Winter in Wisconsin can be an unpredictable time of year for playing basketball. We thought a few reminders would be appropriate as we enter the midpoint of the season:
1) SWBL does not mandate or encourage any athlete or family to take unnecessary risks in travel. Error on the side of safety.
2) SWBL encourages the host schools to NOT call off the event, but rather let those teams traveling make independent decisions on whether they can attend. This is especially true in calling off an event due to a 'forecast' of bad weather the day prior to an event.
3) Host schools have the freedom to make adjustments to the schedule is one or more teams can not make the event, due to weather.
4) Host schools have the freedom to make adjustments to the length of games, should the tournament start late, due to weather (ie 2 hour late start).
5) Host CL's can access coaches' contact information by logging into www.swblonline.com and clicking on "Manage My Events." Find the event in question and click on the coach's name. Be sure that pop-ups are not disabled on your browser and a pop-up will appear with the coach's contact information.
6) Coach's of teams should be sure to notify the Host School if they are not going to be in attendance, or will be late to the event, due to weather related issues.
7) Coaches can find Host School Contact information by going to www.swblonline.com and clicking on TEAMS on the gold bar. Choose the host district from the pull down menu and in the light blue box, the Community Liaison (with contact information) will appear.
8) Finally, check out the Full SWBL rules for policies on how the entry fee/hosting credits are determined in these situations. If Host Cancels: Teams may play in any other event without penalty. If they don't get in another event, they are charged $50. Hosts get no credits. If Team Cancels due to Weather: If they enter another event (and pay for entry fee), they will pay a $50 cancellation fee + the new entry fee. If they do not play in another event, they will pay full price for the event they did not show up at.
Good luck and we hope everyone uses good judgement in their decision making.