Author Archives: Josh

Captains’ Meeting Notes 2025

Thank you for coming!

Land Acknowledgement

Laura: To begin today’s captain’s meeting, we acknowledge that we play on fields which are part of the unceded land of the Pocumtuc. In recognition of this violent history, we commit ourselves today to being good stewards of these fields, to respect the space and keep it clean, and, most importantly, we commit to supporting indigenous people in our community in the places and spaces where they request it. You will see a collection bucket for donations to the Ohketeau – the only Native founded and Native run cultural center in all of Central and Western Massachusetts. Their work focuses on uplifting the voices of Native peoples and dismantling unjust frameworks, replacing them with accessibility, equity, dignity, and wellness for our Native communities. They provide a safe place for Native people to gather regularly and educate their youth in impactful ways – a value we share and wholeheartedly support. Please visit the main tent to learn more about Ohketeau and make a donation if you are so moved.

I’m Josh, I’m the co-TD. 

I’m Lee, I’m the co-TD.

I’m Noel, the volunteer director and event program manager.

Josh: Find people who say yes to your big ideas. Find people who you like to say yes to, when they have big, grand ideas. My two yes people are Lee and Laura. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Noel: A HUGE thanks to the chairs that make this event happen:

Team Boxes: Connelly & Jim Stokes-Buckles

Traffic and Parking: Blair Barondes

Water: Sue Guswa

Merchandise: Gina Wyman, Kate Kruckemeyer & Noël Raley

Waste/Recycling: Sonia Bouvier

Main Tent Food: John Grossman 

Fields: Lee Feldscher 

Housing: Danielle Pedelaborde

Dinner and Party: Hannah Ray & Greg O’Donnell

Shopping: John Grossman & Rose Sullivan

Intern: Chloe Norwood

…and the army of volunteers that make the PVI possible. Please say thanks to all the volunteers you see… they are doing a ton of work! [Have them raise their hands, call them out.]

[Back to Josh]

This is Karin: She’s the scorekeeper. Send her your data. Please write neatly. Use the team name we use for you in the schedule. Text exact, specific data. She gets upwards of 700 data communications this weekend so… be clear!

My challenge to your whole crew: Aggressively thank these people that make the PVI possible!

A few more special thanks:

A massive thanks to VC Ultimate. They are just awesome. And they make THE BEST gear!

[The Oxbow Marina for letting us use these beautiful fields]

Okay… now to some logistics:

Our trainers are:        

Upper fields – Mieka Davis:  508-277-4156
Lower fields – Sarah Carver: 508-954-8123

Please add Mieka and Sarah to your contacts on your phone.

Who is at this event for the first time? Attended 3-5 times? More than 5? Who was here at the first one in 2014? Anyone attend one of the St. Johnsbury Academy Invitationals?

Some numbers for y’all:

64 Teams, 8 states, 2 provinces, 20 fields, 1,192 players, over 300 coaches, chaperones, and managers, 188 games, 20 acres, 4.3 miles of painted lines.

The big thing: Know the tournament schedule and program! Know where your team needs to be at what time. Understand how the schedule works. Understand how the event works.

Some important items:

