Happy fall, y’all! While it’s pumpkin spice latte season for some, it’s tournament-planning season for all of us here at KSA. We’re busy planning some incredible, game-changing high school sporting events for teams across the country and we couldn’t be more excited to get student athletes back on the road.
We believe that competition travel can truly change everything for your program, but not just any competition will do. When you’re considering taking your team to a tournament, one of the most critical things to think through is bracketing – here’s why:
Why bracketing matters
Picture your team at its first out-of-state, fully sanctioned competition. The months of planning, fundraising and excitement have been building to this moment! You arrive to find out you’ve been seeded to play a much stronger team right out of the gate, a team that’s been competing on the road for years, backed by an established program with a history of dominating everyone they play. Excitement turns to dread and your team suffers a devastating loss. Your athletes head home, disappointed and less than excited to ever give competition travel another go.
The lesson? Every team wants a fair shot at victory, that’s why a well-bracketed tournament makes all the difference.
A great bracket doesn’t happen by accident
We ensure that every one of our sporting events is bracketed fairly, giving every team a level playing field to compete on. As we’re planning each tournament, we request that each coach complete an application that gives us all the information we need to create fair brackets:
- School size
- Conference they belong to
- Participant counts by grade
- Season records for the last two years
This “intel” helps us lay out a fair, balanced draft bracket that we then send to the coaches for review and feedback. If anyone raises concerns, we try our best to work those out before we land on a final tournament bracket.
The right tournament for YOU
Our tournaments are known for being accessible to teams at every level of play, which means everyone gets to participate – from reigning state champs to growing programs. Fairly matched competition leads to awesome experiences for players and some edge-of-your-seat experiences for the lucky folks in the stands, too!
Since there’s a tournament for everyone, our events fill up FAST – so don’t wait! Reach out today and we’ll find the event that’s right for your team.