special request that you asked for, PLEASE send me an email listing the club, team, coach, and request.

If I provided less than the times given above, you may point it out.

If you show me that GoogleMaps says it takes T amount of time to get from Y to Z, and I’ve only given you T minus 15 minutes. Let me know. I have a pretty good sense of Westchester geography but it’s far from perfect.

If I missed a specific date request (coach or game time) there’s a good chance I missed it or messed it up in the processing of managing some other coordination issue. It is a complex interlocking puzzle.

I do not mind a polite inquiry. But if your coach has the par amount of time (half hour or 45 minutes), don’t bother me to ask for more. Every request takes time to check out and reply to. Coaches with three teams may simply not make all the games.

For all the "general" requests e.g. "prefer early", "prefer late", "avoid 9am", "after 1pm", etc., I did the best I could but I could not honor them 100% it’s simply impossible. If I generally managed your request, please accept the result as the best I could do. Older teams that want only afternoons are going to play some mornings. That’s when their field time is available and that’s when they are expected to play. U14s will play some 11am games. Teams that wanted to play early but came from clubs without early field time will have to deal with their clubs. Etc.

* * *

The seeding process this year was pretty smooth and so far there have been no last minute teams dropping in or out. Thank you.

Of the 65 divisions (not including the Premier teams), 12 have an odd number of teams. Four 7s, six 9s, and two 11s.  The odd divisions require  60 "TBS" games. These games are added to the divisions with an odd number of teams to make up for the byes. (See more below about TBS games.) 

We have only 27 "six team" divisions - a perfect double round robin 10 game season if we have no rainouts. Most first divisions are 6s.

There are 8 "eight team" divisions. They have a 10 game season but some teams play twice and others only once.

There are 4 "seven team" divisions. They play a 10 game season including TBS games, some teams play twice, some once. 

There are 2 "eleven team" divisions. They play a 10 game all-play-all schedule including TBS games.

There are 18 "ten team" divisions. These divisions play only a NINE game schedule. These teams do not have a game scheduled for the last weekend (June 22nd).  PLEASE make sure your teams in 10 team divisions understand this!!  Each season I get a half dozen teams or organizers who don’t pay attention.

There are 6 "nine team" divisions which also play a NINE game schedule with no game on the last weekend. These divisions have TBS games and one team in each 9 team division unavoidably plays an extra 10th game.

We have no major religious conflicts with the schedule this season. There are no games on Passover (April 20).


* * *

Your job is to proof and correct the schedule. I repeat: This is NOT the FINAL schedule! This is the PRELIMINARY schedule. There will be changes. It is sent to you to check and to find problems so we have a good "Final Master Field Schedule" to start the season. The final will be handed out, sent out, and posted on the web on Tuesday March 25th.  This prelim will be posted on the WYSL web site today or tomorrow with the same notice.

Please share this email with your club and your coaches. Enlist them in helping to check the Prelim for errors. Everyone should go over it *very* carefully. It will save you a lot of time. Every team (guest teams included) needs to pay attention and send me any comments as soon as possible. 

Besides the mistakes, there will need to be changes. You’ve got over a week - until close of business Thursday March 13 to do your checking and email me about any errors or suggestions for making the schedule better. Don’t wait until Thursday!  Send me corrections as soon as you have any. I will finish correcting the schedule on over the weekend. The website and I will do some data manipulation to get all the game numbers listed everywhere (this is one of the new issues). The schedule will go for weekend printing on Friday the 21st for distribution to the clubs at the WYSL meeting on Tuesday the 25th.  

After that meeting *destroy* these Preliminary files!!  Trash. Shred. Delete. Do not use them!! Don’t be like the coach who was upset because he was still looking at the Prelim on week 6. Oops.

Review this file carefully and it will save you (and your players and parents) lots of trouble.

