2006 SBPLI Long Island Regional

[Brian C]

I believe that Greg was actually trying to allude to the goal incursion issue. I know (from personal experience with him) that he realizes that a team cannot call a DQ on their opponents. Any and all penalties given are done by the referees and the ref's at the SBPLI regional did quite a good job. There were a minimum of issues with the officiating. I feel that they did a good job despite being put in some tenous positions as a result of circumstances.

The main problems revolved around the field, scoring and seeding programs throughout the weekend. There were endless issues with qualifying match scheduling, lack of (read NO) seeding information until, literally 5 min before alliance selection and more "re-do's" than I have ever seen at any regional. Not to mention the fact that the top 8 seeds had to be "adjusted" after alliance selections had begun because a qualifying match had not been included in the original scoring tally and a team that should have been in the top 8 had been left out. Thankfully it did not affect the teams that had already selected but it did cause quite a bit of confusion at the event as virtually everyone including the selecting alliances were unaware of what was happening.

That being said......

Greg's team had a tremendous day establishing a new high water mark for the 1468 J-Birds and I know he's a trifle bit dissapointed at not winning a regional. However being a regional finalist is something to be content with for now as well as an incentive to bring your team's involvement and dedication up to the next level for the future.

The alliance of team 358, 271 & 870 did very, very well and they definitely knew that their opposing alliance of 1468, 353, 329 was there making them earn it all the way.

While I am not personally familiar with the folks on 870 I do know that they are unique in this locale for the community support they have been able to cultivate. I can tell you that Scott and Marc on 358 are excellent mentors and 358 should be proud that they have these folks in their corner. Team 271 and the "Bad Boyz" from Bay Shore also have excellent support from their mentors and community along with good teachers like Mr. Cavanaugh.

Oh and Greg **cough, cough** Hauppauge (team 358) could not have possibly had an incursion into the goal as they don't dump into the corner goals, gotta love our scouting team and their depth of information for that one!