ASA Rule Changes for 2011

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They left it up to us Bret. My thoughts are that if you are going to play the World Series at 43 feet, than you should qualify at 43'. I am going to try to make sure what tournaments we have in my area of the state play at 43' for 14-u

BTW...the NSA convention ended last week. They retained the 43' pitching distance for 14U as being optional, up to each individual state (same as last year). However, they decided that the 14U World Series would be 43' (last year it was 40').

No idea what the Ohio "powers that be" will decide yet.

 

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Any word yet on college players still being 18u eligible?

18U eligible college players can still play "A" in 2011

 

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Here are the changes to ASA code that were passed. I have to plead ignorance on most of this stuff. While I keep up on the playing rules, I never have to deal with code issues so don't really spend much time looking at it.

Add awarded berths to East/West NQ to USA/ASA NC

Allows Executive Director authority to stay a pending appeal

Allows Executive Director to negotiate for location of Nat Council Meeting

Allows local assn. to amend specific rules for local championship play

Allows local assn. to change their rules

Change dates for JO A FP NC to a two-week window

Change dates for Women's A & B FP to 2nd week in August

Changes Men's FP Open to Men's FP A

Classify a player as a "+" and restrict from playing down

Classify Men's FP players

Combine site for MSP 35O & MSP 45O

Defines stricter penalties for an altered bat

Defines time frame for filing a complaint

Each territory will be awarded at least one USA/ASA Junior Olympic Girls FP A NC - 2013

Give 18U Gold territorial winner a berth in the following years 18U Gold USA/ASA National Championship

Mandate tournament UIC to arrive one day prior to beginning of tourmanent

Move 18U Gold to week including last Saturday of July

Moves 18U Gold to OKC every other year

Provision to allow for immediate suspension of member when necessary

Removes Gold qualified teams from participating in additional qualifiers

Requires Executive Director approval to cancel and National Championship Tournament

Return to verification of membership for church and industrial teams.

Set standard to review Affiliated and Allied members

Sets penalty for interfering with ASA hearings

Sets process for tournament bid review

 

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I think USSSA is more in tune with what is wanted such as the 43' 14u rule and the 18u rule. Things are sometimes cyclical, but I think they may be coming more preferred over ASA tournaments.

Interesting on the pitching distance at 14U. I thought for sure they'd go to 43 ft. What does everyone think will be the impact on 14U with USSSA now at 43 ft? I can't see teams moving their pitchers back and forth, surely teams will now try to stay strictly ASA or USSSA. What has NSA decided if anything?

 

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ASA Rule And Code Changes................

http://downloads.asasoftball.com/umpires/pdf/2011PlayingRuleChangeswithComments.pdf

http://downloads.asasoftball.com/umpires/pdf/2011CodeChangeswithComments.pdf

 

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an interesting change for this year I saw would be the Regional tournemants ( easterns) must now be played over a weekend Friday thorugh Sunday!!

Thanks for posting rrcoach

 

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an interesting change for this year I saw would be the Regional tournemants ( easterns) must now be played over a weekend Friday thorugh Sunday!!

Thanks for posting rrcoach

No problem...................

 

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an interesting change for this year I saw would be the Regional tournemants ( easterns) must now be played over a weekend Friday thorugh Sunday!!

Thanks for posting rrcoach

I didn't read it like that. I read it to mean that it could be anywhere from the third Saturday in July to the second Saturday of August. With the potential for Opening Day ceremonies to commence on Monday it would still mean that it could start on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Delete 504 C 04 D and re-number Girls' ASA Class A and B Fast Pitch (all ages). These National Championship Finals shall be scheduled by the territory in which the tournament takes place, but must be scheduled between the weekend that contains the third Saturday of July and the weekend that includes the second Saturday of August and may have the option of commencing no earlier than Monday. Opening ceremonies may be held on that Monday. These championships are scheduled for a maximum of seven days."
"Comments: Adds flexibility to the dates of the Girls Class A Fast Pitch National Championships"

 

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an interesting change for this year I saw would be the Regional tournemants ( easterns) must now be played over a weekend Friday thorugh Sunday!!

