Adult Soccer Tournament Postponed Due To Technical Issues

Soccer players across Oklahoma are ready to get the ball rolling, but many clubs are having to wait to start the season due to technology problems.

“We can't start until February, late February, because of the weather, and we have to be done by Memorial Day, so we have to squeeze a lot in. And we have to deal with Mother Nature through the season and that's usually the part that's hardest in the Spring. But now with this software down, it's a little tough,” said Donna Dildine, Office Registrar for Northeast Oklahoma Adult Soccer Association. "It's tough cause they can't play on Easter. That's our Sunday. We can't play on Mother's Day. That's another Sunday, and now we have to push this week out. It's going to be crunchy but it'll be okay."

Donna Dildine is the registrar for the Northeast Oklahoma Adult Soccer Association whose more than 800 adult players, ages 18-80, rely on Got-Sport.

"All of our players are in that format, and I don't have them anywhere else. So I have to use it to get the word out and that's kind of the difficult thing about it right now, is being able to communicate with all of these players. It's down. I can't talk to them and let them know what's going on,” said Dildine. "I've received quite a few emails and questions about it, and we just handle it and go on."

Due to the outage, Dildine said they've pushed back opening games that were supposed to be this Sunday.

“If it goes into next weekend it's going to be a little rough. But we're pretty resilient. Our players are passionate. They just want to put those cleats on and play so they'll get back at it,” said Dildine. "We started out with their original program Got Soccer. Loved it. But then they advanced and went high tech and I guess that's when problems come in. I don't know."

Steve Wierzchowski said the Broken Arrow Soccer Club's season was supposed to start March 4. That's been pushed back a week.

"It happened at the worst time it could've. We are just right at the end of where we have formed our teams and we are starting bracketing and scheduling, and especially detrimental to our new coaches and new players because communications have been troublesome," said Steve Wierzchowski, Broken Arrow Soccer Club Board Member & Recreational VP at the Oklahoma Soccer Association. "We have had a lot of calls and emails from families wanting wondering what’s going on and why haven't they heard from their coach yet."

He said the BA Soccer Club has roughly 2,300, 175 teams, and still needs to fill about 20 coaching slots.

Because of the outage, they have to communicate manually. But Wierzchowski said everyone is working hard to resolve issues and they continue to update their website and social media.

His goal is to get the schedules completed by next week and be playing within the next two weeks.

Wierzchowski encourages families to reach out if they haven't heard anything. He said it's especially difficult for new people.

“Rest assured that there wasn't a security breach as far as data goes, but one of the important things that we do through Got-Sport is to register our coaches or any other adults that are working with children, so we do have to be a little cautious, especially with new coaches. We aren't able to conduct background checks and do safety training with those coaches yet so that will slow us down a bit,” said Wierzchowski.

The Broken Arrow Soccer Club said it might push back the end date of the season to make up for lost time; they said there are options to reschedule, move things around, and extend the season.  

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