ASA Tournament 2011 ASA 16u State Tourney June 23-26

Here is what we got off of the internet for Van Buren. Addresses were not include in the coaches' email:

Van Buren Community Sportplex
12869 S.R. 613
Van Buren, OH 45889
[FONT=&quot]If you are coming on I 75 you want Exit 164, S.R. 613E[/FONT]

Addresses will be emailed to coaches. Is google maps that hard to use? I kid I kid

IceBlack. Thanks for posting them. I didn't get it until this morning either.

This was the cover letter sent to coaches...

Here is the 2011 U16 Ohio ASA Championships pool play schedule. Games will
begin on Thursday at 12pm at the Marathon Diamonds and Van Buren Sports
Complex. Pool play will continue all day and into Friday morning. Bracket
play will begin at 3:00pm on Friday afternoon. With 61 teams we have just
under 200 games in 3 ? days to get in. We will be using upwards of 12
fields for this weekend and I will have an email out to you on directions to
all of them as well as facility rules and such tomorrow.



In all the pools I only had to make a couple changes so make sure you look
at the pool play list on sheet 3 of the spreadsheet and find your team code
and get your game times. Sheet 2 of the spreadsheet is the schedule. Field
designations are as follows:



MD = Marathon Diamonds

VB = Van Buren Sports Complex

FHS = Findlay High School

Cooper = Softball field in Findlay, OH

Rawson = Softball field in Findlay, OH

Riverside = Softball field in Findlay, OH



For those of you who have never been to Findlay; we are a community of
40,000 people along I-75 40 minutes south of Toledo, Oh and 90+ minutes
north of Dayton, OH. You can make to one side of town to the other in all
directions in 10 minutes or less. Van Buren is a small town 1 exit north of
Findlay and is 6 minutes from the Marathon Diamonds. Van Buren, Marathon
Diamonds and Findlay High School are all located in three consecutive exits
within 10 minutes of each other and right off the highway. Your travel from
one complex to the other is very limited. I have included an aerial photo
of the Marathon Diamonds above as well.



This is a championship play tournament and all ASA rules have to be
followed. So make sure you have the little things in check like matching
uniforms and hair ties and chin straps and all the little things that drive
us coach’s nuts but the umpires will make sure we follow. Warren will be
here this weekend and so will 3 other ASA Commissioners making sure the umps
are enforcing the rules. Steel cleats are allowed all weekend at all
locations.



Game time for all pool play games is 1 hour and 40 minutes. No new inning
will begin after the time limit unless you are tied. We must have a winner
in these games and you must play these games to be eligible to play in the
bracket play. There are 2 hours in between each game to allow for
maintenance to touch up the fields. Please have your teams ready to play 15
minutes before game time so we can start early if teams, field and umps are
all ready to go.



Some rules that you need to know about our complexes



1. No smoking allowed
2. Coolers are only aloud in the complex for team players
3. No animals aloud.
4. Sportsmanship is a must amongst fans and teams towards each other,
visitors, staff and umpires.



Our maintenance guys and gals are volunteers and will be doing there best to
accommodate each team. If you notice something please ask them to correct
it or get with me and I will make sure it does happen. We thank you all for
making this the largest single division tournament in Ohio again in 2011.
We hope you enjoy the area and our sports complexes and good luck to all of
you.

There is a small contruction project on I75 between 224 and the exit to the Marathon Diamonds. An overpass is getting a makeover but traffic on 75 shouldn't be affected much.


Also to figure which field is which at Marathon... the baseball field is field #1 and go clockwise.

Findlay High School address is 1200 Broad Ave. The softball field is on the south side of the school property. Most of the trees back there are gone. The land has been cleared to make way for a new varsity softball field. The current varsity field will become the jv field.

Both Rawson Park and Cooper Field are just south of the Findlay High School on Broad Ave. Well at least you can see both from Broad. Rawson Park is 720 River Street, Cooper Field is 201 Broad Ave.

Riverside is 219 McManness Ave. The field is on the north side of the park. The park itself has a couple dozen shelterhouses, tons of shade trees, canoe & pedal boats rentals, YMCA run pool, 3 playgrounds

All that typing for nutin! Lol.......... Email from the TD................

2011 ASA State Championships Schedule change

Coaches –

First I want to congratulate Mike and the Tidalwaves 94; JP and the Lady Laser Scarlett; Traci and the MC Madness Black. These three teams have earned their bid to the National tournament in Chattanooga, TN July 31- August 7. Great job to all three teams!

Unfortunately since they have already qualified Warren let me know yesterday that they can’t play in the ASA State tournament being a National qualifier. This means yesterday's schedule is mute. I started working on it last night and will be working on it all day today to switch things around. Also due to injuries the Ohio Stingrays Jensen will be unable to attend. I believe I can switch the schedule around to push the start back to later Thursday and more games on Friday being we only have 57 teams now.

So sit tight be patient and I will have a new schedule for you very soon.

Again congratulations to those three teams and hopefully we will see you in Findlay next year for the 2012 ASA State.

Jim Welch
FGFSC President
Tournament Director

Did ASA change the rules this year, this has not been an issue the last few years. We played last year at Shreve after having qualified at Findlay

With this being the rule, will the winner of the Region 9 (National Qualifier) this weekend, be allowed to play?

Based on this info, they would have their National Bid and not be allowed to play either.

I can't wait to hear the details on this sudden rule change... What kind of "State Championship" doesn't allow all to compete?

@eagleone:

I am very confused by this as well. Here is the ASA Code Provision:

Article 513.M

"M. Previously Qualified. Junior Olympic Teams which have previously qualified for a National Championship Final may compete in other National Qualifiers. If a previously qualified team wins another berth from a National Qualifier, the highest finishing team without a berth will qualify.


EXCEPTION: Junior Olympic Girls? Gold teams that have qualified
for the ASA / USA Gold National Championship Finals are not
eligible to participate in the Gold National Qualifier."

None of the teams that are now being shut out from the ASA competition have qualified for or intend to attend Gold National Championships.

Is this another "Local Association" exception? How can the ASA States, with its four berths to USA/ASA Nationals, not be defined as a "National Qualifier"? (By the way, the ASA Code doesn't have a definition for the term "National Qualifier").

Look, it is to our team's advantage that the three teams who have already qualified can't knock us out of the berth competition (unless, as someone points out above, we should be lucky enough to earn a berth this weekend in which case it appears we wouldn't be able to play States ), but I just don't feel it is right to make these changes so late, causing a whole new round of travel/vacation considerations for the families and apparently excluding three (and probably four) teams from a quality field of competition without any Code based authority that I can see.

Eagle One knows about last year in 16u, though I don't think his scenario included participation in ASA States after having already qualified.

I know about last year's 14u States tournament, when the Ohio Intensity participated in the Region 9 Open qualifier after earning a berth through ASA States.

What in the world has changed since last year?

the Only thing I think may have changed the rule is ASA States are now 2 - 3 weeks after other qualifiers whereas last year ASA States was much earlier in the season.

Also, there could be a ton of issues if the top 3 teams @ States already have their berth and there are ties at lower positions (say 5th place) who gets the bid?

Per speculation on my part but it does seem strange they are just now telling them that they need to find another tournament.

So this weekend Buckeye Heat 94's, 95's and the HoH Explosion all are playing and could win and not be allowed to play in this tourney? So the pools will change again, after this weekend! Then we have to pay for motel bookings we can't get out of. This is a bunch of !!!!!!!!!!.

@Run26:

I go back to last year at 14u again: Ohio Intensity won the 14u ASA States and then played and won in the Region 9 Open and the berth they would have won was passed down.

You might be on to something with your factual distinction: maybe it is different because of some Ohio Local Association (read Ohio ASA) rule. But there are, as far as I can tell, no written Ohio rules that any of us have access to. And that is simply not acceptable.

@Dan:

Yep, I'm thinking that is going to be the result unless enough people ask for a fuller explanation from ASA. It will be a real shame because a ton of college coaches attend ASA 16u States. That's why I think it is wrong to exclude teams who already have berths from ASA States.

