Author Archives: Josh

May 17th Update

First pull is in less than 24 hours!

Please make sure you find me and say hi this weekend. I really, really love connecting with all of you in person!

PLEASE make sure you drive 15mph or slower on Island Road. This is the last road you’re on before you get to the fields. Seriously, please go 15mph or slower. Please.

All teams need to check in when they arrive on Saturday. Check in will be run at the tournament central tent. The whole team doesn’t need to check in, just a captain and a chaperone/coach.

Keep all sidelines clear. Nothing, at all — even players! — within 3 feet of any sideline. All hard objects — tents, chairs, must be at least 7 yards from any sideline. Some sidelines are very narrow. Do not store any gear or items on the narrow sidelines. That means most chairs and tents will need to be on the wider sidelines or out the back of the end zones.

Here’s the Saturday am schedule. Remember, the full event schedule is online here.

6:45am: Gates open up at the Oxbow. Please do not show up before 6:45am
6:45 to 7:25am: Check in for all teams that are playing during the 1st round
7:30 to 7:35am: Captain’s meeting for all teams that are playing during the 1st round
8:00am: Round 1 begins
8:10 to 8:55am: Check in for all teams that have a 1st round bye
9:00 to 9:05am: Captain’s meeting for all teams that have a 1st round bye
9:30am: Round 2 begins
Saturday am schedule

All rosters are done! Yay! That being said, every team should make one last pass over their roster to make sure it’s exactly as it should be. Please remember that only players on your online USAU roster may play in the event on your team.

LOTS of AMAZING tourney gear made my VC Ultimate will be available for sale at the PVI! Get your gear early since it’ll absolutely sell out! Some of the tourney gear is ALREADY available for sale online right here! (Many more items types will be available for sale at the event.)

And now a message from our head trainer, Mieka Davis:

Each team must bring a med kit.
If players anticipate taping they are expected to bring their own tape. We have a limited supply. We are happy to help all players with injury consults and taping but they should know in advance for new teams especially.

Meika’s number is 508-277-4156. Please program it into your cell phone.

See you all soon!

Safe travels!

May 16th Update

Less than 48 hours to first pull!

We’re now down to only two teams with roster issues! Yay! Let’s get it to 0 today!

TeamDivision# of unpaid players
BardOpen 2
GoldenOpen 1
Teams with roster issues as of 11:40am on 5/16

Important reminders from yesterday:

  • All teams need to have at least one of their chaperones/adults join the tournament text broadcast group. I’ll be using this text group to send out important messages. Please join by texting @pvi2024 to 81010.

And now a message from Sonia, Recycling and Compost Volunteer Coordinator:

Greetings!

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Pioneer Valley Invitational this weekend!  Every year we work to minimize our waste and environmental impact. Each person can help support this effort by taking a few simple steps (below). Please share these with your team and supporters as they prepare to join us:

FOOD:  Please bring as little individually packaged food as possible.  Beyond what we are offering at the main tent for free, please bring big bags and boxes to share, (especially without plastic packaging if possible). Please empty your pizza boxes in the compost bins and recycle the cardboard, etc.. 

DRINKS:  Please refrain from the use of single use bottles and cases of gatorade or water, whenever possible.  We will have plenty of water in coolers at the fields, and cold gatorade available continuously at tourney central.  We will also have reusable PVI water bottles for sale at the merch tent.  We hope to cut down on single use bottles at the tournament. 

TRASH/RECYCLING: Please do a trash sweep of your sideline each time you switch fields during the day.  At the end of each day, please bring trash/recycling bags to the dumpsters next to the main tent.  Please do not leave anything on the fields, including windblown tents.

COMPOST:  Please put compostable food products in the green bags we will be distributing, or in the compost bins at tourney central (not in the trash). This will save our volunteers from having to sort trash at the end of the tournament.

CARPOOLING:  If you can drive together, please do. The fewer cars and fuel, the better.

We will be sending around environmental ambassadors during the tournament to meet with your captains, coaches, and chaperones to support these efforts.  Together we can make PVI an example of how large youth sporting events can minimize waste and protect our environment for the benefit of our community and all living things. Thanks for your support and efforts towards this goal.

May 15th Update

First pull is now less than 3 days away!

Everyone has memorized the schedule, right?

All teams need to have at least one of their chaperones/adults join the tournament text broadcast group. I’ll be using this text group to send out important messages. Please join by texting @pvi2024 to 81010.

Yes, we’re keeping an eye on the weather… which is looking pretty good! 🙂

The teams that still have roster issues are listed below. Fix your issues immediately. Please.

