ASA Tournament GAPSS Tournament 2009 - July 3-5

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Tournament Fee: The entry fee is $495.00 per team ($300 for 10u).

To Register: Please complete the online application form at www.gapss.org and then mail in your registration fee made payable to 'GAPSS' to Great American Premier Softball Showcase, P.O. Box 60 Powell, OH 43065. All applications and registration fees must be received by November 14, 2008 in order to be considered for the tournament.

Team Selection: For the 2009 tournament, team selection will be determined by the GAPSS board of directors (after November 14, 2008) in order to ensure a 'showcase' level tournament, not on a first come first serve basis as in the past. Many criteria will be used to determine the final field of teams for the tournament. Due to the number of applicants expected, we will not be able to provide teams with individual explanations as to why they were not accepted into the tournament field.

Team Selection Notification: All teams will be notified of their playing status by no later than December 1, 2008.

Check Cashing: No checks will be cashed until a team has been notified of being accepted and the team responds by e-mail. Checks of teams not accepted into the tournament field will be destroyed. We will not be able to return un-cashed checks.

Refund Policy: Once your team has been accepted into the GAPSS tournament, no refunds will be provided.

Age Divisions
18u - 27 teams
16u - 36 teams
14u - 21 teams
12u - 15 teams
10u - 12 teams **Back in 2009**

This tournament will be limited to 111 teams.

Format: The tournament has a 4-game guarantee, WEATHER PERMITTING, and will consist of 2 games of pool play followed by a double-elimination format. Teams will be seeded in brackets based on their finish in pool play.

 

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$495??? That is a $45 increase from last years tourney, with no format change, or word on what improvements are in store for 2009. Making it an "Invitation" only, with an increase in the number of teams, does not justify a $45 increase. More is not always better, especially when bad weather arises. This tourney has been going on for many years now and labeled as a "Premier Softball Showcase" which I'm sorry to say, it has not been.

For $495, what steps are being taken this year to insure that it is a tournament that is worthy of spending $495 on??? Stingrays is $525 ($30 more), but the comparisons are not even close. Sorry to be so critical, but $495???

 

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Very Steep price. Why so much???

 

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I would say, get used to it. This is probably only the beginning. Fastpitch tourneys are not immune to the cost of living increases. The increase in costs are going to make everybody have to rethink their own (team) fee structure. We'll probably have to do some team fundraisers to play in all of the tournaments we want to.

 

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Not with or speaking for GAPSS but some of the increase may have to do with Umpires. The fees are going up $5 per umpire per game. That is an additional $10 per game. Multiply that by how many total games played which I would guess is in the neighborhood of 300 games that is a big added expense. I do agree that the cost of tournaments is starting to get out of hand and this is from a TD. When I started this 7 years ago most were in the $250-$300 range. Now we have $500 tournaments. I know everyone wants to make a little money for the effort but it seems to be rising pretty fast the last couple years.

 

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1) Lionsfastpitch is correct, the umpire fees are going up $5/game/ump.

2) This is a fundraiser for the 3 Olentangy community high school softball programs and as such when the tournament stops being able to raise they type of funds that warrant the significant investment of time and energy by all of the volunteers or better said when a golf outing can raise more funds - the tournament will be no more.

3) For those who think that the tournament experience (the whole tournament experience) isn't worthy of being listed as one of the premium tournaments in Ohio, read the following post from last year http://www.game-ex.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=2017&goto=nextnewest

We believe we provide one of best total tournament experiences in Ohio.

I am sure that there will be lower cost tournaments over the holiday weekend and as such teams will have other choices. We believe we have demonstrated year after year the quality of our tournament and we believe that the best teams will want to play against the best teams in GAPSS.

Mike Wilson
GAPSS TD

 

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Get over it people-

Baseball tournaments are $500, $600 and sometimes as much as $700

You have been gettin off scott free for years It is only a matter of time before softball catches up.

 

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Get over it people-

Get over what...??? Just asking for a simple explanation for the $45 dollar increase. I got it...a $10 increase in umpires fees, and the need to make more money....!!! That's all I was asking.

I suppose you don't go to the gas station and question why gas is $4.25 a gallon today and it was $3.75 yesterday!! Hey get over it!!!;&

 

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Are you going to leave the registration open for 18+ if not filled by your requested date? Many times those teams aren't formed until later in the spring.

 

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Are you going to leave the registration open for 18+ if not filled by your requested date? Many times those teams aren't formed until later in the spring.

Yes, we will. The same may apply for the younger age (10U and maybe 12U) if we don't get a full field worth of teams. 14U, 16U and 18U generally fill up pretty fast.

Mike

 

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Mike, I personally think that you guys ran one of the best events that we attened last season. The communication was awesome, and the playing fields were prepared well even in the face of some rain.

For those who have never attended a GAPSS event I say it is well worth it. The umpiring was way above average and the facilities (at least that ones that we play at) were excellent as well. When we make our schedule this is one of the first tournaments that we make sure that we get into. The competition is great we feel that it is a can't miss event. This year we plan to have our 14U / 12U / 16U/ 18U and 10U teams enter.

The cost increases for running tournaments is becoming an issue to be sure. Umpire costs have risen quite a bit over the past three years and I think that most of it is due to the fact that there are more tournaments out there then ever before. Umpires are in high demand (especially good ones) and I know that we have decided to make an effort to play the bigger events because we have seen more consistancy in the umpiring in those events. I wish it was different but the facts are that this is the way it is and the way that it will continue for the forseeable future. We also had to increse our fees this year (for the first time in 3 years) and it is mainly due to increased umpire costs. Last year we stayed with the same entry fee $350.00 and just a few months before the tournament we met with the umpires and they said that they needed more per game. As it turned out it was a total of $10.00 more per game. When you take that over a tournament like ours in June that held over 180 games you can see that an additional $1,800.00 dollars were needed. This cost is not going away folks, good umpires cost more and if you intend to host a quality event then you will experience these types of cost increases.

