Vail Tournament - Team NorCal Tournament Memo
Bill Glazier
Team NorCal 2012 Vail Shootout Tournament Memo
Dates: June 18th - 21st, 2012
Tournament Location:
Vail, Avon, and Edwards, Colorado
Official Team Lodging
Ridgepoint Townhomes
85 Willis Place Avon, Colorado
Highlands Lodge
Beaver Creek Resort
Tournament Description
The Vail Warrior Shootout is one of the most popular and respected youth lacrosse tournaments in the country. The completion is outstanding, coming from all around the country, and the setting is fabulous. Over 4 days, each team plays 9-10 games to determine a champion in both A and B Divisions in each Age Group. This year, Vail has grown to include its first U11 Division.
Team NorCal is sending six teams to the 2012 Vail Shootout – The U11 Bears and U11 Quakes, U13, U15, and our Platinum HS and Elite HS teams.
The format of the Tournament is a championship tournament. Monday and Tuesday is bracket play. Each team will play three games each day (in the morning or afternoon but not both). The teams will be divided after those six games into A and B Division, and the Championship Rounds are played Wednesday and Thursday. Games are played at several locations throughout Vail Valley. Each Age Group stays at the same general set of fields for the entire Tournament, however.
Group Flights – Many of our HS players will already be in Denver, having participated in the Denver Shoot out the prior weekend. They will drive as a group to Vail from Denver once the tournament is complete, and should arrive a little after dinner.
The Youth teams will be taking two different flights: Southwest 333 SFO 17 June2012 555A DEN 925A and Frontier 650 SFO 17JUN2012 615A DEN 943A. Your coaches and chaperones will meet you 90 minutes prior to departure at the Frontier and Southwest Checkin Counter at SFO. They are in Terminal One at SFO. We will check everyone on the Group Flight in online, but we will all need to check in our luggage at the airport. We will give everyone on the group flight their boarding passes when we arrive at SFO on Sunday.
Matt Skiba and Jeff Eckenhoff will be in charge of the Southwest flight. Joe Juter, Steve Harman, and Brick Markham will be in charge of the Frontier flight.
Passenger lists for each flight can be found at http://www.teamnorcal.com/page/show/530273-denver-and-vail-tournament-flights If you are NOT on this list, I do NOT have a ticket for you. Please check and confirm.
We strongly recommend you wear your NorCal shooter shirt and/or hoodie on the plane flight to Dallas so we can be recognized and stay together as a group.
2. Packing for Your Trip: You must check your lacrosse stick - it is considered a weapon by TSA! Please plan on putting your short stick in your equipment bag – it fits. We recommend that you take the stick head off and put it in your carryon baggage (along with your jersey). We will have screwdrivers to reattach heads securely. Your stick shaft should fit in your equipment bag. We will have a coach or chaperone at the airport with a large team equipment bag for dpoles and goalies to check their sticks - but this is only for dpoles/goalies. Make sure your son has money to pay the baggage fees. All your pieces of luggage must be less than 50 pounds, or you will be charged extra.
3. Transportation in Colorado: We have reserved and will rent 11 15 passenger vans from Enterprise Rent a Car and pick them up at Denver International Airport, and drive to Vail, as well as use these for transportation to and from the games.
Our vans from players arriving that morning should arrive in Vail before noon on Sunday, unless some of the vans choose to go the Denver Shooutout Tournament and watch our two HS teams play.
The fields for this Tournament are spread through the Vail Valley – and our drive to the fields is generally 5-15 minutes. Each Age Group typically stays at the same set of fields throughout the entire Tournament.
Vans will be used to transport players, coaches and chaperones between housing and the fields. We will not have room to transport parents, expect in an emergency.
4. Lodging and Meals: The rooming list and room numbers and a facilities map are published at http://www.teamnorcal.com/page/show/529202-vail-tournament-housing– all roommate assignments are final and can not be changed except by Bill Glazier or Matt Skiba. The U11, U13 and U15 teams will be staying in the Ridgepoint Townhomes in Beaver Creek. We have 13 3 bedroom, 3 bath plus loft townhomes we are renting. The HS Platinum and Elite teams are staying at Highlands Lodge, about 2 miles up the hill from Ridgepoint, across the street from the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek. Each player will have their own bed (a very small number of players have to share a King bed). Chaperones will be responsible for key management. Each townhome will have at least adult chaperone or coach, and more often two adults. We will have access to the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek.
