Week 1 of the Fall 2004 season was great. A little hurried and hot at times but still great. We have over 925 kids registered to play this season. We had some sign up Saturday and they will be in the system soon. As a note we had 848 last Fall, Thats an increase of 80 players.

If you were at the fields in the morning you got to see our dedication of the flag pole to the victims of 9/11 and to the members of our armed forces. I have had several email's thanking the region for remembering. I would like to again thank the members Scout packs155 and 243. They did a great job raising the flag with the assistance of the Tennessee Honor Guard. Several people told me it was very moving, and asked if we could start out every season with a flag raising. We will look into it. If anyone would like a copy of what was said let me know and I will send you a copy of what Sandra and I worked on.

On to the games. We had a lot of new referees on the fields, and from all accounts they did fine. Russ and Steve have their hands full getting folks to referee, and as far as I know all the games were covered with referee teams. Great job Russ and Steve.

We had a few items in the lost and found, a chair cover, a folding chair, and several soccer balls.

I did notice someone had posted a note about how good the fields looked, thanks to everyone that came out last week and worked on them. I would also like to thank Dennis Earl and Mike Thress. They had the 5pm U12 boys game and emptied all the trash cans after their game.

The only problem I heard about was on field 2 A (a U10 girls game). A player over heated and tried to get off the fields. She almost made it, about a foot from the touchline she lost her lunch. The referee was not sure what to do, the lunch was washed off the field and the game continued. We will need to look at getting something to put on future accidents. Some kind of dry disinfectant that can be put down. I will see if John Harbison has anything like that. Worse case is we could keep a bleach solution at the fields.

No other problems were reported to me. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

Our Security officer said he got 84 cars in the over flow lot. He said he will get better, he had gotten out of practice from the spring. I asked him if he would stay for 8 hours (8 am - 4 pm) he said he would. His primary duty is parking and vehicle control. But if you have a problem with a parent he will be glad to escort them to the parking lot. He can also write tickets as needed.

Jo Long had her recycle bins set up, let everyone know we have this available.

Keep a watch on the weather, Ivan may be here next weekend.

Keep a check on the website, it changes like East Tennessee weather. You might learn something new. Great Job, Russ.
Thanks for everything you do for AYSO and the kids

-- Posted and Edited by Russ Wise - 9/13/04