Is this a joke? Did any other coaches receive the email from the TD that IceBlack received?

Carol, I agree 100%. The main reason you play at these tourneys at this age is 100% exposure. There were more college coaches at this tourney last year than any tourney we played at. The dd got many letters all because she played and coaches got to see her last year at ASA State. This stinks for any team that has won, why Penalize them. I'm sure like most kids they have sent out e mails to the schools that they are playing at this event.

cgs said:

@Run26:

I go back to last year at 14u again: Ohio Intensity won the Canton Region 9 Open Qualifier (which is equivalent to the Shreve qualifier this last weekend at 16u) and they later playedin the 14u ASA States, very well I might add (winning the whole thing if I remember correctly), and the berth they would have won was passed down to Cincy Doom, the highest placing team that wanted a berth.

So I ask again, what has changed?

@Dan:

Yep, I'm thinking that is going to be the result unless enough people ask for a fuller explanation from ASA. It will be a real shame because a ton of college coaches attend ASA 16u States. That's why I think it is wrong to exclude teams who already have berths from ASA States.

But what I think doesn't matter: the Code clearly provides for this situation by allowing the berth holder to play in subsequent National Qualifiers. How can this rule just be ignored at this late date?

Click to expand...

CGS,

Like I said - I really have no idea why they did this but those were just my attempts at guessing.
It does cause some head scratching but at the end of the day it clears up a lot of questions on what happens with handing down berths.
I'm just wondering if there is some miscommunication and someone jumped the gun a bit and this will all be resolved with a recant. I'm sure the TD doesn't want to have to redo pools again late Sunday night after Region 9 tournament but he will if Warren tells him to.

Is this a trickle down to other State Chamionships? Are Lasers Red, Ohio Hawks Lenos and Grand Slam allowed to play @ 12U states and same for Ohio Ice in 14U?

@ nukm: No joke. Ted received the same email. I'm hoping that all of the players on Lasers Scarlet, Tidal Waves, and McMadness Black already have good prospects with colleges (probably true for Lasers Scarlet and Tidal Waves, possibly not true for McMadness as that is a younger 16u team), because they are being excluded from one of the major college recruiting tournaments in the state.

We will still play hard in Toledo this weekend, but if we should win, it would be bittersweet. For our players who want to attempt Division 1 and/or go outside of Ohio to play ball, participation at USA/ASA in Chattanooga would result in the most exposure to the relevant college coaches. But for those who want to attend smaller colleges in or close to Ohio, missing out on ASA States is a very big thing.

Why Ohio ASA would come up with an exception to the ASA National rule is beyond me.

@Run26: you will notice that I changed the post you quoted because I realized that last year ASA States were before the Region 9 Open. I'm still not sure from a policy standpoint why that should make a difference. The rules are pretty clear and easy about the order in which unclaimed berths should be passed down in a tournament.

And yes, I can't imagine that this apparent ASA Exception to the National Rule could only be applied to 16u. Any 10U, 12U, or 14U team that wants to emphasize improving their odds for getting a berth through States should be protesting right now the participation of teams already holding berths. And anyone who gets knocked out by one of the teams holding a berth (should those teams be allowed to participate) should be screaming that the winning team was ineligible to participate in the tournament and that a forfeit is the appropriate result for the game.

My clear preference to the preceding paragraph would be to have the ASA Ohio people decide to change their unpublished rule and allow the berth holders to qualify. But whatever the decision of ASA Ohio, I can't imagine that it would be applied differently to different age groups.

These are the type of decisions that affect the credibility of a softball sanctioning body. Ohio ASA needs to rethink this decision; it does nothing but strengthen the NSA, Pony, USSSA and all the rest in the state of Ohio.

Take a poll here and ask the coaches and players if they would prefer to have a consolation game to determine who is 4th place, 5th place, 6th place, etc. or if they would rather those who already have with a berth didn't get to play in a tournament that is in the top three in the state for college coach attendance.

Call the HQ at Oklahoma City.