Jupiter Senior Softball Association

Fellow JSSA Softball Players

We trust that all of you are enjoying your off-season and I wish you an exciting summer
ahead!

I wanted to bring you what I think is good news for all of us. As you know, it wasn't too
long ago that when players wanted to play in a pick up game they would head down to
JCP to see their fellow players also wanting to play. You went to the field that best
suited your skill level and players volunteered to be captains and sides were chosen.
We played the games and win or lose, we all went home happy.


But like most things in life, there is always room for improvement. About six years ago, Tom Cosentino became commissioner and working with a consultant from India,
developed the sign-up system we have today. Players log on, sign up to play and every
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoon receive an email telling them what field and
team they are on and if they are so lucky to be captain for the day. Pretty cool and
simple, right? Well, yes and no. Cool? Absolutely. Simple? Not really. Behind the
scenes on those afternoons your executive board plus members of the red, white and
blue boards would have to be by their computers at 3pm, look at how many players
signed up, decide the fields players will play on (not an easy chore), make sure there
are enough pitchers and outfielders and shortstops on each field, etc. This is all before
players were placed on teams and captains selected. Then all the emails were
gathered and sent to the players advising them of the teams for the next day. While a
vast majority of players liked this method probably very few realized that on some days
it could take well over an hour for those involved.


Always looking to improve, and in this era of AI, I am pleased to announce that for the
next month we will be testing a new system that we trust will be a better and improved method for the players and for those board members who had to spend their afternoons lurking by their computers.

Players will still sign up to play. No change there. The big change will be the behind the
scenes hours and hours of time spent by board members will go away as our friendly
computer/system (which has been programmed and given information on all JSSA
players) will do all of the behind the scenes work in just a matter of minutes. A click of
the mouse will sort the fields, select the players, set the teams and pick the captains!
Rest assured, that any changes that the two captains for the day want to make can
always be made at the fields the next day.

I am pleased to say we tried this new process with a few recent games and the games were very competitive. And let's remember; this is old man softball, not Game 7 of the World Series! If a computer can drive a car going 75mph down I95 it can certainly pick teams for a pickup game!

Please note: Effective today, emails will no longer be sent to players telling them to click the link to see tomorrows game day teams. Players can simply check the website anytime after 4pm on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday to see what team/field they are on the following day.

We always appreciate feedback/suggestions/criticisms from our players. Please reach
out to a fellow board member to discuss. We will keep all of you apprised as we go
through this process.

Thank You and Play Ball!

Richard Sewell
John Cariero
Steve Klein