Kick It 915 - Fun in the Sun Kickball Tourney - REVIEW

With the popularity of co-ed adult kickball continuing to grow in El Paso so does the need for more kickball tournaments. Currently most local kickballers find themselves having to travel out of town to be able to participate in kickball tourneys, which is unfortunate considering there are three kickball leagues operating in town.

The last local kickball tourney was held by the almost now defunct El Paso Kickball league. They would hold an annual charity kickball tourney called the Kickball Clash for the Kids. In all fairness the tournament was actually fairly good. However since the Clash there have been no local tourneys that is until the introduction of the new Fun in the Sun Kickball Tourney hosted by Kick It 915. Kick It 915 is looking to become El Paso's first major kickball tournament league.

The Fun in the Sun Tourney was set to feature:

2 Divisions: Social and Competitive

Cash Prize for the Competitive winner

$150 Bar Tab for Social winner

Water Ballon Fight at noon

3 Games guaranteed

Now when looking at any tourney, three categories on which you can grade the quality are location, format, and organization. In addition, the quality of a tourney can also be relative to whether a team is looking for a competitive atmosphere or a more fun event. 

7 teams ended up registering for the tourney which resulted in one big division rather than two separate ones. The teams were a mix of competitive and fun teams.

The tourney was held at Dick Shinaut Park, on the main soccer field area. This late in the year the grass is already going into hibernation, but it still made for a playable surface although not ideal. There was plenty of parking and trees for shade. There was music playing which provided a good atmosphere. 

The format was double elimination and due to low participation, the competitive and fun groups were merged. There was no pool play and match-ups were essentially scheduled at random, which left some teams confused. There was also one team that despite only having one loss was slated to play the 3rd place match-up. The format seemed to suffer from the uneven amount of teams and having to merge the fun and competitive groups. More participation should alleviate these problems.

Organization wise, there were a few problems. For starters, the tourney was scheduled to start at 9am, but didn't start until 10am. Which resulted in a later than planned end time. This often causes headaches for players who have plans later in the day. Also transition between games was shaky with teams waiting to hear who their next opponent was. Just a couple of items that would make for a better tourney if corrected. 

The officiating was sub-par at best. Umpires were often confused on the rules, that were supposed to be Kickball 365 inspired. Its important for umpires who run a game solo to be mobile and get into position, something the officials didn't do during the tourney. A much needed upgrade here.

And ultimately things seemed to be decided on the fly. Hopefully organizers due a better job of planning for the next tourney.

However the spirit of kickball seemed to be alive and in a drought of kickball tourneys, kickballers were happy to attend a new event. The initiative was greatly appreciated. 

There seems to be another tourney planned for February. Let's see what Kick It 915 has in store for kickballers in the future.

That is all for now kickballers, Good Luck and Happy Kicking!~