The meal plan is still in process, but the general plan is: Breakfasts daily in the townhomes, lunches daily either on the field or at the townhomes - depending on game schedules, and dinners as follows: Sunday – Blue Moose Pizza brought into the townhomes, Monday - catered BBQ at a local park (adults invited to attend), Tuesday – Gourmet Sandwiches delivered to the condo's, and Wednesday - celebration Mexican dinner at the Minturn Saloon for U11/U13/U15, and an Italian Dinner in Vail for the U15 Platinum and HWSElite team.
Keys will be distributed upon arrival by the coach and chaperones. If you arrive separately from go directly to your condo, which should already be occupied.
We will provide refreshments at the field for the teams with bottles of water, gatorade, fruit, and snacks (pretzels, goldfish, etc). If your player has any specific dietary restrictions, please let us know in advance.
6. Game Schedule: Please be warned that schedules are subject to change, due to weather. The Game Schedule for the Week is attached to this memo.
7. Chaperones - We have 12 chaperones and 9 coaches on the trip. They will stay with the boys in the hotel block along with the coaches, and in general make sure that behavior is maintained. If you need to get in touch with any of us, you should use the Emergency Contact information (Attachment A) in this memo, or on the Roster Lanyard which will be distributed to every family. I have a copy of all the Medical Waivers for every player. There are medical personnel on site during all games.
8. On-Site Communications – The coaches and chaperones have access to a Group Texting service that enables instant communication amongst the entire group of coaches and chaperones. For large group information dissemination, we will be using Twitter this year. Subscribe/follow @TNC2012Vail to get a full stream of information about what is happening over the weekend. This will enable us to quickly communicate game results, schedule changes, weather information, or emergency information quickly to everyone. This will be the quickest and easiest way for us to communicate to everyone at the event. For those of you with smartphones (iPhone or Android) you can download the Twitter App to access these tweets on your cell phone. You can also request the Twitter app to send all tweets from our account as a text to your cell phone.
9. Behavior Rules – It is very important that we represent our team and our region well this weekend. This begins will outstanding behavior. DO NOT test us on this – we are very serious!!!! Curfew is 9:30PM each night for U11, 10PM for U13, and 10:30PM for U15, and 11:30PM for HS. That means in your room with all lights out. Your coach will knock on your door at that time each night, and if you are not in your room, you may not play the next day. Do NOT leave the complex unless in the company of your parents or a coach or chaperone. Keep your rooms clean. No food can be ordered into your room from any source after 9PM at night. If you violate any of these rules, you will be called into Team NorCal Kangaroo Court (staffed by Bill Glazier and Matt Skiba), and you will be forced to beg for the opportunity to play in the rest of the Tournament. Trust us, Kangaroo Court is not a democracy.
10. Return Trip – On Thursday, after the completion of the Tournament – probably around 1PM, we will return to our condo’s, pack up, check out, and then drive back to Denver for our flights back on Southwest and Frontier. We will return from the fields on Sunday when our games have ended, quickly shower and pack, and head to the airport for our return flights. The Southwest Flight we return on is Flight 107, leaving at 9:50PM and arriving into SFO at 11:30PM in Terminal One. Frontier Flight 667 leaves Denver at 9:20PM and arrives 10:59PM in Terminal One. A small number of players will take the 7:30PM Southwest flight back to SFO.
11. Parent Activity – Parents are encouraged to attend all games, and many of the social events. Monday night’s BBQ in Nottingham Park in Avon is open to all parents (parents need to pay for their own meal – which will be $20 a person payable at the door). Parents are encouraged to also plan their own group activities. We will try and set up our NorCal tents at several of the fields over the course of the week.
12. Weather in Denver – Weather is a wild card in the Rocky Mountains. Last year on our first day it snowed, and then was sunny and hot the rest of the week. Assume you see temperatures in the 40’s and the 80’s. Bring warm clothes as well as swimming trunks! Bring sunscreen! You need to make sure to stay well hydrated and out of the sun. Bring a water bottle which you carry with you constantly!!! Bring Sun Block and apply it liberally.
Attachment A - Emergency Contact Info
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Name |
Role |
Cell Phone |
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Bill Glazier |
Executive Director, Team NorCal, |
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Matt Skiba |
Program Director, Team NorCal, Coach HS Platinum |
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Greg Mengis |
Program Director, Team NorCal, Coach U11 Quakes |
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Jeff Eckenhoff |
Coach, U15 |
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Brick Markham |
Coach, U15 |
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Joe Juter |
Coach, U13 |
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Will Fales |
Coach, U13 |
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Gary Podesta |
Coach, HS Elite |
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Steven Harman |
Coach, U11 Bears |
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Craig Conover |
Coach, HS Elite |