GOAL SAFETY AND GROUND SATURATED FROM HEAVY RAINS

With the tremendous amount of rain that has fallen in areas of North Carolina, we felt the need to print two emails from our insurer. We've deleted the names of individuals and areas, but the message remains clear! We hope you find this informative!

[Email #1]
"So, we almost added a kid to the soccer goalpost fatality stats tonight.

We were having a waterbreak and there was a group of kids standing in the
goal. I turned to say something to the other coach, hear a scream, and the
goalpost (a huge iron thing) is down and I've got a kid crawling around with
blood spurting from his head. Pouring out like he's in a horror movie or
something. Long story short, he's in the hospital, his head is fine but
he's got a cracked vertebrae.

The [colorful metaphor] of it is, after getting those emails from you I always check the
posts, and the [colorful metaphor] things were staked down. But it had rained really hard,
the ground was soft, and when the post started over it just popped the
stakes out like they were staples or something. We put the other goalpost
down and the stakes for it came out easier than most dandelions I've pulled.

Can you send me that website you forwarded to me after your friends
accident? I'm wondering if there is some particular equipment that would
improve the situation. We're going to raise [colorful metaphor] with the city."

[end Email #1]

[Email #2]
"Happily the boy in question escaped with "only" a deep head gash requiring
14 staples and a severe concussion, and no other injuries.

The goal that fell was anchored, as I said to [name deleted] in my message, but clearly
in an inadequate way. Small pieces of rebar stuck into the ground and
twisted over the supports. The second goal, which we pulled down after the
accident, was anchored by the augur type anchors that screw into the ground.
(I gather from the [name deleted] website those are the preferred type.) Those popped
right out too with very minimal force because the ground was wet and loose.

Our local parks & rec department is trying now to figure out what to do
about the situation long term. The problem is that the fields are
multi-use. So they believe they need mobile goalposts, but the users who
move them never re-anchor them properly. A related problem is that the
grounds crews move the posts to mow, move them back and re-anchor, but they
are sticking the anchors back into the same piece of ground. That's not
going to hold if you've loosened it up.

Feel free to let others know about the problem."

[End Email #2]