Barrington's 'BIT' soccer tournament canceled

Anticipating wet weather, town closes all athletic fields

Posted 11/1/18

The Barrington Invitational Tournament has been canceled.

Barrington Youth Soccer Association President Steve DeBoth sent an email to league parents on Thursday afternoon notifying them of the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Barrington's 'BIT' soccer tournament canceled

Anticipating wet weather, town closes all athletic fields

Posted

The Barrington Invitational Tournament has been canceled.

Barrington Youth Soccer Association President Steve DeBoth sent an email to league parents on Thursday afternoon notifying them of the situation. He wrote that Barrington officials ordered all fields closed this weekend because of the impending rain. Heavy rain has been forecasted for late Friday through Saturday afternoon.

"We received word earlier today that the town of Barrington is closing all fields this weekend," wrote Mr. DeBoth. "The rationale is the fields are still relatively water-logged with more rain looking certain. As a result, we cannot hold the 2018 Barrington Invitational Tournament."

The BIT is Barrington Youth Soccer Association's largest event of the year. Dozens of youth soccer teams from across the region visit Barrington for the weekend-long tournament each fall. Last year, more than 120 teams from Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts flocked to Barrington for the BIT.

Mr. DeBoth said the BIT's cancelation is disappointing. 

"We were monitoring the forecasts ourselves on practically an hour by hour basis, but made the determination yesterday (Wednesday) that we were going to proceed as normal with the tournament up until the point we might be forced to cancel some games," wrote Mr. DeBoth. "We were always going to err on the side of caution when it came to protecting the fields, but because tournament games cannot be rescheduled, we wanted to allow for any possibility the weather might arrive as more of a whimper than a roar. Forecasts have been wrong before.

"This is disappointing for all involved; for the players who just want to play, for the parents who want to watch and support, and for the board and other volunteers who have already worked so hard to get the tournament ready to go."

The cancelation of the BIT serves as a disappointing end to a frustrating season for the Barrington Youth Soccer Association. On multiple occasions this fall, league officials were forced to cancel games because Chianese Field was too wet to play on; Chianese was built on a former landfill and does not drain as well as other fields in town.

In addition, youth sports league officials have been grappling with news of a proposed field fee increase in town.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.