A note about rosters:

  • All athletes participating on your team at the PVI *must* be listed on your online USAU roster.
  • A player can only be on *one* roster at the PVI.
  • Please remove anyone from your roster that is not attending the PVI.

To be clear:

  • If your team plays with an unrostered player, your whole team will be immediately expelled from the event.
  • If a player plays on more than one team at the PVI, both teams will be immediately expelled from the event.

Please make sure your roster is perfect.

Thanks.

Teams that have roster issues:

TeamDivision# of unpaid players
Golden-FringantsFemale-Matching 1
BardOpen 2
Brown MSOpen 17
Champlain Valley UnionOpen 2
GoldenOpen 1
Teams with unpaid players as of 11:30am on 5/15/24

See you soon!

May 14th Update

We’re less than 4 days away from first pull! Here are today’s updates:

The tournament program is now online here. Please take the time to read it over in detail. We will not be providing paper copies of the program.

The tournament banner has been built!

The following teams have players on their roster that need to pay their USAU dues. Please get this done today. Teams must have perfect rosters in order to be allowed to play. If a player is on your roster that is no longer attending, please remove them from your roster.

TeamDivision# of unpaid players
ArgonFemale-Matching 1
Golden-FringantsFemale-Matching 2
Green Mountain GirlsFemale-Matching 3
Northampton JV1Female-Matching 1
BardOpen 2
Brown MSOpen 17
Champlain Valley UnionOpen 4
GoldenOpen 5
Lexington JVOpen 2
MontpelierOpen 1
Northampton VOpen 1
Teams that need to pay player dues as of 5/14/24 @ 10am

Final schedule + Lots more info

The tournament schedule has now been finalized. Please look it over in detail.

Also… is the roster you have online in the USAU system perfect? The roster system is set to lock sometime in the next 24 hours. Please make sure your roster is perfect. Today.

Here’s a written summary outline of the game schedule:

F-M A Division: 8 teams are split between two pools of 4. Everyone plays everyone in their pool on Saturday. Teams are re-ranked inside their pools after pool play is done on Saturday. On Sunday the 8 teams play a standard 8-team elimination bracket. All teams play 3 games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday.

F-M B Division: 12 teams are split into four pools of 3. Everyone plays everyone in their pool on Saturday. Teams are re-ranked inside their pools after pool play is done on Saturday. On Saturday, after re-ranking, there is a crossover round where teams that finished second in their pool play teams that finished 3rd in their pool. The winners of those crossover games become/stay 2nd and the losers become/stay 3rd. For example, the winner of the 2Cv3E game becomes/stays 2C and the loser becomes/stays 3E. On Sunday, the teams that finish in the top two positions in each pool will play in a standard 8-team elimination bracket. The teams that finish 3rd in their pools on Saturday will play a 4-team round robin on Sunday. All teams will play 3 games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday, except for four teams that win their pools on Saturday: Those four teams will only have 2 games on Saturday.

Open A and B Divisions: 16 teams are split into four pools of 4. Everyone plays everyone in their pool on Saturday. Teams are re-ranked inside their pools after pool play is done on Saturday. The top two teams in each pool advance to a standard 8-team elimination bracket on Sunday. The bottom two teams in each pool will play in a standard 8-team consolation elimination bracket on Sunday. All teams will play 3 games on Saturday ad 3 games on Sunday.

Open C Division: 14 teams are split into two pools of 4 and two pools of 3. Everyone plays everyone in their pool. Teams are re-ranked inside their pools after pool play is done on Saturday. The two pools of 3 play one round of crossover games on Saturday where the teams that finish second in each 3-team pool play the team that finish third in each pool of 3. The winners of those crossover games become/stay 2nd and the losers become/stay 3rd. For example, the winner of the 2Iv3J game becomes/stays 2I and the loser becomes/stays 3J. On Sunday, the top two teams from each pool play in a standard 8-team elimination bracket. The teams that finish 3rd or 4th in their pools on Saturday will play in a 6-team consolation round robin on Sunday.

Other notes:

  • I worked hard to create geographically diverse pools.
  • Teams were ranked based on RRI ratings, last year’s results, as well as some specific game and tournament results from this season. Ranking a group of teams this large and spread out is effectively impossible to do perfectly, but I feel as though everyone is in a solid initial position that maximizes the number of quality games everyone will play.
  • While I am confident in this final schedule playing out as planned, there is always a chance that with an event of this size (195 games!) that something could change on the schedule. If that happens, all impacted teams will be immediately notified and the change will be noted on the change log tab of the the schedule spreadsheet.
  • Games this year are hard capped at 75 minutes instead of 70 minutes like last year. Please make sure your team clears the field immediately after your game ends. Unless you’re playing in a pool of 3 on Saturday, you never have games in back to back rounds at any point during the weekend.
  • There are several open fields available for teams to use during their byes. You can check for which fields are open each round on the field allocation tab.
  • There is no awards ceremony this year. Trophies will be awarded to the top three finishers in each division (F-M A, F-M B, Open A, Open B, Open C) immediately after final placement games. Spirit award notifications will be sent out on Sunday night once all calculations are finished. Spirit award trophies will be sent out/delivered in the week after the tournament.
  • There will be a closing ceremony on Sunday at tournament central at 5:20pm. This ceremony will be short and is completely optional for attending teams, although we’d love to see lots of you there to say goodbye!
  • The tournament program will be available soon.
  • This year we have two shower locations (Northampton HS and JFK Middle School) which are both open from 4-6pm. If you finish 1st or 2nd in your pool, please shower at Northampton HS. If you finish 3rd or 4th in your pool, please shower at JFK Middle School. At each location teams should park in the school parking lot and look for signs and volunteers directing them to the shower location in the school.
  • The dinner and social happen at Northampton HS. The dinner runs from 6-8 and the social runs from 6 to 9:30. (It takes 10 minutes to drive from JFK to Northampton HS.)

DRAFT PVI2024 Schedule

The initial draft of the PVI2024 schedule is now online here.

Look it over, in detail, and let me know ASAP if you have any questions or see any errors.

Suggested edits will be accepted until Monday, 5/13 at 9am.

Draft divisions and rankings

Here’s the second draft of divisions along with initial rankings.

Please let me know ASAP if you see anything that looks off. If you have a suggested edit, please send in as much justification as you can. Suggested edits will be accepted until Saturday, 5/11 @ 6pm ET.

Please also keep in mind that rankings will most likely be tweaked a little bit to spread teams out geographically between pools, once the schedule is generated. So, it’s important that your team is at least pretty much in the right spot in terms of ranking. Minute ranking changes aren’t super important in the grand scheme of the event.

FM = Female-Matching, O = Open

TeamDivisionCityState/ Province5/8 – Draft Ranking
OrigineFemale-MatchingQuébecQCFM-A-01
Northampton VFemale-MatchingNorthamptonMAFM-A-02
Amherst VFemale-MatchingAmherstMAFM-A-03
Wicked WestFemale-MatchingOttawaONFM-A-04
TitaneFemale-MatchingMontréalQCFM-A-05
CimesFemale-MatchingMontérégieQCFM-A-06
Lincoln-SudburyFemale-MatchingSudburyMAFM-A-07
Lexington VFemale-MatchingLexingtonMAFM-A-08
ArlingtonFemale-MatchingArlingtonMAFM-B-01
Green Mountain GirlsFemale-MatchingMontpelierVTFM-B-02
Forest CityFemale-MatchingPortlandMEFM-B-03
WWPNFemale-MatchingPlainsboroNJFM-B-04
Wicked EastFemale-MatchingOttawaONFM-B-05
SomervilleFemale-MatchingSomervilleMAFM-B-06
Northampton JV1Female-MatchingNorthamptonMAFM-B-07
Northampton JV2Female-MatchingNorthamptonMAFM-B-08
BeaconFemale-MatchingNew YorkNYFM-B-09
ArgonFemale-MatchingMontréalQCFM-B-10
Golden-FringantsFemale-MatchingSherbrooke+GatineauQCFM-B-11
Amherst JVFemale-MatchingAmherstMAFM-B-12
Lexington VOpenLexingtonMAO-A-01
ArlingtonOpenArlingtonMAO-A-02
Montclair VOpenMontclairNJO-A-03
Somerville VOpenSomervilleMAO-A-04
Four Rivers VOpenGreenfieldMAO-A-05
Columbia VOpenMaplewoodNJO-A-06
Westfield AOpenWestfieldNJO-A-07
Concord CarlisleOpenConcordMAO-A-08
Needham VOpenNeedhamMAO-A-09
XavierOpenMiddletownCTO-A-10
IgniteOpenOttawaONO-A-11
ÉchoOpenMontréalQCO-A-12
OrigineOpenQuébecQCO-A-13
TitaneOpenMontréalQCO-A-14
Brooklyn TechOpenBrooklynNYO-A-15
Amherst BxVOpenAmherstMAO-A-16
Northampton VOpenNorthamptonMAO-B-01
Champlain Valley UnionOpenHinesburgVTO-B-02
MontpelierOpenMontpelierVTO-B-03
Burr and BurtonOpenManchesterVTO-B-04
WellesleyOpenWellesleyMAO-B-05
Forest CityOpenPortlandMEO-B-06
BardOpenNew YorkNYO-B-07
Columbia JVOpenMaplewoodNJO-B-08
Cape ElizabethOpenCape ElizabethMEO-B-09
MiddletownOpenMiddletownCTO-B-10
Lincoln SudburyOpenSudburyMAO-B-11
Amherst BxJVAOpenAmherstMAO-B-12
Monument MountainOpenGreat BarringtonMAO-B-13
CimesOpenMontérégieQCO-B-14
ScarsdaleOpenScarsdaleNYO-B-15
ScorchOpenOttawaONO-B-16
BostonOpenBostonMAO-C-01
Acton-BoxboroughOpenActonMAO-C-02
BeaconOpenNew YorkNYO-C-03
Needham JVOpenNeedhamMAO-C-04
FalmouthOpenFalmouthMEO-C-05
PVPAOpenSouth HadleyMAO-C-06
Brown MSOpenNewtonMAO-C-07
BlazeOpenOttawaONO-C-08
ArgonOpenMontréalQCO-C-09
GoldenOpenGatineauQCO-C-10
Lexington JVOpenLexingtonMAO-C-11
Montclair JVOpenMontclairNJO-C-12
Northampton JVOpenNorthamptonMAO-C-13
Amherst MSOpenAmherstMAO-C-14
5/8 draft of divisions and ranking

