With the regular season officially coming to an end, I know some of you not in the playoffs will be re-acquainting yourselves with your family, catching up on yard work, and hopefully enjoying a little downtime. For the eight teams still remaining, the workload only gets more substantial, the travel a little more demanding, and the competition a little more intense.
I think we've had a great year in the AA, and I hope you feel the same. As this was our first year running the league, we have learned a lot, and hope to make improvements for the 2014 season.
But, before we write off 2013, we do have one more significant item of business for all of the AA teams--the All Star Game. We had agreed at the league meeting in 2012 to hold the 2013 All Star Game in Montana. Because the 4th of July falls on a Thursday this year, our two choices of dates for the All Star game would be July 6th (Holiday weekend) or July 13th (more than a month after the completion of the season). In talking to many of the GMs and regional managers, I was scared to death to try and hold an ALL Star game (where we struggle to get committed players to show up anyways) in Montana on a holiday weekend or in the middle of July--I don't think it would have a good outcome.
As many of you know, I have talked about tweaking the All Star game since I've been a part of the league leadership. I feel like we need to do something different. We have decided to hold the All Star game June 29th (the same date as the AA Championship game) at the same location as the Championship game. This will not only allow us to hold it sooner (having the season entirely wrapped up by the holiday weekend), but will also give players an added reason to attend the All Star game (they will be able to stick around and watch the Championship game) and I believe it will add extra meaning to the Championship game (what RMFL player wouldn't love to have 60 or so of his peers watching the Championship game?).
We're really excited about this format and hope you will enjoy it as much as we think you will. This type of format obviously comes a couple of complications. First, we won't know officially until June 23rd where the All Star game will be held (although there would seem to be a very good chance it would be in Boise, Brigham City, or Great Falls). Second, the players named to the All Star team that are playing in the Championship game will obviously not be able to participate.
The Idaho teams will be home and they will be playing the Montana, Utah, & Nevada teams . We are looking into the potential of providing All Star game jerseys for the players, but we don't yet if that is an option. Because of Glacier's forfeits, they would need to pay their fines and be in good standing with the league before their players would be allowed to play.
Again, we're extremely excited about the potential of combining these two RMFL experiences into one weekend. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to give Doug or I a call.
For those of you still playing--congratulations. For the rest of you, we'll see you in a few weeks.
Sounds like a solid idea! amazing that some players do not want to play in an all-star game, should be honor to be invited to play in a all-star game no matter what level of play or sport you play. plus having the game before the championship game makes sense. stick around with your family and watch a good classic hard fought championship game and fill the stands for a game that would be the most important game of the season. Brad for your first year running the league i cant wait to see how the second years goes its been a great season and you have done a bang up job of running it. on behalf of all payers in the AA thank you for your time and commitment the RMFL. now lets get these playoffs rolling!!
GMs/Coaches are submitting their list to us by Thursday night. We'll spend the weekend constructing the two teams and make announcements on Monday, June 17th.
I believe AAA still has awards but no all-star game. So JK can win another MVP trophy and leave it in a gas station parking lot or something. All-star game was passed on and championship team received $1,000 award instead of spending that money on a game nobody cared about.
AAA only has a Championship trophy (so as to avoid cluttering up gas station parking lots), but the awards will still be voted on. Rather than do the All Star game or $1,000 prize money, AAA GMs chose to lower their league fees this year.
Well I stand corrected. Screw you Brad! I still have my Receiving title trophy from 2006! Somewhere.... Not really sure where tho. Guess I'll just live life trophyless.... *sigh*
