Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think parents need some perspective. No one wanted this to happen, but community spread has gone up tremendously since the beginning of the month. If you don't believe me, look at the Howard County COVID dashboard. On October 19, Howard County had 6.9 a rolling 7 day average of daily cases per 100,000 of 6.9. That number was 9.4 on November 1. By the November 12, which is when this decision was made, the average daily case rate per 100,000 was 18.1.

In approximately the same period, positivity went from 2.32% to 4.53%. The numbers in Anne Arundel County, where some games were to played, were even worse. Our management of COVID cases took a significant turn for the worse, and the tournament organizers made a difficult decision under difficult circumstances. Are you really up in arms about that?

[url]https://www.howardcountymd.gov/Departments/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Countywide-Updates[img]

The Bethesda tournament is primarily in Montgomery County, so the decisions made at a local level by Howard County health officials would not apply to that tournament. I suppose they could have allowed players from states with lower COVID numbers than Maryland to play, but regardless, it must have been a difficult decision.

I would have had no issue with the entire tournament being cancelled, but that isn't the way they went, and the way they did go was unfair and made no sense. I'm sure you will agree that, if there are rising COVID cases in MD, it would not make sense for MD teams to be playing there either.

I understand that you are angry. But there were teams coming from not just VA, but PA and WV, among others, where the spread is greater. Maryland teams got to play and then go home and the return to the fields. Out of town teams would need to stay in between games (or overnight), likely get food in between, etc. I believe that tomorrow Howard County is going to close all fields to players, and Anne Arundel County's closure takes effect tomorrow as well. No public schools are open and HS sports are suspended. This was a last chance to play soccer for perhaps months, so I'm sure that played into the decision by health officials to allow the tournament for local teams only. If you are concerned about the finances of your own club, just think how many more clubs would have been out money if the tournament had been canceled entirely.

False and ridiculous for the bulk of out of state teams, which are day trippers from a lower-infection area called NOVA. Preposterous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think parents need some perspective. No one wanted this to happen, but community spread has gone up tremendously since the beginning of the month. If you don't believe me, look at the Howard County COVID dashboard. On October 19, Howard County had 6.9 a rolling 7 day average of daily cases per 100,000 of 6.9. That number was 9.4 on November 1. By the November 12, which is when this decision was made, the average daily case rate per 100,000 was 18.1.

In approximately the same period, positivity went from 2.32% to 4.53%. The numbers in Anne Arundel County, where some games were to played, were even worse. Our management of COVID cases took a significant turn for the worse, and the tournament organizers made a difficult decision under difficult circumstances. Are you really up in arms about that?

[url]https://www.howardcountymd.gov/Departments/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Countywide-Updates[img]

The Bethesda tournament is primarily in Montgomery County, so the decisions made at a local level by Howard County health officials would not apply to that tournament. I suppose they could have allowed players from states with lower COVID numbers than Maryland to play, but regardless, it must have been a difficult decision.

I would have had no issue with the entire tournament being cancelled, but that isn't the way they went, and the way they did go was unfair and made no sense. I'm sure you will agree that, if there are rising COVID cases in MD, it would not make sense for MD teams to be playing there either.

I understand that you are angry. But there were teams coming from not just VA, but PA and WV, among others, where the spread is greater. Maryland teams got to play and then go home and the return to the fields. Out of town teams would need to stay in between games (or overnight), likely get food in between, etc. I believe that tomorrow Howard County is going to close all fields to players, and Anne Arundel County's closure takes effect tomorrow as well. No public schools are open and HS sports are suspended. This was a last chance to play soccer for perhaps months, so I'm sure that played into the decision by health officials to allow the tournament for local teams only. If you are concerned about the finances of your own club, just think how many more clubs would have been out money if the tournament had been canceled entirely.

Anonymous wrote:

I think parents need some perspective. No one wanted this to happen, but community spread has gone up tremendously since the beginning of the month. If you don't believe me, look at the Howard County COVID dashboard. On October 19, Howard County had 6.9 a rolling 7 day average of daily cases per 100,000 of 6.9. That number was 9.4 on November 1. By the November 12, which is when this decision was made, the average daily case rate per 100,000 was 18.1.

In approximately the same period, positivity went from 2.32% to 4.53%. The numbers in Anne Arundel County, where some games were to played, were even worse. Our management of COVID cases took a significant turn for the worse, and the tournament organizers made a difficult decision under difficult circumstances. Are you really up in arms about that?

[url]https://www.howardcountymd.gov/Departments/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Countywide-Updates[img]

The Bethesda tournament is primarily in Montgomery County, so the decisions made at a local level by Howard County health officials would not apply to that tournament. I suppose they could have allowed players from states with lower COVID numbers than Maryland to play, but regardless, it must have been a difficult decision.

I would have had no issue with the entire tournament being cancelled, but that isn't the way they went, and the way they did go was unfair and made no sense. I'm sure you will agree that, if there are rising COVID cases in MD, it would not make sense for MD teams to be playing there either.

I think parents need some perspective. No one wanted this to happen, but community spread has gone up tremendously since the beginning of the month. If you don't believe me, look at the Howard County COVID dashboard. On October 19, Howard County had 6.9 a rolling 7 day average of daily cases per 100,000 of 6.9. That number was 9.4 on November 1. By the November 12, which is when this decision was made, the average daily case rate per 100,000 was 18.1.

In approximately the same period, positivity went from 2.32% to 4.53%. The numbers in Anne Arundel County, where some games were to played, were even worse. Our management of COVID cases took a significant turn for the worse, and the tournament organizers made a difficult decision under difficult circumstances. Are you really up in arms about that?

[url]https://www.howardcountymd.gov/Departments/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Countywide-Updates[img]

The Bethesda tournament is primarily in Montgomery County, so the decisions made at a local level by Howard County health officials would not apply to that tournament. I suppose they could have allowed players from states with lower COVID numbers than Maryland to play, but regardless, it must have been a difficult decision.

Know nothing about this tournament, or anything about the people running SAC, but I would say let's try to keep in mind how rapidly things have been changing the past week in DMV. After months and months of loosening restrictions, these counties started going the other way, there is no consistency between counties in MD. I guess we should have seen it coming after last spring and all the warnings about winter, but it still seems to be happening fast and furious, just days before tournaments. No idea about the refund--you should get whatever the COVID refund policy was--just saying I feel like there are generally good people at many clubs with the late fall tournaments running around with their heads cut off trying to salvage what they can with the hand they were dealt. The email list is likely just a basic admin thing that you are on from registration and nobody has had the time to go in and delete teams. Ideal, no, but I'd cut them some slack. My two cents. I honestly don't know a single person at SAC so you can cut any jokes about an inside person. Just trying to be reasonable.


I agree with the spirit of this. Their tournament ended up being garbage. I'm sure the organizers are as upset about this as the teams are. Also, realize these tournaments are major fundraisers for clubs. They likely can't take the hit of a full refund within days of the event after they have started incurring costs. Everyone signing up knew there was a risk.

I'm sure the continued emails are just administrative oversights. I manage a Virginia team and got an email from them asking for a team to join last minute because another team had pulled out due to COVID. This was after the Virginia teams were given the boot. I thought it was odd, but it didn't piss me off. It was like 10 seconds of my day.

I hope the clubs pressure them to make sure the partial cancelation was truly warranted. But if it really was due to local pressure it's kind of the risk we're all dealing with now.