I have sat back and observed and figured, while waiting for the football games today to jump in with both feet, before going further please understand, I am a proponent of playing ASA, and have been involved in ASA Fastpitch for over 30+ years as a player, umpire, and coach. (participating in 14 ASA National Champs as a player, umpire, and coach) I believe playing ASA gives a team it's players and it's coaches an opportunity to see and learn from the best teams and coaches in select fastpitch in the country.
Presently there are 3(three) types of national qualifiers I have seen posted for ASA events. Many of you here are very experienced and likely don't need the information below, but I think there are a number of coaches that are misled and confused by some td's and JO comissioners, and my hope is that they be informed, sorry for the length.
PLEASE remember when I speak of regions our immediate area is divided as follows:
Teams registered thru the Ohio ASA are in Region #9(part of the Eastern zone), which is the state of Ohio with the exception of Cincinnati Metro Association which is part of Region #10(part of the Northern zone) and also includes Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. ?
The first and the most competitive, is the ASA "National Qualifier" each region can host one of these in each age division, and has ONE berth available, this type of tournament is open to ANY ASA registered team from anywhere in the USA, as an added bonus the ASA this year has done away with the "travel permit" requirement, which was a waste of time for everyone concerned and simply a hoop to jump thru. The winner of this event unless the region hosting adds additional berths from "their" pool of berths is the only team awarded a berth to the ASA/USA National Championships, this tournament is truly an ASA "National" Qualifier, winner take all.
The next event and not quite as competitive in most cases is the, ASA "Regional National" Qualifier, each region can host one or two tournaments to award the TWO berths they have for these events, ONLY teams from the region that is hosting the event can earn a berth at this event, the berth awarded from this tournament is to the ASA/USA National Championships, these tournaments have done away with what used to be called "regional" tournaments in regions where several states were involved. Normally the top TWO teams in a regional earned berths, the ASA did not increase the number of berths simply gave the opportunity to regions to host more events.
The third and most misleading and candidate for the false advertising award, is when someone advertises an event as an "ASA National" Qualifier, in these events teams are "awarded" berths to the appropriate "ZONE National Championship", yes, I know they don't call them "Zone" Nationals anymore, but the fact remains they have not changed in scope or purpose, only in name, each of the ASA Zones hosts these events in "A" and "B" and dependent on the year and location they are many times more competitive and worthwhile than one of the other "alphabet soup" organizations, PLUS the top two teams from these events earns a berth to the ASA/USA National Championships the following summer, so technically they are the first National Qualifier for the next season. My issue with the way these berths are advertised is that, by code, ANY ASA team that participates in a qualifier in their local association or region can request and be awarded a berth to these Zone Nationals, so the reality is participation earns the berth, I have a problem with groups misleading the unintiated and using these type of events to puff themselves and their events up, IMHO, simply a mention that teams participating will be eligible for the Eastern or Northern National. The other problem I have with designating your run of the mill tournament as a "National Qualifier" is that until the code is changed, a team that wants to play up in a local tournament to prepare itself for the end of the year, can only after participation in this event, play in that age group and ANY players on that team are now ineligible to play in their actual age division, many times at the ASA/USA National Championships I have heard of teams being forfeited out of the event because they had a pickup player that played in a National Qualifier in a higher age group. Sorry for going on but I think it is reprehensible for TD's that put teams and players in this position simply to "puff" up their tournament, ultimately it is simply a manner of collecting more entries, it cost them nothing, again IMHO I believe that TD's and everyone involved has a responsibility to protect players and teams from these types of pitfalls, not subject them to it.
Sorry, in summary, you need to be aware of whether a tournament is actually an ASA NQ, or just a pretender, and also be aware that ASA NQ's MUST be run and administered commensurate with ASA Code, and "technically" EVERY umpire must have a current ASA registration and be properly uniformed, good luck to all, and FYI for some of you that travel outside the state of Ohio:
ASA "NATIONAL" Qualifiers in neighboring states:
12u:
5/30 to 6/1 - Kalamazoo, MI
6/20 to 22 - Bowling Green, KY
14u:
5/30 to 6/1 - Munford, TN
6/6 to 8 - Naperville, IL (Outside Chicago)
6/27 to 29 - Coleman, MI
16u:
6/20 to 22 - Cincinnati
18u:
7/11 to 13 - Indianapolis
Keep checking ?
www.softball.org for new torunament posting, thanks to those that have posted info from other regions, it is very helpful, and many times those tournaments are reachable, good luck to all, you cannot make a mistake attending an ASA National Championship event the last week of July, in my experience whether a ZONE National or the "big show" they provide your kids with a great fastpitch learning experience. ?