Mike, we will gladly pay the increased amount because we consider your event one of the best in the region. Our registrations will be in the mail soon.


Best regards,

Rich Rosinski
Ohio Wave Fastpitch

 

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Personally, I don't view the move toward "selecting" teams to be a positive move for GAPSS. I have always admired it as a tournament that promoted itself accurately as a "showcase" and attracted the type of team that wanted to play under those conditions.

It also had a certain type of democratic attraction. It rewarded teams that signed up early with roster spots. It was double elimination, so you could make one mistake and keep playing. The crews work as hard as any tournament we have ever played.

While the Stingrays event is one of the best tournaments in the Midwest, I think that there are many people that would argue that the best teams are invited.

For starters, EVERY Stingray team gets a berth. (Hey, it is their tournament. But it is like starting a team so that all your kids can play. And many people would join me to say that there are teams who are not invited, but superior to a Stingray team in the tournament.)

I am struggling to understand why this move will improve what has been an exceptional tournament.

(And the blurb about not being told why your team did not qualify is insulting. We all harp in tryout time how every girl deserves a call, and this process will tie up a team for weeks or months, with no guarantee that they will be given a slot.)

Too bad, in my opinion.

 

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One difference between a Stingrays and GAPSS invitational would be that GAPSS will not invite a house team at the expense of an arguably better team. I'm not criticizing the Stingrays tourney here, as I think it would be very difficult to ask parents to put in all that hard work when some of the Stingrays daughters are playing and some aren't. It's just somewhat unique that GAPSS hosts a travel tournament to fund school programs.

 

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This is strictly my opinion, so please take it as such and I can take the heat for any comments.

Gapss NEVER considers anything for their tournament without thoroughly thinking out what the consequences are, good and bad. This will be our 6th year for the tournament. We have some good things, and not so good things. Hopefully we are learning from our mistakes.

Personally I don't think any tournament works as hard as we do for the actual playing condition of our fields. Our repututation has quickly grown to be known as a tournament who will do whatever is necessary to get the girls playing.... While we do have split up venues, which drives me crazy, we are fairly limited to what fields we can and can't use, as the majority of the fields are owned by the Olentangy Schools.

We have made mistakes at concessions, t-shirts, etc. etc. We are always looking at ways to make these better offers for the girls and fans and coaches.

Which brings up the hot topic about how to select teams. This could be our worse decision ever. Not sure how it will pan out, but it is a decision the board is comfortable with at making at this point of our 6 year run.

Gapss has had some of the better teams in a 5 state region play at one time or another at our tournament. Some of the teams are absolutely lights out when it comes to the type of team that they have. The skill level at our tournament has always been impressive. We want to keep it that way as a Showcase tournament.

I have seen many, many games at our tournament over the past 5 years. Some of the teams that have played in our tournament have been drilled so hard by other teams that they have never scored a run in 4 games. These games concern me and the board a great deal. For out right saftey issues, some of these games are a concern. I have seen girls hurt---some seriously---that have concerned me a great deal. We could no longer stand by and "hope" nothing ever happens that could result in a major injury.

We are at the crossroads now of just where our tournament is. We think our reputation is a good one...and we are always striving to earn your respect as coaches and teams and fans.

The decision was a hard one. We know there will be teams upset, and I know we will feel the heat. However, for all considered, we made the decision to improve our venues to become one of the best tournaments in a 5 state area. Time will tell if we made the right move.

Mike Flanagan
GAPSS

 

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(And the blurb about not being told why your team did not qualify is insulting. We all harp in tryout time how every girl deserves a call, and this process will tie up a team for weeks or months, with no guarantee that they will be given a slot.)

Too bad, in my opinion.

Sideliner

To be clear, the wording says "All teams will be notified of their playing status by no later than December 1, 2008."

And, the wording also says "Due to the number of applicants expected, we will not be able to provide teams with individual explanations as to why they were not accepted into the tournament field."

So, everyone will get an answer but not a detailed explanation of a decline. I hope you would agree that is more than fair and certainly not insulting.

Mike Wilson
GAPSS TD

 

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Mike - just so I am clear - what is the deadline for 14u? We thoroughly enjoyed your tourney last year and appreciated that fact that we got in most of our games in a wkd that most other tourneys did not. We played some very good teams and the umpiring was very good.

Coach Murph
Lady Lasers Silver

 

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Murph:

Tournament Fee: The entry fee is $495.00 per team.

To Register: Please complete the online application form at www.gapss.org and then mail in your registration fee made payable to 'GAPSS' to Great American Premier Softball Showcase, P.O. Box 60 Powell, OH 43065. All applications and registration fees must be received by November 14, 2008 in order to be considered for the tournament.

 

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Murph:

The deadline is November 14, we would only keep it open longer if the age bracket wasn't full, which I don't expect based on the incoming applications.

Mike

 

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Any chance that this will be an ASA Eastern Nationals qualifier?

 

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CGS:

A couple years back GAPSS was listed an ASA Eastern Qualifier, however teams that finished 1 or 2 never accepted the bid. Our analysis showed that was because the teams that were playing (and winning GAPSS) were top tier teams who often set their sights and achieved bids to ASA Nationals or the Nationals of other sanctioning bodies.

Given GAPSS focus on being a showcase tournament (and thus the above scenario still applies) and the fact that ASA now charges $x (not sure what x is off the top of my head) per team to be listed as an ASA Regional Qualfier we won't be pursuing Qualifier status.

Mike Wilson
GAPSS TD