* * *

Here are the tasks:

Check your fields and field times.
Do they agree with the time you have from the town/field entity?
Are there too many/too few games on the fields?  There shouldn’t be singletons.
Are the age groups on the correct fields?
Did I use your fields enough? or the way you need them used?
If I didn’t use all your fields should some games be shifted (at the same time) to other fields to maintain your permits?
Some fields were scheduled very rarely. If that’s a problem, make a suggestion.

*** I make a lot of guesses about what would be good field use and I get into scheduling patterns which might look good to me but which aren’t good for you. PLEASE tell me if there’s a better way to use your fields. ***

Can we get the games done without running into problems with other groups?

Are there any gaps in the schedule? or have I allowed too little time for the games? or too much?

Are any games double booked - at the same time and field? 

Did I get the daylight hours correctly?

Do the teams have the right number of games. 10 games for most divisions. 9 games for the 10 and 9 team divisions. 

Check for every division (make sure they are all there).

Check your teams (make sure THEY are all there). I have lost teams in the computer. Not good. Please check me!!

Are the team names correct? (Note that I standardize some names with G9x or B9x so that it’s clearer which team is involved.)

Check your club/team requests, did I cover them?  PLEASE, contact me if I did not honor a request. On coach coordinations there may only be a half hour or 45 minutes to get between games. That’s usually the best I can do.

If I missed a request, ask - by email.  I don’t mind any polite, timely questions. I usually have a reason for what I did. Or I made a mistake.  I hate it when someone tells me I didn’t cover a request that I could have fixed if I had been told.

I got a lot of "general" requests again. "Prefer early". "After 2pm", etc. I could NOT honor all of them. Sometimes U14 teams play one another and one team has asked for "early games" and the other team has asked for "after 2pm". (A difference in bar mitzfah schedules I guess.) Someone is going to be unhappy.  I just have to balance the interests and do a coin toss. (Donning my ref hat for a moment.)

The coaching requests have gotten worse - more triples and more cross club coaching. Something like a third of the actual hours scheduling is spent dealing with coordination issues. They improve the "quality of life" for the teams but they take time. 

I hope the new fields start coming on line soon but it isn’t enough to have them. You need to get time on them. If lacrosse or baseball expand to get the fields, it doesn’t make it easier for us. We need more field space! 

Coaches with two teams or three will have to hustle to make their games.  I had to do a lot of juggling especially in some clubs which only get minimal space from their town and which have a lot of coordinated coaches.

I minimize the number of singletons (bad for ref coverage). There are very few.

I try to get everyone a balance of home games. (Most get 5.)  Divisions with 9 game seasons either get 4 or 5 home games. Everyone gets at least 3 home games. I then try to accommodate (in order) the coach coordination requests, the special day requests, and then - last - the general requests.

Check the game times. There is probably at least one mistyped time in here. An AM instead of a PM or two games scheduled for the same time on the same field.

* * *

This is community work - like a barn raising. Not wanting to be political but "It takes a community to do a soccer league schedule." ;-) We continue to get better at this but it’s always difficult.

I need any corrections in my email in-box as soon as possible. Send things when you find them but anything received after Thursday will likely not get into the final schedule.

Just to repeat: Do NOT make new schedule requests now. It’s too late. All requests needed to be in my hands before today. Teams have to *think ahead*. If you hear complaints, tell them that.

Copy Lee at the league office with any notices.

Once the final schedule is out we do not change or postpone league games except for very particular and unusual situations. Don’t ever agree to a change. Ask me and the league. If you have a question, look in the league booklet before you ask. The booklet is posted on line if you don’t have one. (Guests teams especially should use the web.)  If a request for a change isn’t for one of the approved reasons, don’t even ask. Say no. Changes allowed by the rules (state cup games, ODP tryouts, showcase tournaments, and other special cases approved by the league board) must be approved by the office or the scheduler. For the sake of the families, we protect the schedule fiercely.

NOTES

-> We have a TEN game season. The first scheduled game is April 6. The season ends June 22nd with May 25th OFF for Memorial Day (enjoy the tournaments!). 

-> Clubs were much better about getting me field information.

