**UPDATE on: Premier Tournament - Alternative to ASA Gold Nationals

[Guest Sports Reporter]

so in your solution you cant beat em so join em? I agree with you can bad mouth the padre but when it's that time you all say "please and thank you's" to get in that tournament. I have had my dealings with all three Jonathan, Stoney and Ron. T

No one said I liked the padre, he built the stinkin' tournament.

My solution would have been to limit the teams years ago like the Boulder tournament did.  Then you wouldn't have people crying about playing in the boonies at 10 oclock at night, they would just cry about not playing

[HR4MEK4U]

you padre liker!!! yes I said liker no "c" missing haha. I agree not complaining about being on the 4th field out of town in a local tournament at 10 pm with a list of 300 college coaches in attendance but not at any of my games but it is all for the ronald mcdonald house

[Keyser Soze]

so in your solution you cant beat em so join em? I agree with you can bad mouth the padre but when it's that time you all say "please and thank you's" to get in that tournament. I have had my dealings with all three Jonathan, Stoney and Ron. T

No one said I liked the padre, he built the stinkin' tournament.

My solution would have been to limit the teams years ago like the Boulder tournament did.  Then you wouldn't have people crying about playing in the boonies at 10 oclock at night, they would just cry about not playing

Good point!!!

[legend]

I would include those teams named as good ole boys, but holy trinity material.....nah. I think those are all very good programs and legit Gold teams. (my definition of a true gold team is one that has consistantly qualified for Gold nationals) I don't think I knocked RM at all and I undestand the problem Jonathon has.  He was critisized for not letting a lot of Texas teams in for years. He preferred to have a lot of top out of state teams to keep the quality of the tournament high. Because he has added about 40 teams in the last couple of years, he has now gone to four sets of fields. The layout of Collins, with 4 main fields almost makes it a 4 field exposure. So now the teams are in, but they are playing in the boondocks. He can't win. If you understand where you will be, then by all means, you should play, it looks good on your teams resume.

[Guest BC]

so in your solution you cant beat em so join em? I agree with you can bad mouth the padre but when it's that time you all say "please and thank you's" to get in that tournament. I have had my dealings with all three Jonathan, Stoney and Ron. T

No one said I liked the padre, he built the stinkin' tournament.

My solution would have been to limit the teams years ago like the Boulder tournament did.  Then you wouldn't have people crying about playing in the boonies at 10 oclock at night, they would just cry about not playing

Hey, You are part of that Mafia  !!  ;D

[HR4MEK4U]

you should play, it looks good on your teams resume. you are kidding right? tell me what job your team is applying for? playing in it allows local kids based on the  number of college coaches a chance to be seen, but they have to do their part for that to happen also. REALLY It is used as leverage to gain advantage to get certain players to join your team or at least tryout. NOW, you let everyone in even in the boondocks or BFE no more leverage. DONT wait on your teams resume to get players in college, that starts with each player and their parents.

[trout]

WE the GT Shockers Gold played almost all of our games at the Ronald McDonald at Dyes Park and we always had at least 8 and at the most 18 different college coaches at our games. The important thing is letting the coaches know where you are and with so many games going on at the same time the college coaches will be there to watch your games and others also. Most of your top 10 D1 schools will be at Collins Park front 4 fields, but then again you have to realistic about where your kids are and what schools they will be going to. Right now we do not have any top 10 D1 kids in the area right now. Do we have D1 kids yes but there is a big difference in the talent level. We will have a couple of big time kids in a few years if they can keep developing. There is no bigger recruiting tournament in the Fall than the Ronald McDonald and the good old boys put it on, go if you get a chance.

[HR4MEK4U]

dont be fooled about the field 1-4 trick. We have played field 2 several years seen numerous coaches watching and in the stands, but have played dyess during those same years and saw some of the same coaches even top 10 D1. It goes back to what I said the players have to contact these coaches, a coach that comes in from out of state does not mind an additional 20-30 ride to another location if a player shows interest in that program that way the coach can give players a look. Dont be surprised if a coach watches a team warm up and then takes off they have to absorb as much softball as they can in such a short time. We had a coach ask us to take a kid out of a game just to see how the player would react to it, middle of an inning 1 out we were on defense player reacted perfectly and got an offer. things happen, kids have to make an effort to help themselves

[BHBLUE]

Hey, You are part of that Mafia  !!   ;D

Heck yeah he is!  Part of the Glass Family.  I've seen the ring.

[HR4MEK4U]

dont talk about the ring, I dont want to be swimin wit de fishes! serously folks no ring here nuttin to see here keep it moveing stop rubber-neckin keep movein

[Guest BC]

dont talk about the ring, I dont want to be swimin wit de fishes! serously folks no ring here nuttin to see here keep it moveing stop rubber-neckin keep movein

OMG ! You and Sports Reporter are one of the same ! LOL

Help me BHBLUE !