  1. Be careful on Island Road. Drive 15mph or slower. Only park on the grass in the designated parking areas. Please minimize trips to and from the Oxbow to reduce traffic on Island Rd.
  2. Please know the schedule.
  3. Please know the program.
  4. Some of these fields are being used for the first time today since the spring floods, so there could be debris or trash on the fields. Also, the Oxbow is a natural place, so over the winter some wild animals may have taken up residence on the fields. Please have your teams line up on the back end zone line before the first games and walk the entire field to pick up anything that shouldn’t be there and mark any obstacles or unsafe areas before you start your game. There are trash bags in your team boxes you can use for trash and debris.
  5. Start and cap your games on time.
    1. No softcaps
    2. No horns
    3. Text in your scores to Karin at 617-797-5627.
  6. All games must be played.
  7. Please set alarms on your phones for hard cap. 
  8. No dangerous plays, spiking, poor language, or bad behavior. At all. Just don’t. I will eject your entire team.
  9. Bring a full water bottle each day. We’ll have water towers all over the place and Gatorade at tourney central. Anything you can do to cut down single use plastic bottles would be appreciated. If you run out of water at your field please text 413-522-0324
  10. Weather: 5 horn blasts = get to your cars, wait for call/5 horn blasts. Text/@PVInvite/Email will be sent out with updates.
  11. 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 endzones.
  12. You’ll find water on the sidelines. If your jugs are empty, call one of the posted numbers.
  13. You’ll find extra food at tourney central.
  14. Porta-Johns can be found near tourney central, on the lower fields, and on the far fields (near field 17)
  15. When you leave a sideline, please leave it cleaner than you found it.
  16. Opponent late? Assess a point for every 3 minutes they are late.
  17. A chaperone must be with your team at ALL times. You cannot leave your team unattended at any tournament location or event.
  18. Please, please, please return your completed spirit score sheet promptly at the end of your games on Saturday and Sunday. Please. You are bringing a hard copy of the sheet at the end of each day.
  19. Thank you sponsors: VC, Discraft, Friction Gloves, Northampton HS Athletics, Baystate Hand and Wrist Surgery, LGA, The Nature Club, The Black Sheep, USA Waste and Recycling, Tandem Bagels and most importantly the Oxbow Marina. 
  20. Please make sure you promptly report your game scores after each round to Karin at 617-797-5627. 
  21. We have AMAZING merch made by VC! Make sure to visit the merch tent!
  22. Please stay off the docks, away from the boats, and out of the water. There is no fishing.
  23. The next PVI will take place on May 16th and 17th, 2026!
  24. Everything I just said will be posted online and sent to you.

Have an AWESOME WEEKEND!

One more sleep ’till PVI2025!

The entire field site is looking fantastic and everything is now tucked in and ready for tomorrow.

One update: All games originally scheduled for field 10 are now on field 13. No games will be played on field 10. The online schedule has been updated. That being said, you may see field 10 references in other places. If you do, let us know and also know that whatever was scheduled for field 10 is now on field 13.

Please remember:

  • Please make sure at least one person from your team has joined the tournament text update channel. They can do that by texting @pvi2025 to the number 81010. It would be even better if two people from your team joined! All important tournament updates will go out via text. We also aim to send out all important updates during the event via email, but text is guaranteed.
  • All teams must check in at the tournament central tent before their first round, optimally 45-60 minutes before their first game is set to be played.
  • At check in, both chaperones need to be present and you must show us that you have medical authorization forms. (We do not collect the forms.)
  • Captains meetings are running at 7:30, 9, and 10:30. You must attend the captains meeting that is happening 30 minutes before your first game, or the one before that!
  • At check in all teams will be given blank spirit score sheets as well as their dinner tickets, if they purchased any. All teams must return their spirit score sheet at the end of their last games on Saturday and Sunday. (Each team will be submitting one spirit score sheet per day.)

See you soon!

See you tomorrow! Important updates.

We are so, so excited to welcome you all to the PVI tomorrow! A few important pieces of info:

  1. All teams must check in at the tournament central tent before their first round, optimally 30-45 minutes before their first game is set to be played.
  2. At check in, both chaperones need to be present and you must show us that you have medical authorization forms.
  3. Captains meetings are running at 7:30, 9, and 10:30. You must attend the captains meeting that is happening 30 minutes before your first game, or the one before that!
  4. There is a chance a few of our fields won’t be lined. A small but very important piece of our amazing line painting robot failed yesterday morning, but we got it up and running earlier today. It’s painting away, but there is a chance 2-4 of our fields won’t be lined.
  5. There is a chance a few of the games on/around field 11 may be moved to different fields. Last night, someone in a vehicle did some donuts on our fields in that area, and we are currently in the process of fixing the damage. While we are confident we can fix the damage — thanks to the AMAZING help of the Oxbow — there is a chance a couple game locations (not times) may be moved. If that happens, we will let you all know immediately.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

See you soon!

Lightning, Clearance

Since our fields drain so well, the only thing that has a realistic chance of pushing us off the fields is lightning. There is a chance for lightning on Saturday.

