Kyle Chapman 14YO All Stars

I want to give more information to parents about the upcoming tournamant opportunities and my concerns about baseball fatigue and parent exhaustion... While the Austin tournament next weekend will be a road trip and will involve some expense for families, it will not be a major time and financial commitment like Dallas will be. My concern with Austin is that with only two practice days a week (MOnday and Wednesday), we don't have much practice time in the month of June to improve on the things that thecoaches observed over the weekend. Because we have toqualify for Dallas by finishing fourth or higher in Austin, the player rotatation may become tight and I don't want a family to come home disappointed that they gave up a weekend and incurred considerable expense but did not see their son play very much. Dallas is a different matter. We will probably play at least 5 games during the week, and since we are not necessarily playing there to finish as high aspossible, player rotation need not be so tight. Instead, we will be there to see good pitching, and I believe that it will be an excellent bonding/teambuilding experience. However, parents need to understand the time and monetary commitment required. Here is what I understand (I don't have full details but Kevin is checking on them). It is likely that we would play our first game on Monday, so we would need to check in on Sunday night (they want to make sure all teams are there and ready to play; people travel long distances to play in these events). After playing several games in "pool play" early in theweek, teams are ranked and elimination play begins probably on Thursday. It is possible that we could be home as early as Friday, but we could end up playing into the weekend. Thus, families are confronted with the use of up to 5 vacation days from work and the expense of being out of town 5 days or more. Of course, we could go to Austin and not qualify, but given that our objective there is to go to Dallas, I want parents to think carefully about the consequences of committing to go to Dallas if we do qualify. If we qualify in Austin, we will have only a short window of time to commit to Dallas and make our travel plans. As I said Saturday, I want to stay focused on the goal of playing our best possible baseball at the end of July. Playing too much baseball can be as much of a threat to reaching that goal as playing too little. Feel free to talk among yourselves, not just exchange e-mails, and give me honest feedback about your preferences. My mind is not made up on this issue,but my decision can potentially expose your families to loss of summer time and considerable expense...and it could also make possible a memorable summer vacation for you and your sons (as many of you know, family vacations change once they are in high school and driving). Go KC! Coach Atherton

Cliff has asked that I assume the position of Business Manager. Unfortunately, one of my first acts, based on a board decision, is to ask for a $75 check per player. The check should be made-out to Kyle Chapman. If you can give me the checks this weekend (during the League City Tournament) that would be great. Also, we are looking for one or more team sponsors. If anyone is interested, please give me a call or send me an email. The respective coaches have worked out the logistics and player conflicts for Friday's games. Regarding the 14 yr old KC All Stars - Haynes, Knowlton, Mercurio, and Brosch will play with the Bellaire Freshman for the doubleheader at Butler stadium. The other KC players will go to League City. For those not involved with the above, sorry about the inconvenience, but we are just trying to ensure unified communication (and that kids show up at the right place). Thanks. Kevin K.

K.C. 14 Year Old All-Star Players, Parents, Coaches and Supporters: In a previous email, I advised you regarding the *tentative* road to the PONY World Series in Washington, Pennsylvania. I also advised you that a major requirement for this summer is "flexibility." Yesterday, Kyle Chapman Pony League found out that we have had a major detour in the tentative road that I laid out in my previous email. Yesterday (Wednesday), Kyle Chapman Pony League was informed that it would be hosting the PONY-13 Director's Tournament during the weekend of June 19th, the PONY-13 sectionals during the weekend of June 26th, and the PONY-14 Coast Regionals during the weekend of July 24th. "What does that all mean?" you might ask. Excellent question! Hosting the PONY-13 Director's Tournament and PONY-13 sectionals will have only limited effect on the K.C. 14 All-Stars. Basically, it will mean that the K.C. fields will not be available for our use during the several of the days of those tournaments. Hosting the PONY-14 Coast Region WILL have a major impact on our road to Washington, Pa. PONY rules give any team that hosts a playoff level a bye up until that level. This means that where last year's K.C. 14 year old team's road included District-Section-Region-Zone-World Series, this year's road now lops off the first two levels. Our road to Washington now means that we only have to win Section and Zone to get there. While some may see that as a benefit (less chances to be eliminated), there is also a potential downside. While we're practicing during most of the month of July (until Regionals begin on July 24th), the other teams in the Coast Regionals will have been playing and jelling as a team for almost three weeks before we play our first PONY tournament game. In order to limit the downside to hosting Regionals, Coach Atherton and the rest of the coaches have decided to revise our preparation plan and seek out a few high level tournaments to get our players as ready as possible for their run to the World Series. At parents meeting, Coach Atherton talked about taking off the weekend of 7/16. However, under the circumstances as we now know them, the whole schedule needs to be revised. Coach Atherton now suggests that we allow parents to plan family events for the 7/4 weekend. With our first tournament on 7/26, we need a strong tune up on 7/16. Accordingly, the K.C. 14's now reserve the 7/16 weekend for play and will quickly have a new schedule out once we have identified tournament opportunities. Any vacation plans you are considering should focus on the weekend of 7/2-7/5. Mickey Mantle should be over or almost over. The next practice after that weekend will be on Tuesday 7/6. We appreciate your continued patience and flexibility as the road to Washington, Pa., becomes more clear. Scott R.

Coach Atherton asked me to give you an overview of the Road to the Pony World Series in Washington, Pennsylvania. In a typical year, the road goes-- District, Section, Region, Zone, World Series. Also, out of those 5 levels, 3 or 4 are usually out of town. This is NOT a typical year because the Houston area will be hosting the Zone Tournament (this does not happen that often). Therefore, the road this year will be-- Section, Region, Zone, World Series. Also, for those of us on a tight budget, this abbreviated road will be helpful because only the last leg of it-- the World Series-- will be out-of-town. Section and Region are in the greater Houston area, and Zone is in Pasadena. This will save a LOT in travel costs. In the schedule that follows, remember that when I mention a "weekend," that level INCLUDES that weekend, but due to the number of teams and weather/field restrictions, it could actually be Thursday through Sunday, Friday through Monday, Saturday through Tuesday, or Sunday through Wednesday. The key word to remember is -- FLEXIBILITY!!! Schedule - Director's Tournament - K.C. field - Weekend of June 26th. Section - Houston area TBA - Weekend of July 9th. Region - Houston area TBA - Weekend of July 24th. Zone - Pasadena, Texas - Weekend of August 8th. World Series - Washington, Pa. - Week of August 14th. Our son, Daniel, travelled this same road last summer. If any of you have questions that I can answer from our personal experience, please do not hesitate to ask me. Also, last summer, I wrote a travel diary of each leg of the road to Washington, Pa. It was posted on the K.C. website, but I retained a copy on my hard drive. If any of you would like to read that, I will email it to you. Further, in addition to helping out with team communications, I am also a PONY South Zone Tournament Field Director (only one of 2 in the City of Houston). If you have specific PONY questions, I can probably either answer them or refer you to someone who can. Next, the web site www.ponyworldseries.com has a LOT of useful information about this process, including audiotapes of last summer's world series games, box scores, photographs and other good stuff. That's all for now. Thank you for your attendance at last night's meeting. Scott R.