Hopewell Valley Tournament Review

We did the Hopewell Valley Tournament near Princeton this past weekend. This was my first time at this tournament.

We had game schedules on Monday before the tournament. Again, it's nice to have the schedule well in advance.

The facility wasn't bad but wasn't great either. The fields were full size and unsodded natural grass. The grass definitely could have been cut a little shorter and the quality of the fields varied significantly. Some of the fields were sloped more than I would have liked. There is a little break in between the two sets of fields but it was a very short walk. Parking was a little tight so some people had to walk a bit to get to the fields. Traffic was an issue getting in and out of the tournament as well.

I did not care for the play format. There was a 25-minute first half, 5-minute halftime, and then a 20-minute second half. I mean, uneven halves? Who ever head of such a thing? No teams seemed to need the full ten minutes to warm up and some games were actually starting ahead of schedule. So we often ended up with something like a 28-minute first half and a 20-minute second half. Two twenty-five minute halves would have worked fine.

People who go to tournaments will recognize the use of air-horn signals to keep the games going on time. There often is a two-minute warning with little horn blasts and then a longer horn to end the half or game. Whoever was on horn duty at this tournament struggled with the concept. We often didn't get a two-minute warning and then the end-of-game blasts were often too short. There were some issues at the end of game when thee ref didn't know that the horn was the final horn.

The tournament format was just jamboree. So every team got four games and there was no playoff.

Officiating was an issue, I'm afraid. I don't know where tournaments get their officials but it baffles me how some tournaments seem to get competent officials and others do not. I recognize that officiating isn't easy but we had an official who thought that a ball that touches the goal line is a goal. And he wasn't even the worst ref we had!

The level of play was pretty high. There definitely were a few strong teams there.

The concessions were pretty good. The dining services from Princeton handled concessions so there was plenty of food available.

I would give the tournament a B- overall.