Notes On Nike Bauer Tournament: Letter Sent To Tournament Organizer Says It All

Attention Kevin Mann:

By now I am sure you are aware of the fact that our U-16 Belle Tire team went undefeated at your Nike/Bauer Tournament this past weekend yet did not have the opportunity to advance to the playoff round of 16 teams.

Having also run tournaments in the past I understand what a great undertaking is involved in producing them, not to mention a tournament of such a large scale as the Nike/Bauer. I do wish to compliment you on the first class organization of this event in almost all respects.

Unfortunately, as was clearly proven by our team being denied the opportunity to advance to the playoff round of 16 teams despite going undefeated in pool play, the format used by the Nike/Bauer Tournament for creating divisions and breaking ties, at least at the U-16 age level, was no doubt poorly conceived.

There is no possible justification for any tournament format that is structured in such a way so as to leave open even the slightest possibility that an undefeated team in pool play might not advance to the playoff round.

Our team, players and parents spent a tremendous amount of time and money to enter and attend the Nike/Bauer tournament, we won all of our games (one of only two undefeated teams along with the tournament champions to do so) and went home extremely disappointed with our experience.

I would assume that to avoid this from occurring in the future the Nike/Bauer Tournament will be making the necessary changes to division groupings, the tiebreaker format, or both. But this leaves the coaches, players, and parents on our team this year with a smaller consolation than the game we had to play Saturday evening.

I would like you consider our request that the Nike/Bauer Tournament take responsibility for the fact that our team was denied the opportunity we earned to advance to the playoff round due to a poorly conceived tournament format, and accordingly refund us the full fee we paid to enter the tournament (the proceeds of which will be divided evenly amongst the members of the team to offset travel costs).

Respectfully Submitted;

Brian J. Feldman
General Manager
Belle Tire U-16 AAA