One Opening in 16U for ASA National Qualifier

[ASAdefender]

One team has dropped out in 16U due to injury so there is one slot available in the ASA National Qualifier this weekend in Chattanooga. If interested in playing contact Kim at (423)987-4402 or swaffordhome@bellsouth.net.

[joeyT]

One team has dropped out in 16U due to injury so there is one slot available in the ASA National Qualifier this weekend in Chattanooga. If interested in playing contact Kim at (423)987-4402 or swaffordhome@bellsouth.net.

 

Nashville - 4 teams

Knoxville - 3 teams

Chattanooga - 1 team

 

Who is supporting ASA now? 8 teams. Didn't Hendersonville have 18 in 16u? Something is wrong in paradise.

 

2 12U

2 10U both Knoxville

5 18U - 2 Nashville, 1 Knoxville, 1 Chatt without a berth

14U is "biggest" with a underwhelming 12 teams if they all show. Knoxville more than Chatt "area" teams. Keep on telling us how Chattanooga carries ASA and how bad the midstate stinks in their support. Keep tellng us that ASA is so much better and is the all important governing body of softball from a 20 year old ole boy system resolution with no meaning. All those alphabets with "pseudo world series" as you keep insisting have run off an left ASA in the dust in Tn but ASA won't listen. 29 teams in a national qualifier for all age divisions. That's embarrassing. There are that many in the USFA State in 14u and 16u alone to qualify for world. They have something like 103 teams. Something is real wrong in paradise or am I repeating myself.

[frostcomets96]

Nashville - 4 teams

Knoxville - 3 teams

Chattanooga - 1 team

 

Who is supporting ASA now? 8 teams. Didn't Hendersonville have 18 in 16u? Something is wrong in paradise.

 

2 12U

2 10U both Knoxville

5 18U - 2 Nashville, 1 Knoxville, 1 Chatt without a berth

14U is "biggest" with a underwhelming 12 teams if they all show. Knoxville more than Chatt "area" teams. Keep on telling us how Chattanooga carries ASA and how bad the midstate stinks in their support. Keep tellng us that ASA is so much better and is the all important governing body of softball from a 20 year old ole boy system resolution with no meaning. All those alphabets with "pseudo world series" as you keep insisting have run off an left ASA in the dust in Tn but ASA won't listen. 29 teams in a national qualifier for all age divisions. That's embarrassing. There are that many in the USFA State in 14u and 16u alone to qualify for world. They have something like 103 teams. Something is real wrong in paradise or am I repeating myself.

 

 

 

There are several teams that have already qualified, that chose not to play this weekend, to prevent that berth from going to someone else. While USFA did / does have several teams, there is no place for many of them in ASA..ASA is for the elite teams, and I rather it not get watered down. This is obvious when you have to split the USFA 12u B division into Gold & Silver that is rediculous. When you have teams playing B for sakes of a trophy, that should be playing A is also ridiculous. Or you only have 4 teams in USFA 12UA and none are "A' teams????

 

Don't get me wrong USFA has it's place, but ASA is the top level of competition Nationwide..

[wondertwinpower]

One team has dropped out in 16U due to injury so there is one slot available in the ASA National Qualifier this weekend in Chattanooga. If interested in playing contact Kim at (423)987-4402 or swaffordhome@bellsouth.net.

 

 

Which team dropped out?

[joeyT]

There are several teams that have already qualified, that chose not to play this weekend, to prevent that berth from going to someone else. While USFA did / does have several teams, there is no place for many of them in ASA..ASA is for the elite teams, and I rather it not get watered down. This is obvious when you have to split the USFA 12u B division into Gold & Silver that is rediculous. When you have teams playing B for sakes of a trophy, that should be playing A is also ridiculous. Or you only have 4 teams in USFA 12UA and none are "A' teams????

 

Don't get me wrong USFA has it's place, but ASA is the top level of competition Nationwide..

 

All thats fine but its not the point. Shes been bashing Nashville for their lack of support all year but if it wasn't for Nashville and Knoxville there wouldn't be any teams. 2 teams in 2 age groups? Thats a joke. There are only 2 teams in every age division who have qualified and some of them are playing this weekend. Not much of a argument.

 

Which team dropped out?

 

predators

[slappypappy]

It's all about the green in any of the sanctions. The only thing ASA has over the alphabet soups is bragging rights, since the NCAA has delegated them to be the governing body over womens college softball. ASA is relatively new to TN fastpitch and seems to have the true gold teams participating in their tournaments right now. How long this will last no one knows. It could be good or bad. The good would be that it can provide the opportunity for the gold teams to compete against each other locally.........without having to fly to Oklahoma, Colorado, California, etc. The bad would be that there may not be enough gold teams in each age group from one year to the next to provide tournaments with both quality and quantity.

 

I would also like to ask some questions......What is the difference between a "gold" team in ASA and an "A" team in any of the other sanctions? Or does it boil down to "bragging rights" or that I am better than you thing? Finally, Should everyone look at ASA as the standard for all age groups of travel softball or is it just part of the mixture?

[onthebucket]

Nashville - 4 teams

Knoxville - 3 teams

Chattanooga - 1 team

 

Who is supporting ASA now? 8 teams. Didn't Hendersonville have 18 in 16u? Something is wrong in paradise.

 

2 12U

2 10U both Knoxville

5 18U - 2 Nashville, 1 Knoxville, 1 Chatt without a berth

14U is "biggest" with a underwhelming 12 teams if they all show. Knoxville more than Chatt "area" teams. Keep on telling us how Chattanooga carries ASA and how bad the midstate stinks in their support. Keep tellng us that ASA is so much better and is the all important governing body of softball from a 20 year old ole boy system resolution with no meaning. All those alphabets with "pseudo world series" as you keep insisting have run off an left ASA in the dust in Tn but ASA won't listen. 29 teams in a national qualifier for all age divisions. That's embarrassing. There are that many in the USFA State in 14u and 16u alone to qualify for world. They have something like 103 teams. Something is real wrong in paradise or am I repeating myself.

 

The number of teams in the USFA qualifiers just shows that people would rather pay for a berth to a world series than to earn one. No matter how you finish, if you play you are in. So you dont really qualify, you are just paying for a reservation.

[CFS]

It's all about the green in any of the sanctions. The only thing ASA has over the alphabet soups is bragging rights, since the NCAA has delegated them to be the governing body over womens college softball. ASA is relatively new to TN fastpitch and seems to have the true gold teams participating in their tournaments right now. How long this will last no one knows. It could be good or bad. The good would be that it can provide the opportunity for the gold teams to compete against each other locally.........without having to fly to Oklahoma, Colorado, California, etc. The bad would be that there may not be enough gold teams in each age group from one year to the next to provide tournaments with both quality and quantity.

 

I would also like to ask some questions......What is the difference between a "gold" team in ASA and an "A" team in any of the other sanctions? Or does it boil down to "bragging rights" or that I am better than you thing? Finally, Should everyone look at ASA as the standard for all age groups of travel softball or is it just part of the mixture?

 

 

If NCAA decided that USFA was the place to be then the top teams in the State would play USFA and the remainder of the teams would find somewhere else to go play because the quality of play was too much for all these teams playing USFA now. Some of these teams playing USFA now can possibly play ASA (maybe not win all games but certainly get better by playing better competition just about every game not just the last 3-4 teams standing) but decide a beach vacation is what they really want. But also a berth to play USFA is guaranteed and if they do not do this they may not be able to play anything at the end of the year and they know it. Nothing wrong with that but look at the top teams in the Midstate area. Where are they playing this weekend?? ASA unless already qualified. ASA Needs to improve some things they do, not only locally but nationally but at least with ASA you for the most part will play full games not 3-4 innings because of the money and time limits. I believe ASA in TN is working on this as I think Larry Spear knows the game and ASA well and the Chattanooga area is doing well as well. ASA is not new to TN as it has always been the place to be especially in the 14U- 18U age groups. The 10U and 12U is what ASA needs to focus on. Keep in mind also that the number of berths available is due to registrations in ASA regardless of what level (A,B, C, Rec). This is where the midstate does not help itself. Chattanooga area registers a lot of teams regardless of level. With the population of Nashville, they should register more but do not. Also, the parks available in the Nashville area are 2nd class. This shouldn't be an argument just an understanding that each sanctioning body has its place, but if you want to play the best and focus on getting better and you have a capable team, give it your best with ASA. USFA is not Nationally recognized but for the most part when playing ASA you play against the best from each state and ASA is nationally recognized.

[3rdbasecoach]

Nashville - 4 teams

Knoxville - 3 teams

Chattanooga - 1 team

 

Who is supporting ASA now? 8 teams. Didn't Hendersonville have 18 in 16u? Something is wrong in paradise.

 

2 12U

2 10U both Knoxville

5 18U - 2 Nashville, 1 Knoxville, 1 Chatt without a berth

14U is "biggest" with a underwhelming 12 teams if they all show. Knoxville more than Chatt "area" teams. Keep on telling us how Chattanooga carries ASA and how bad the midstate stinks in their support. Keep tellng us that ASA is so much better and is the all important governing body of softball from a 20 year old ole boy system resolution with no meaning. All those alphabets with "pseudo world series" as you keep insisting have run off an left ASA in the dust in Tn but ASA won't listen. 29 teams in a national qualifier for all age divisions. That's embarrassing. There are that many in the USFA State in 14u and 16u alone to qualify for world. They have something like 103 teams. Something is real wrong in paradise or am I repeating myself.

 

 

I have been lucky enough to have coached in most all organizations (ASA, USFA, ...etc) Its just my opinion that the best competition weekend and week out is the ASA. The quality of the tournament field is always top-notch. Every once in a while, you get a few teams that really don't belong there and are quickly dispatched. But, for the most part, any team in a ASA tournament can beat the others. The talent is usually equally distributed and of a higher caliber. Again, just my opinion!

[sballdad]

I have been lucky enough to have coached in most all organizations (ASA, USFA, ...etc) Its just my opinion that the best competition weekend and week out is the ASA. The quality of the tournament field is always top-notch. Every once in a while, you get a few teams that really don't belong there and are quickly dispatched. But, for the most part, any team in a ASA tournament can beat the others. The talent is usually equally distributed and of a higher caliber. Again, just my opinion!

 

 

 

 

I coach a team with pretty good players top to bottom. I do agree that when you play an ASA tournament, top to bottom, usually the field is pretty good. At any given time any team will beat the other. We always look for comp. in the tournaments we select to play. We are based out of middle Tn and here if you stay close to home and you want to play a strong tournament it will most likely be and USFA tournament. The ASA in Hendersonville this past May had some good strong teams,but as a rule, locally USFA will have twice the talent as a NSA, USSSA, or USGF. If we can't find good talent in our age group we will move up one and generally play better up than we do playing down. With all this said I think it is silly for grown adults to argue over something at stupid as where and what sanction we sould play. It's even worse for some tournament directors to do the same. I think we should take this same time and energy spent bad mouthing one another, and put it towards our girls and teach them the lessons they need to learn about life and softball and see if we all don't come out better in the long run. No matter where we play and what sanction it is this just go have some fun with these great kids and build some great times together.

[BallHawkD]

There are several teams that have already qualified, that chose not to play this weekend, to prevent that berth from going to someone else. While USFA did / does have several teams, there is no place for many of them in ASA..ASA is for the elite teams, and I rather it not get watered down. This is obvious when you have to split the USFA 12u B division into Gold & Silver that is rediculous. When you have teams playing B for sakes of a trophy, that should be playing A is also ridiculous. Or you only have 4 teams in USFA 12UA and none are "A' teams????

 

Don't get me wrong USFA has it's place, but ASA is the top level of competition Nationwide..

 

 

 

frostcomets96 what level of ball did your dd play when she was 9?

 

Darrell

[5-Sport Dad]

Kim,

 

I have been reading about you defending the ASA for a while now. I also heard you speak highly of the Chattanooga area, how most of the registered teams are from around there, and that they are the reason why TN is getting more bids to the Nationals. You complain about the alphabet soup in the rest of the state, but when middle TN wanted to hold an ASA qualfier, you said it was awarded because they whined enough. Apparently when ASA sponsors a tournament, it is poorly ran, judging from yours and others comments. Do you still wonder why ASA is not popular in the rest of the state? It sound to me like you do a great job promoting your association to your home area, but it is a hassle to expand it to the rest of the state. Here in west TN ASA is almost nonexisting and we may not be part of your region, I don't know because nobody is doing much promoting around here. JTK does what he can, but the ASA tournament he hosts is for a single age group. Even after my rant, I think the rest of the state would love to support the ASA, but only if the ASA will support the rest of the state.

 

 

 

Funny, but when I'm watching two good teams play, I don't really care who the sanctioning body is - NCAA, USFA, ASA, NSA, USSSA, whoever... And, to me, it's sad that college coaches put the ASA on such a pedestal. On the field, when it counts, the initials on the front of the umpires' hats doesn't make a dimes worth of difference to the players or the fans.

 

intheshadow, very well said. Common sense...seems to be so uncommon.

 

Also, I know plenty USFA regulars that would've easily competed and done better than 75% of the teams at the ASA-sanctioned SluggerFest this past weekend.

 

There are several teams that have already qualified, that chose not to play this weekend, to prevent that berth from going to someone else. While USFA did / does have several teams, there is no place for many of them in ASA..ASA is for the elite teams, and I rather it not get watered down. This is obvious when you have to split the USFA 12u B division into Gold & Silver that is rediculous. When you have teams playing B for sakes of a trophy, that should be playing A is also ridiculous. Or you only have 4 teams in USFA 12UA and none are "A' teams????

 

Don't get me wrong USFA has it's place, but ASA is the top level of competition Nationwide..

 

Not true. Doesn't matter if they've already earned a berth. It goes to next highest finisher that hasn't qualified, according to CoachT experts on another thread (in addition to making sense).