"TBS games"

The "extra games" which make up for the byes are listed at the TOP of the master field as TBS with TBA for the field. These are additional games to schedule and play during the season (Saturdays, weekdays, whenever). For the divisions with odd numbers of teams (5, 7, 9, and 11) they make up for the byes.

These extra games must be played sometime during the season and not on Sunday. The two teams decide when to play and then at least 5 days IN ADVANCE they inform the League Office (not the scheduler!) by fax or email when they want to play. The rules for doing this are in the book! Please read and follow them carefully. I don’t schedule these games but the league office and I want to know when you have set them so we can coordinate ref coverage.

General Scheduling Rules

Except in very unusual circumstances (none this season), in order to allow the younger kids to get to religious services, the U9, 10, 11, and 12s are never scheduled before noon. The U13s also usually start at noon or later, but very often they start at 11:30. The U14s can start at 11. The High School teams start whenever but are often the first game in the morning (9a, 10a) because they can use the early morning field space.

I allow an hour and a quarter for U9 and U10 games, an hour and a half for U11 and U12, an hour and three quarters for U13 and U14, and two hours for high school games. 

Loss of Home Games
There is one "TBA" game where neither club had enough field space for the game. There are some games this season when the home club did not have enough space and the game is played away. If your teams are short home games, that’s the likely cause. Please keep educating your towns about the time and space we need and keep pushing to build more fields. 

Singletons
There are very few "pure" singletons. (It’s hard to count games of different age groups on close fields.) Singletons are difficult for the ref assignor to schedule. I hope the refs in some of the smaller communities will cover both 11v11 and short sided games (although I know that is not so common). I tried to make it possible at least. All the remaining singletons are unavoidable (at least by me) and many will be uncovered.

Game Numbers
Again this season every coach will need to know (from the website) the *number* of the game they are playing.  That game number must be entered on the NEW team lineup form by the coach so the referee can file an online game report.The game number is listed on nearly every page of the website where the game is listed and it will be included in the printed schedules as well. This was new last season. 

Changes
All changes during the season are done on the website and direct email notices will go out to the teams and clubs involved when a game is changed IF the team’s and club’s contact information is on the website. There are no other notices.

All the clubs and all the teams need to make sure their contact info on the website is correct and that the contacts are designated to receive game notifications. The league website is NOT the same as the LSS website where you registered. They are different and team officials need to maintain their contact information on BOTH websites. It’s up to the team and club to make sure that their email address is correct and available for me and the website to send to. Emails that bounce go into cyberspace.

Besides the division schedules on the website, there is a club schedule by date and field. Everyone needs to use the web.

Contacts
If you are the sole contact for your club, make sure you are marked on the Demosphere web site to get the game change notifications. I will continue (this season) to maintain an email contact list and may send out notices to those contacts. But get used to the web. The more people who know what is going on and are paying attention to the website the better.  We will no longer post the updated Master Field on the website. Instead we will use the new on line schedules.

Two big notices:

DURING THE SEASON CALL YOUR OPPONENT!

----------->>>>>>>>>>>>> As always, have your coaches call their opponents IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK and verify time and field for all games. It’s the last line of defense against inevitable human errors.  Both HOME and AWAY coaches should CALL!   Don’t wait for Friday night or Saturday. Don’t leave a message, reach a responsible adult. Call by Wednesday.

I will repeat this admonition over and over all season. If the individual teams talk to one another, 99% of the mistakes are caught and fixed AND it’s a nice thing to do.

DO YOUR CHECKING!

----------->>>>>>>>>>>>Do all of it NOW and do it FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON.  If I have to make changes, it’s NOW. There’s no excuse for those who could have seen a problem at the beginning of the season but don’t notice it until the week before. This is largely a volunteer operation and we all have to do our share.

If you have questions, problems, etc, email me.

Doing this job right will save you headaches later and help the families and kids.

Thanks for reading all the way to here and thanks very much for your help!! This league’s increasing success is a result of the clubs and teams taking the time to make it work for everyone.

See you at the league meeting.

Terry Benson
WYSL Scheduler

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