[DAMan]

dont talk about the ring, I dont want to be swimin wit de fishes! serously folks no ring here nuttin to see here keep it moveing stop rubber-neckin keep movein

OMG ! You and Sports Reporter are one of the same ! LOL

Help me BHBLUE !

He did stir the pot, didn't he?

[Mc]

When ASA tiered 18U between Gold and 18A several years back, what was the procedure at that time on how you qualified just to be considered a gold team in order to play in a gold national qualifier?

[Mc]

Latest update from Gary Haning.....

I have to admit that I don’t read the softball boards too much, the Father of one of my players told me there was quite a bit of talk and speculation about the Premier Girl’s Fastpitch Tournament for 2010 and beyond and I wanted to give a brief explanation. Sorry but I will not be able to answer a lot of questions, information about the tournament(s) will be available at

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over the next few weeks.

Some of the what is mentioned here is not totally worked out as I have to wait for the return from Gold Nationals of the other coaches involved in planning whose teams did not stink up the Gold Nationals such as mine did.

First, this ABSOLUTELY IS NOT a Gary Haning vs ASA issue, I am one person, I have one team and after two consecutive bad Nationals that team barely qualifies for an invitation to what we are planning. A number of long-time Gold coaches have discussed this for years and now we are going to try and implement what we feel is a better way of doing things.

Remember that this is an overview and may change in some way. Only players who fit the Jan. 1 age cutoff and have a current year HS identification or can show that they are home schooled and their would-be grad class is from the current year or later will be eligible. THIS WILL NOT CHANGE, except that we may decide to include JC players

There will be two 18U Divisions, both will play in Huntington Beach at the main complex the second division could have some games at the new Fountain Valley complex, the exact number of each is to be decided but 48 and 32 is a rough guess. Some teams will be invited to each division, there will also be qualifiers throughout the country. The teams listed below have accepted invitations to the upper level tournament. No invitations have been yet offered for the lower level event.

Sorcerer Gold

Gold Coast Hurricanes

Worth Firecrackers

So Cal Choppers

Corona Angels Marty

So Cal Athletics

Valley Breeze

Georgia Elite

East Cobb Bullets

AZ Hot Shots Gatti

Wichita Mustangs

Beverly Bandits

So Illinois Force

Texas Impact Gold

Virginia Shamrocks

Texas Glory

OC Batbusters

We have invited some other well-known, successful teams but we are not ready to list those teams until we are certain of their interest. We also are inviting teams from all of the prominent softball playing countries in the world. We do not care of it is an all-star team or a top club team. We are putting together qualifiers around our country to add teams beyond the invitees

We plan to have a 16U division that will pitch at 43’, we may have a 14U division.

We will have the use of the new Fountain Valley fields as well as Col Bill Barber in Irvine.

The dates are August 2nd through the 7th, 2010, championship games may be the 8th.

We hope to play all championships on the same day at the Bill Barber Stadium, we have some very promising talks going about these games being televised, at least on a delayed basis. NO FALSE PROMISES, NOTHING IS CERTAIN AS TO TV.

There will no gate passes nor entrance fees for spectators. College coaches will be fed and informed and not asked to pay for a booklet.

That is it for now, look at our website for updates.

WEST

Don Minard

Bruce Richardson

Gary Haning

Once they are all set we will list the committees for elsewhere

[Mc]

I saw the following announcement on eteamz:

IMPACT GOLD 2010 TRYOUTS 

Be part of something special. Impact Gold will have its tryouts August 23rd from 10am-3pm at Collins Park (Spring Klein). If you wish to play for a 20 year program with a National reputation, come try out for us. We have placed all players on college scholarship. We travel and play the best competition, California twice and Colorado, along with all major recruiting tournamnets in the area. This year we will have 2 teams. This year we finished 17th at ASA Gold Nationals. Come be part of a dynamic organization and achieve your dreams

I think I see how this is beginning to unfold.  The perennial powers will each form 2 teams. Team #1, made up of high school kids, for the "Premier" tournament and Team #2, made up of college kids with remaining eligibility, for the ASA Gold Nationals.

[legend]

I don't know if that will happen, it would be a pretty expensive proposition. I had a conversation yesterday with someone connected to Impact and the new Premier tournament. Impact as of now will not play Gold. It seems those involved are fed up with ASA. They don't want to go to Oklahoma City and they are tired of 80 team qualifiers to get a berth. There is always a top team or two that because of the blind draw wind up with a tough first game, lose it and have to play 9 or 10 games to qualify. Usually they don't make it. At the same time teams emerge that the upper teams don't feel are worthy and because of the draw may not have to play but one or two competitive games and therefore qualify. So the Premier Organization in order to have in thier eyes a better national tournament will now decide who should participate. The ones they choose will be invited. As for now and things might change the 2010 tournament will be invitational only. After that they will hold qualifiers, but these will also be invitational, they don't want to get back to the 80 team qualifiers. I think they have to do this if they want this exclusive club to succeed, because all the teams that are now playing gold ,that they want to avoid, would seek entry in these events as well. I was told these qualifiers would rotate and one would probably be held in this part of the country every four years.  So this is very interesting.  Willl a watered down Gold held at the same time as the Premier tournament attract many coaches?  And how will the other Gold teams that have been rubbing shoulders with the upper teams and  benefited from the hoardes of coaches that these teams attract to the Gold qualifiers, feel about the quality of the Gold qualifiers if they are only rubbing shoulders with each other. I feel somewhat saddened by all of this, kind of a the rich get richer thing. I always felt the wide open field provided some drama to the Gold events, who would get in, etc. So now we wait to see ASA's reaction(I would not expect much) and how the remaining Gold teams will handle this.

[HR4MEK4U]

what you have with impact is 2 people benefiting from all this. they are pro them!!! they can say the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I find it very hard  to believe they are interested in leaving ASA they run it. they want a nickel from me now for using ASA in a sentence doh! now another nickel.this is correct in the quote earlier 2 teams 1 to continue to control the other to experiment with oh and did i say monthly dues of 250-300 year round. RM Tournament it is called a "fundraiser" yes money does go RM House, Pockets, sporting good business, hotels for some coaches, trophies,flyers,team"fund",overages haha. oh and the "clinic"for coaches can you say B-O-N-U-S instead of our team flying coach we want to thank you all for bumping us to 1st class ok that was a stretch but I was on a roll. count the teams figure the amount yourself numbers don't lie. they dont want out of ASA they just dont want to be excluded as premier.

this is my opinion of course not to be confused with any one else's  Where are you Sports Reporter he will tell ya,huh

[Mc]

Why would colleges go to the Premier tournament if most of the players are already signed? Bound to be more unsigned players at past ASA Gold Nationals. Will the absence of those teams actually create more of a recruiting draw at Gold nationals and slightly weaken the recruiting at 16U nationals?

[JohnnyT60]

Sounds like they are hedging their bets. Can't lose if your betting both horses. This sounds like the Wal-Mart syndrome. If this goes through all of the small clubs and clubs from rural areas will be left out, leaving them only the choice of going Gold (still not bad). What I see is the large D1 schools who basically recruit a few clubs will love Hanings Tourney, smaller D1's and some who still recruit the old fashioned way will continue to be drawn to Gold and 16U. Haning's way is not bad if you are one of the big clubs but the small clubs will be at a disadvantage. I just don't think you can take an invitation only tourney that serious. It sounds as if they are looking for another exposure (there are plenty already available) and no real NC tourney. On the other hand they could be putting on a power play to force ASA to change it's SOP. They probably do need to add a layer or two of qualifying tournaments. In Texas you could have 4-5 tournaments to qualify 32 teams for regional, and only non-qualifiers from the regional would be qualified for the territorial. BTW did the Northern territory get a sweetheart deal. In the Southern Territory you have Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Miss, Alabama and Tenn. In the Northern territory you have powerhouses Minn, both Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iwoa, kentucky to go along with Mich and Illinois.

Btw here are the qualifying procedures:

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[Guest BC]

I see why they are doing it. The are trying to create a elite tournament. Gold is becoming as watered down as A. The majority of teams that are Gold are not competitive and register that way simply for college exposure whether they are competitive or not.

Nice post legend !

Just my 2 cents

[JohnnyT60]

The Nationals are not that watered down, qualifiers maybe, but not nationals. I think Haning's team was gone in 3 or 4 games.

[Mc]

What was the previous procedure? If you attempted to qualify in a gold "classification" tournament and failed, were you done for the summer in ASA or could you then attempt to qualify for ASA 18A nationals?

[Guest BC]

Not what I said JT. Here is a quote from legend:

There is always a top team or two that because of the blind draw wind up with a tough first game, lose it and have to play 9 or 10 games to qualify. Usually they don't make it.

I agree, not that Gold Nationals is watered down, but by the current way its done some quality teams can be left at home because of it.

[JohnnyT60]

Agreed. I have seen all kinds of tournaments where one side was loaded and another was comparatively weak. The teams that are spearheading this are the ones who would usually go to 3-4 qualifiers to qualify, so I don't know that it is an argument for them. In Texas it really go out of hand this year. I remember the field used to be controlled at least number wise.

Mc the rule used to be once you played up, you could not play back down, but I am not sure what the rule is now.

I just hate to see it change, Gold was always something special, and I don't think this will last long and then it will change to something else. You might not see it now, but this will put your girls at a serious disadvantage when competing with the big programs for attention and scholarships. What happened for The Blast Gold girls would almost be impossible under this scenario. I hope the biggest development that comes from this is a tweaking of ASA Gold and the resumption of rotating the tournament from east to west.

[HR4MEK4U]

once you play in a gold qualifier after that you are considered a team trying to persue gold nationals and can not go down in class. Many play "open" but to enforce it would be a headache.