Now before anyone calls me or Warren saying I was rude on here, lighten up as that response was meant to be funny.
USSSA has been making inroads here in Ohio and Warren getting involved with USA Elite Select will be a huge success for us. Warren will be mostly running the big showcase events that the Elite teams are craving here in Ohio which is the one place we were falling short as a statewide program. It can be tough to run a state program and dealing with the different personalities that the Elite teams can bring is a job in itself.
The one thing about no Ohio teams entered yet for the WFC in Kansas City, we did host a WFC qualifier last fall (2016). A total of 13 teams entered the 2 divisions combined. When I asked for that event again this past fall (2017), I was told to work on getting the Elite teams playing more often as that was the smallest one in the country and to direct them to the events in Indiana and Pennsylvania for this year. That was before Warren approached us about coming aboard.
As for the quality of the World Fastpitch Championships that USAES put on in Kansas City, it is STRONG. I volunteered to go out their this past July to learn more about the Elite teams and how the game is played at that level. My duties were mainly retrieving score cards and being a "go-fer" but also being hospitable to the college coaches in attendance. There were in the neighborhood of 100+ coaches there with people like Patty with Oklahoma, the Oregon coach, LSU, KU, and every school within 200 miles of KC that had softball programs. We had the coaches signing in and USAES had a nice booklet with all of the team info, rosters, brackets, and player information when they checked in. We fed them lunch and dinner and I went around handing out snacks and Gatorade/water all day as it was blazing out all week.
I was at the complex that hosted 16u. What an amazing event! I was taken back in how good some of these teams really were. Watching some of the CA, AZ, & TX teams and it was like watching a JUCO college event with the quality of play and these are high school players! Even teams that would normally win events rather easily here, had their hands full with the Midwest teams like Tulsa Elite and Nebraska Gold.
I am looking forward to the Elite teams having a place in our USA Elite Select program to keep their skills sharp in and find the competition they would like. I am always fearful that the "A" level was slowly going away. Each year my events had less A and more B level teams. Nothing wrong as there is a level for everyone to play at. I just didn't like seeing the teams that had quality A level teams and but not the big budget like the Elites have, slowly disappearing from our events or getting accused of trophy hunting when they played in an open event.
Remember, the one great thing about the USSSA program is there is a level for everyone to play at!