Teams not cleared to play, Dinner payments due Friday

Please remember that dinner tickets for the Saturday night dinner are $16.25 per person and are due by May 10th at 6pm ET. This is a very firm deadline.

At this point dinner fees should be sent in digitally using PayPal (sales@ultimategood.org). Please make sure you list your team name and division (be specific) in the memo field AND email josh@pvinvite.org the confirmation of payment from PayPal.

You can check on the status of your dinner fee payment, as well as all of your other tasks, on the Team Status spreadsheet.

Here is the list of teams that are currently not cleared to play. Each of these teams needs to email me (josh@pvinvite.org) immediately and let me know when all of your tasks will be complete.

TeamDivision
BeaconOpen
BostonOpen
Cape ElizabethOpen
Champlain Valley UnionOpen
FalmouthOpen
Forest CityFemale-Matching
Forest CityOpen
Four Rivers VOpen
GoldenOpen
Golden-FringantsFemale-Matching
Lexington JVOpen
Monument MountainOpen
Northampton VOpen
PVPAOpen
ScarsdaleOpen
Teams not cleared to play as of 5/8/24

Coming soon: Next division drafts and initial rankings.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Dinner payment due by Friday, May 10th

Buffy can’t wait to see you all!

Dinners tickets for the Saturday night dinner are $16.25 per person and are due by May 10th at 6pm ET. This is a very firm deadline.

Dinner tickets cannot be purchased at the tournament.

Teams don’t need to purchase dinner to attend the Saturday night event.

All teams can purchase dinner tickets even if they didn’t request them on the dinner, housing, and roster prep form.

At this point dinner fees should be sent in digitally using PayPal (sales@ultimategood.org). Please make sure you list your team name and division (be specific) in the memo field AND email josh@pvinvite.org the confirmation of payment from PayPal.

The dinner will again be provided by The Black Sheep. The menu will be very close, if not identical, to the menu listed below.

You can check on the status of your dinner fee payment, as well as all of your other tasks, on the Team Status spreadsheet.

Here are the teams that currently owe dinner payments:

TeamDivisionCityState/ ProvinceDinner amount due
CimesFemale-MatchingMontérégieQC$357.50
Golden-FringantsFemale-MatchingSherbrooke+GatineauQC$390.00
Northampton JV1Female-MatchingNorthamptonMA$195.00
Northampton JV2Female-MatchingNorthamptonMA$211.25
Northampton VFemale-MatchingNorthamptonMA$243.75
WWPNFemale-MatchingPlainsboroNJ$292.50
BeaconOpenNew YorkNY$357.50
BostonOpenBostonMA$243.75
Cape ElizabethOpenCape ElizabethME$227.50
Champlain Valley UnionOpenHinesburgVT$292.50
CimesOpenMontérégieQC$357.50
Columbia JVOpenMaplewoodNJ$373.75
Columbia VOpenMaplewoodNJ$357.50
FalmouthOpenFalmouthME$325.00
GoldenOpenGatineauQC$406.25
Northampton VOpenNorthamptonMA$373.75
Somerville VOpenSomervilleMA$357.50

Dinner menu:

Black Sheep Mac and cheese
Mac and cheese w/ chorizo
Barbecue chicken
Mediterranean tofu w/ artichoke hearts, roasted
Peppers, herbs, and olives – vegan
Garlic bread
Garden salad
Carrot Cake
Chocolate cake