If there is a lighting strike within 10 miles of the field site, we will text everyone to clear the fields. We will also use a horn, but since the fields are so large, horns can’t cover the whole space. Please make sure you have at least one person with their cell phone at all times that has joined the tournament Remind group. (Text @pvi2025 to 81010 to join.) If you see a message saying to clear the fields but it’s clear another team hasn’t, please tell them. Immediately.

We will be off the fields for at least 30 minutes. All game start times and end (hard cap) times will be incremented by the time lost. For example, if play stops at 1:00 on Saturday and resumes at 1:50, for a loss of 50 minutes…

a) the new cap for the 12:30 game is 2:35 (1:45 + 50 minutes)
b) the new start time for the next round is 2:50 (2:00 + 50 minutes)
c) the new cap for the next round is 4:05 (3:15 + 50 minutes)

The round after that would be incremented in the same way.

Here are the teams that are currently not cleared to play. As always, you can check the status of your team’s items on the team status sheet.

Here are the current chaperone issues.

Program, Chaperones, Clearance

Merch preview!

Good morning everyone! First pull in less than 72 hours! Wild!

The program is now online. Please look it over and let us know if you have any questions.

Here are the remaining chaperone issues as of this morning at 9am. This is also the list of teams that are currently not cleared to play. As always, any team can check the status of all of their items right here.

(Click to enlarge)

Remind, Weather, Sidelines, Not Cleared to Play, Chaperones, and Rosters

Good morning everyone!

All team chaperones need to join the event Remind group by texting @pvi2025 to the number 81010. We will be using this group to send out important updates during the event. Only Josh can post to the group. Note that you don’t need the remind app to join. (You can leave the channel any time by texting @leave @pvi2025 to the number 81010.)

We are keeping a close eye on the weather. While there is some chance of rain, it’s looking like it won’t be too hot and we could get some clouds, which is awesome. If we need to clear the fields due to weather, horn blasts and texts/emails will be used. Go back to cars. Stay there until you get a followup message.

Nothing that would be unsafe for a person to fall onto may be within 7 yards of any sideline. Yes, this means that there may not be space on some sidelines for items like tents, chairs, and coolers. All tents MUST be staked down.

These teams are currently not cleared to play along with the reason(s) why. If your team is NOT on this list, then it means you are cleared to play. As always, any team can check the status of their tasks/items on the team status spreadsheet. (Click to enlarge the image.)

These teams still have chaperone issues, along with the remaining issues. Please get them sorted immediately. What needs to be done is online here. (Click the image to enlarge.)

These teams have yet to send in their roster. Please send your roster in today using the roster submission form.

TeamDivision
BardFemale-Matching
LexingtonFemale-Matching
BeaconOpen
MontpelierOpen
ScarsdaleOpen

Recycling and Free Gatorade!

Greetings!

We are excited to see you at the Pioneer Valley Invitational (PVI) this weekend!

Every year we work to minimize our environmental impact at PVI. Each person can help by taking a few simple steps (below). Please share this message with your team and their supporters. 

DRINKS:  Please bring refillable water bottles and refrain from the use of single use bottles and cases of Gatorade or water. We will have plenty of water in coolers at the fields, and free 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 plastic bottles at the tournament. 

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.

COMPOST:  Please put food waste (banana peels, watermelon rinds, any uneaten food) in the green compost 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.

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 and green compost bags to the dumpsters next to the main tent.  Please do not leave anything on the fields, including windblown tents. Most plastic and metal containers can be recycled.

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.

Sonia Bouvier
PVI Recycling and Compost Volunteer Coordinator
413.695.7247

Schedule finalized, chaperones, and teams cleared to play

The event schedule has been finalized. Please look it over and make sure it makes sense. Let me know ASAP if you have any questions. Please note that all teams must check in before their assigned captains meeting on Saturday morning with both of their chaperones.

Current chaperone issues are listed below. Everything each of your two chaperones needs to do to be cleared is listed on the Paperwork page.

The teams listed below are cleared to play. If your team is not listed below, please immediately check the Team Status spreadsheet to determine what your team is missing.

Chaperone issues as of May 12th @ 10am (Click to enlarge):

Female-Matching teams cleared to play as of May 12th @ 10am:

Open teams cleared to play as of May 12th @ 10am: