One Opening in 16U for ASA National Qualifier

[CFS]

Dont disagree with any of that but still missing the point. She bashes nashvilles participation and the whole story that they only play in nashville and wont travel but she doesnt have any chatt teams in her chatt qualifier. Whree is all the powerful chattanooga support for asa. More nashville teams by far in a chatt qualifier than chatt teams. More knoxville teams. They are traveling but chatt teams arent even qualifying at home. I dont see anything improving. Same ole same ole. Yeah they have more registrations in chatt but it is mainly rec league registrations. Not so in travel. Considering the crap in mid tn asa the last 10 years it is amazing that any mid tn teams still participate. Maybe elite teams do asa but more and more elite teams are going the showcase route in tn and avoiding asa. Way better competition than 2, 2, 5, or 8 team tn asa qualifiers. The nasvhille market is usfa because tn asa keeps screwing it up over and over. Crook has taken advantage of their incompetence. They cant or wont buy in because it is so shoddily run and being bashed by the leaders. ASA used to be top dog in tn even way more than ga is now. Those days are long gone and until national changes their policies and tn asa cleans house and revamps the glory days wont ever be back.

 

Many of the Chatt teams have qualified and keep in mind also that N GA market is also Chatt and because of ASA Rules if you have more N GA players than TN you must register GA which also hurts Chatt TN. It is kind of like saying Murfreesboro or Hendersonville or Dickson is not part of Nashville. This weekend there are additional Chatt teams playing in an ASA friendly in Chattanooga instead of playing in the qualifier to help prevent these teams from knocking another team from a berth which also includes a couple teams that qualified in Atlanta or "A" teams in North GA that are still working at a berth that are travelling to KY for a National qualifier the next weekend then playing in the ASA State in GA the following weekend. The teams from Atlanta pulled out of a USFA State in GA in an older age group to play the friendly in Chattanooga. If you allowed the NGA teams in TN ASA, the numbers in Chatt would be even greater which is another thing ASA needs to do is identify markets.

 

Hoping this type of conversation will help with ASA in TN and be the premier organization in TN as it is in the larger markets in the country. But you have to agree if you go to any state the best teams in that State will be attending ASA Nationals when it is all said and done because you have to earn the trip by winning not just by attending. The other thing ASA has in place is Regional Nationals for those teams not qualifying this year can earn a berth for the following year so you are not locked out of some end of year tournament.

[GHS2012]

Wow, this thread has blew up in the past few days. I see this becoming an ASA v/s USFA Chattanooga v/s Nashville @#$%^ fest. Each have there place.

 

There is alot of good points by many people on here. ASA Defender had a valid point, if you look at sheer numbers of ASA registered teams than Chatt is carrying the state. And with the number of berths per state depending on teams registered (Rec, A, B, or any level) than she has a right to call out Nashville since there numbers are much greater. As far as saying Nashville doesnt deserve to host a qualifier that is not fair for the teams out there. I think Knoxville should be able to host one as well as Nashville but that will never happen. One director in Nashville got his ducks in a row a few years back & has cornered the market in that area. He drove out all fly by night tournament directors by holding a decent tournament at a fair price with decent umpires. I personally think people are playing in them for the venue / competition not the sanctioning. Atleast thats why we do.

 

I was thrilled when I learned TN got 4 berth this year. (up from 3 last year) For that I thank Chattaooga, SE TN, Nashville an anyone else who had a hand in getting them. Now lets just get that fifth one for 2010!!! We are a registered ASA team & have been for the past 3 years. But we also registered USFA & NSA because we want to play the best competition ALL OVER the state & South East. You cant do that just registering ASA or USFA etc...

 

ASA is far behind the times. Mandatory Insurance & worthless coaching certificates whats next? I am still waiting on my ASA rule book to arrive that I was supposed to get when I registered my team in Jan. Not to mention they cant even get the State Champions right befor they print them in the rule book. Heaven forbid you need a change to your insurance certificate, it takes nothing short of an act of god to get it dun & you better not need it very quickly. ASA is still the place to be for the higher age groups 14u-18u Gold. But they are taking a hit on the National level. There is alot of unhappy people in the 18 Gold division & from what I hear 18 A is watered down. If something dont change we may be witnessing the demise of ASA.... All its gonna take is for a few of the larger west coast organizations to get fed up with it & move on then the rest will follow. Believe it or not coaches will go wherever the largest number of highly skilled recruitable players are at, whether that be at an ASA National event or Panama City Beach.

 

Good Luck To All!!!

[wvanalmsick]

While Sluggerfest was able to assemble 33-16U teams for their tournament, the majority of the top-tier Ohio and Indiana 16U teams were competing in an ASA/USA National Qualifier in Ashland, Ohio or they were at Compuware, a showcase in Canton, MI. Sluggerfest was not an ASA/USA Qualifier for 16U that weekend.

 

All that it takes for a team to go ASA Gold is to register. That's it, nothing else. Of course, when they do that, they place restrictions on themselves. There is no way to tell if an ASA Gold team is just as good as any other team. But, the playing pool is much smaller and the exposure factor is greater.

[ASAdefender]

Mr JoeyT:

I am sorry you missed the point in my other posts about Chattanooga and East Tennessee carrying ASA. Any good ole boy with some old fashioned horse sense could discern that the area of the state (middle TN) with the highest population base would have the most local teams available to play in tournaments. There is no question Nashville has more teams available to participate. So, when a tournament is held in Nashville, it would only make sense that there would be more local teams participating.

My point in prior posts was that ASA rewards state associations with National berths based on the number of teams that register from each state. One berth for every 500 registered teams. For a variety of reasons, Nashville teams have stopped registering with ASA. One of those reasons is due to some very poor commissioners not performing their jobs and there were no ASA tournaments available for these teams to participate each weekend. Unfortunately, the ASA powers that be did not take action soon enough and USFA dangled the Panama City carrot and many middle Tennessee teams bit.

By the time ASA got someone who knows softball (Larry Spear) in a Commissioner slot, the damage had been done and Larry has his work cut out for him in repairing ASA in Nashville. I am confident he can do it. In the meantime, East Tennessee (mainly Chattanooga) has been carrying the registration burden and keeping the ASA registrations up so those TN coaches who want their kids to earn their way to the Nationals can have that opportunity. My point was that the area that shoulders the burden of providing the ASA registrations should be rewarded with the berth tournaments.

By the way, there are several Chattanooga teams that already have berths to the ASA Nationals so those teams chose not participate in the qualifier and be put in the position of potentially eliminating a team that would really like to earn a berth to the Nationals.

I have no doubt that ASA "A" events will always have fewer teams participating due to the "trophy hunter" mentality of male coaches. Most male coaches would rather brag about winning a USFB or alphabet soup event than fiinishing 6th or 7th at an ASA Qualifier. This is especially true in the 10U and 12U age groups. However, once these guys realize it is about more than a $4 trophy for the girls and his garage is overrun with phallic symbols, these same guys start trying to figure out the ASA berth process and then ask their team Mom to go online and figure out how to do ASA registration.

In closing, Mr. T, while we did not have a huge qualifier event in Chattanooga this past weekend, we had a great group of quality teams with quality coaches that understood the rules of the game and the importance of playing strong competition. We played real games of 7 innings rather than half games of called after 4 innings due to time. It was about hosting a quality event that benefits the girls rather than paying umpires a higher hourly rate and giving the TD a salary. There were college coaches present to watch games because college coaches understand the importance of playing strong competition. The girls played hard and three teams earned berths to the finest and most well attended fastpitch events in the country.

Good luck with the rest of the season,

Kim Swafford

Chattanooga ASA

[Indian]

Do you really think 9/10 teams need to be placed in the most difficult tournaments possible? There is time to be recruited later.

[ASAdefender]

Do you really think 9/10 teams need to be placed in the most difficult tournaments possible? There is time to be recruited later.

 

Indian: While ASA at 10U and 12U is not for everyone, as a coach we should put our kids in the best situation to help them improve every time they take the field. If you are coaching a strong younger team that is sweeping up in USFB events, you should seek out more competition for your girls. When I coached 10U, we were fortunate that ASA chose to have the 10U Nationals in Johnson City, TN that year. We qualified and attended and it was a great experience for our girls. While we did not win the tournament, we played some great games against some very strong competition, some we won, some we lost. We also had the opportunity to see teams from about 20 different states including the West Coast. A team even came from Hawaii that year. I hope more of our local coaches from all over the state will consider playing an ASA National at a younger age. It is not about being recruited at that age it is about improving their game and making sure the girls are not shell shocked when their coach wakes up at about age 14U or 16U and finally decides it is time to them to a ASA National.

I also feel strongly that Tennessee teams should support those organizations that support our state. In the past 5 years, ASA has awarded 4 National Tournaments to Tennessee. Having these National tournaments in Tennessee brings much needed tax revenue to our state. NSA does the same and after the NSA Eastern National in Chattanooga this summer, NSA will have held 3 of its last 7 Eastern Nationals in Tennessee. The alphabet soup organizations are helping the state of Florida and have never held anything in Tennessee yet many in Tennessee keep blindly following the path to the Pan Handle.

BTW, I am not "bashing" Panama City, I am sure they do a great job in hosting a softball event in a beach town. However, as a former teenage girl that played and loved softball, I don't believe the beach is the right place to play a serious softball event. In my opinion, the beach is the beach and softball is softball and never the twain shall meet.

ok, I'm out,

Kim Swafford

Chattanooga ASA

[trailhead]

Kim, you have had good points but you blew it with the "male coach being the problem cause all they want is a trophy". That was an idiotic statement.

 

You need to go back to being a lawyer. That is where you can make stupid statements like that one and get away with it.

[MS24fan]

ASA carries Gold and yields the venue most traveled by college coaches recruiting. Very few Division I schools recruit even a World Series Winner if any. It isn't about quantity, it is quality. The payoff is at Nationals and maybe Southern Nationals where there are college coaches. ASA and college exposure or invitational tourneys are where the coaches tend to go. The girls are not required to have profiles so there is very little information for the coaches. Check out spy softball. They list top recruiting tourneys. It lists NFCA and ASA and exposure tourneys. The other alphabets are not there. Music City Hits and Scenic 18's and maybe GOld Diamond is about as close as TN gets. To get to ASA you have to qualify or play in the state if I understand correctly. The other alphabets don't get you there.

 

JULY

 

1-4 TVL Disney??™s Stars & Stripes Weekend, Lake Buena Vista

 

2-5 TVL Mid-Summer College Showcase, Virginia Beach

 

1-5 TVL Boulder Independence Day tournament

 

1-5 TVL Colorado Fireworks tournament, Aurora

 

3-5 TVL Carolina Cardinals East Coast Showcase, Raleigh

 

4-12 INT Canada Cup, Surrey BC (USA national team)

 

9-12 TVL Hot Time Showcase Classic, Florence

 

9-12 TVL NFCA Stop DWI tourney, Binghamton NY

 

10-12 TVL Stop DWI Tournament of Champions, Binghamton

 

13 HS NFCA HS All Americans announced

 

13-20 USA World Cup, Oklahoma City (USA national team)

 

15-19 TVL Champions Cup, Irvine CA

 

16-19 23U ASA Women??™s 23U Nationals, Sterling VA

 

17-19 TVL Rising Stars Summer Showcase, Davie FL

 

17-19 TVL Carolina Cardinals Classic, Raleigh

 

17-19 TVL Surf City Summer Showcase, HB

 

24-25 TVL Bluechip Showcase, Clearwater FL

 

24-26 TVL Elite College Showcase, Plano TX

 

26-02 TVL ASA A Nationals (five sites)

 

27-02 10U ASA Nationals, Johnson City TN

 

26-02 12U ASA Nationals, Normal IL

 

27-02 14U ASA Nationals, Marietta GA

 

26-02 16U ASA Nationals, Sioux Falls SD

 

26-02 18A ASA Nationals, Las Vegas

 

28-02 INT Japan Cup, Yokohama (USA national team)

 

30-02 TVL Team New Jersey Challenge Cup, Edison

 

31-02 ASA Women??™s Major Nationals, Auburn AL

 

 

 

AUGUST

 

2-9 TVL USSSA Major World Series, Plano TX

 

3-10 Gold ASA Nationals, Oklahoma City

 

3-12 USA Pan Am Games, Guadalajara Mexico

 

9-16 ISF World Youth Cup, Prague, Czech Republic

 

14-16 TVL Carolina Cardinals Summer Showcase, Rock Hill SC

 

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