Region 8 A-AA

[tcamom]

Please help see clearly. Region 8 is composed of Districts 15 and 16. Our team is in 15 (12 teams). District 16 has 2 teams (Kingsbury and Sheffield). Last night our team was told we will not have a district tournament for district 15, but will combine with the 2 Memphis teams for a "super region" tournament. This bugs me. We are forced to play 11 regular season games in our district. 8 of those teams don't challenge us. Our main players have only played 2 full district games, and in the last few games have only been on the field for about 20 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, Sheffield and Kingsbury are playing against DII teams and AAA teams from Memphs. Our out of district games have been challenging, but there are not enough of them due to the size of our district.

 

My frustration: now we will not be able to play out our district to 1st and 2nd for region seeding. How do you determine the brackets? We can win our district and still have to face Kingsbury (first in District 16) to advance.

 

Is this common practice? We finally have a team playing great soccer, homegrown players who came in 8 or 9 in the district last year. Hve not lost a district game this year (granted our biggest challenge is coming) Now we will be determining the region brackets by a "gentleman's agreement" since Kingsbury and Sheffield have not played most teams in our district ?

[BigG]

Would be interested to know how this decision came about. Was it a TSSAA decision, or did the coaches from your region vote on it?

[ClemsonSoccer]

I was wondering myself how District 15 and 16 were going to proceed because of the concerns you mentioned.

 

In District 13 and District 14 we had the same issues turn up after the new classification was posted...two teams in District 13 and 9 teams in District 14.

 

TSSAA will not allow for a District Tournament when there are only a two team or less District size. Apparently, District 15 and 16 had already done this before during the last 4-yr classification period (There was only one team from District 16). We had three teams from District 15 come into District 14 for the new classification period that were part of the process for just having a regional tournament. All teams from District 15 and 16 were put together and split into two Divisions and you only had to play your divisional opponents. This accomplished many positive things such as, limited the number of matches you had to play so you were available to play higher quality teams, etc., prevented the one or two teams from waiting a week until the other District played out there District Tourney for both positive and negative reasons, etc. etc....

 

So, this year District 13/14 adopted what they had done, but we started the planning process back in October. We split the Region 7 A/AA into East and West Divisions:

East - Westview, Peabody, Milan, McKenzie, Obion Central, Gibson Co.

West - Dyersburg, Covington, Crockett, Haywood, Ripley

TSSAA approved the process and we went forward and so far it has worked very smoothly with our final planning meeting this Weds and two weeks to complete a Regional Tournney with 11 teams involved.

 

I understand your concern, because I asked a few of the District 15 coaches if they were doing a District Tourney or Region only and they really didn't know at the time and I knew they were scheduling all District 15 teams and Kingsbury and Sheffield (District 16) weren't in the equation.

I will really be interested in seeing the Brackett. I understand your concern doing this type of scheduling, after the fact.

 

You all have had a great season and Tuesday Madison vs TCA is definitely on my the radar screen!

[tcamom]

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out for me. I was sort of hoping to get "Coach Mike" from LHS to respond, since they are in District 15 too. I was told it was a TSSA decision, but now it makes sense that it is a rule that we have to combine with 16 for a regional tournament, since they only have 2 teams. I am still concerned about seeding for the tournament. TCA and Madison have played Kingsbury, but I don't think any other teams have. My son is a senior, and I just want to keep on playing as long as possible (a case of parent denial).

[ClemsonSoccer]

Not sure it's a TSSAA deal. As a matter of fact, our A.D. is very by the "Book" and was very concerned when I presented our Region concept after all us coaches agreed on it and he was concerned we were making up rules and effectively eliminating Districts and potentially limiting games played....meaning = less money making.....However we then got the approval since I guess it had been done before (splitting into divisions, etc). TSSAA is a good scapegoat, however, they are typically pretty flexible with District guidelines ie. Tie-breaker rules, etc.

 

The old way they did it was Districts do their thing regardless of the # of teams. You all play your 11 team District tourney; the two teams in the other district play or use their regular season game to seed themselves and do the region semi's and finals just like two normal districts (1st and 2nd places) come together for the Region.

 

It will just be interesting to see how they incorporate Kingsbury and Sheffield in the seeding process.

[ClemsonSoccer]

My guess is that surely the two #1 seeds will be in separate sides of the brackett and and the two #2 seeds also in separate sides for instance....if TCA beat Madison then seeding would be:

 

1) TCA

2) Kingsbury

3) Madison

4) Sheffield

5) Dist 15 #3

6) Dist 15 #4

7) Dist 15 #5

etc.

etc.

 

So if top seeds win all their matches the semifinals would be:

#1 (TCA)vs #4 (Sheffield)

#2 (Kingsbury) vs #3 (Madison)

 

good luck

[tcamom]

This adds to the importance of the TCA/Madison game. I think any of the District 15 top 4 teams could beat each other. At least this way, if we are able to come out on top of Madison in the district, we probably won't have to turn around and face them again in the District tournament. Again, thanks for your interest.