LaGuardia, Jamaica, Lab Museum and Queens HS of Teaching will be competing Tuesday in the opener of the PSAL Class B softball double-elimination semifinals at 3:30 p.m. That much is known.
Where those four teams will be playing — well, that’s another story.
As of late Monday night, there was no location listed on the PSAL Web site and at least three of the four coaches had no idea where their teams would be playing in less than 17 hours. LaGuardia’s Greg Brummell, Jamaica’s Mike Pallisco and Lab’s Charles Jessup were left hoping that the neutral sites will be close enough that it wouldn’t take extraordinary means to get their teams there. QHST’s Ayette Cabrera could not be reached Sunday night. And ironically enough, PSAL softball commissioner Sylvia Makresia works at LaGuardia.
Sources told The Post that umpire assignor Alan Wharton was also not told about the locations and he was not able to assign the six necessary officials as of late Monday night. Wharton did not return a phone message and PSAL commissioners are barred from speaking to the media, per league rules.
Even if no one was at the PSAL offices to update the Web site on Memorial Day, all it takes is one e-mail sent to the four coaches to tell them what fields to be at. But communication hasn’t been the PSAL softball hierarchy’s strong point.
Remember last year when they didn’t tell anyone they were expanding the playoffs to 32 teams and Lehman had to forfeit because coach Andrea Perretti had already released her players for the summer?
Things have improved this season with a few blemishes here and there. The Class A seeding was obviously not done correctly considering No. 25 Petrides was able to make its way to the quarterfinals – in a bracket I pointed out as weak the day the seeding came out.
I understand that running a PSAL sport is a daunting task and it’s certainly not one that I would like to undertake. I’m positive that Makresia, assistant Dawn Gugliaro and coordinator Tyrone Parker are trying their best to do the right thing with PSAL softball’s best interests in mind. And I know it’s a process since last year was the commissioners’ first.
But stuff like this can’t go on. Entire teams of players can’t be left twisting in the wind.
Of course, it could rain tomorrow and everything above could be rendered moot. Even in that case, there’s still the principle of the matter.