2016 Review

Almost all of the 2015 G&B tournaments used the site this year. Two 2015 tournaments did not have a 2016 tournament. One tournament set up their own web site for the Girls divisions though the Boys used this site. Two tournaments used the site for the first time. One tournament was rained out in 2015 but was played in 2016, so G&B was used for 13 tournaments.

Although the number of tournaments using the site did not grow as much as I hoped, the number of users, sessions, and pageviews was up by about 60%, compared to 2015. This varied a lot between tournaments. More teams = more traffic, but another major factor was how users learned about the site. Sites that already had a team web site with a link pointing to the G&B page generated a lot more traffic than those that didn't. One had a link to the 2016 schedule/results described as "Past Results". 2015 results are available though there is no current link. I have added links to previous years' results for some tournaments. ( I have six years (2009, 2011,2013-2016) results for one tournament though a few of the older ones are incomplete.)

Many tournaments did a pretty good job of getting results posted quickly, some averaging less than 20 minutes after the game. There were a couple of tournaments that did not work. The website and tournament software worked well, but there were some communication problems that delayed updated schedules and results for hours. In one tournament the director was emailing me game results and I started having 4-6 hour delays in email on that account. Using a different email account helped, but having tournament personnel enter the results into the website would be even better. I always encourage directors to use this capability (and to solicit help to enter results), but I need to provide some training that shows how easy it is. In another tournament, I was working with an one person for the tournament setup but did not know that someone else was the director. The director knew about the site but did not know that he could get an account and work with it directly. He had to reschedule late Friday and Saturday games due to weather and I didn't get the updated schedule or results until Sunday.

I won't get into details here, but I have some ideas as to how to avoid similar problems in the future. Part of this involves improving the site/software and part involves producing easy to use training on the capabilities. A Report page optimized for phones is planned. Please send any suggestions, questions, or comments to tom@soccer-tournament.us. You can also use the "Contact" button at the bottom of most tournament pages.

The 2015 Birmingham Metro included both boys and girls divisions. The Birmingham Metro Boys used the site this year, but Birmingham Metro Girls Tournament set up their own site. The new site looks good and supports other aspects of a tournament such as players stats, but it does not provide as much information as a G&B tournament page. Pool (Division) Standings are reported showing only Points and not any tiebreakers, games played/scheduled, or win/loss/tie records. One of the Reasons Not to Use Groups & Brackets is "We're using better software". I don't think the current Girls Metro site is better functionally. Individual game results, team and pool (division) schedules are not available. It is possible to include G&B Brackets, Schedules and/or Standings in another web site if iframes are supported. Each team played 6 games over 3 months so quick reporting is not as important as in a two day tournament with the second day schedule dependent on the first day results.

2015 Review

This site saw a big boost in usage in 2015. It was used for 12 tournaments, from Huntsville to Orange Beach, with 32 divisions, 239 teams, and 410 games. Teams from 93 different schools played in G&B tournaments. This included 81 varsity boys, 68 varsity girls, 21 JV boys, and 11 JV girls teams. 26 varsity boys, 25 varsity girls, and 4 JV boys teams played in more than one G&B tournament. Feedback was fairly good and I think most of the tournaments will use the site in the future.

Altogether G&B was used in 18 tournaments. 327 teams (41 divisions) played 540 games in all tournaments/events.

Groups & Brackets

"Groups & Brackets" simplifies reporting and displaying soccer tournament results. It was developed at grissomsoccer.com for Grissom events, but other high school soccer tournaments can use it at no cost.

Reasons TO Use Groups & Brackets - Reasons Not to Use Groups & Brackets

Click here for short tutorial that steps through some of the features.

Click here for more details about Groups & Brackets. Contact Tom Konantz via email if you have any questions or would like to try it out. Or post questions in the "Groups & Brackets" Forum.

Tournament Builder