That change is for Regional Championships (e.g. Ohio is Region 9 - East Central) where there are 2 berths for USA/ASA Nats. Eastern Nats is a territorial national.

Article: 509 Regional?s, National Qualifiers, and Territorial Gold Qualifiers must be scheduled between a Friday and Sunday.

Comments: Requires that these events are played on a weekend.

 

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NSA is also going to 43' for 14U. It is optional till World Series, but WS will be 43'. With many of the 14U players being HS players, I don't understand why the change would be voted down. Wonder if ASA will lose many 14U to USSSA, NSA, and even USFA across the country?

 

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NSA is also going to 43' for 14U. It is optional till World Series, but WS will be 43'. With many of the 14U players being HS players, I don't understand why the change would be voted down. Wonder if ASA will lose many 14U to USSSA, NSA, and even USFA across the country?

Just like OHSAA didn't make the change mandatory for Junior High........
You have majority of 7th graders still playing 12U & pretty much all 8th graders playing 14U. So there is probably a pretty equal split of 9th/8th graders playing 14U.

I think ASA is doing the right thing & not just jumping on board, cause other bodies jumped the gun. 18 year olds just made the move, why the urgent need to make 13 year olds do the same???? Cause USSSA announced it last year?

 

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It will be very interesting to see how the 13/14U teams approach the dilemna of playing in events that go with 40 ft vs 43 ft. I think a lot will depend on what the team goals are. For teams whose priority is to prepare their players for the next school year, going with 43 ft seems the way to go. If the pitching staff of 13 and 14U teams consists of some 12 yr olds, then I can see where that could play in a parents decision making of where the player should play. On another note, I think it is safe to say that 43 ft will mean fewer strikeouts/more balls in play so the defense will get a chance to make more plays and that should certainly help teams when they get to the 15/16U level.

 

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Just like OHSAA didn't make the change mandatory for Junior High........
You have majority of 7th graders still playing 12U & pretty much all 8th graders playing 14U. So there is probably a pretty equal split of 9th/8th graders playing 14U.

I think ASA is doing the right thing & not just jumping on board, cause other bodies jumped the gun. 18 year olds just made the move, why the urgent need to make 13 year olds do the same???? Cause USSSA announced it last year?

It's not about the 13 year olds. It's the 14 year old freshmen playing high school ball at 43'. ASA did not do the right thing, just as Ohio did not do the right thing last year by keeping everything at 40' when EVERYBODY else went to 43'. ASA is behind the curve on this one.

 

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ASA not going to 43' at 14U will continue to create issues here in Iowa. Now I know most of you don't care about Iowa. But here Junior High School ball is all 43'. So these kids are forces to go back and fourth. I was really hoping ASA would jump up to 43' for 14U. But you know what they say about wishing in one hand and dumping in the other.....the other one has filled up first again.
As far as the sanctioning bodies deciding on their own, the schools don't like moving the rubbers around anyway so having all play on school fields at 43' seems to help the schools. I know it does not take much to move or add a rubber but for some of the small towns we play school ball at I am not sure they could get it done every week. It is the girls who suffer from this a bit. We have delt with it for a year now so to deal with it for another year will not be that big of a problem.

Hope all had a great turkey day!!

 

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ASA not going to 43' at 14U will continue to create issues here in Iowa. Now I know most of you don't care about Iowa. But here Junior High School ball is all 43'. So these kids are forces to go back and fourth. I was really hoping ASA would jump up to 43' for 14U. But you know what they say about wishing in one hand and dumping in the other.....the other one has filled up first again.
As far as the sanctioning bodies deciding on their own, the schools don't like moving the rubbers around anyway so having all play on school fields at 43' seems to help the schools. I know it does not take much to move or add a rubber but for some of the small towns we play school ball at I am not sure they could get it done every week. It is the girls who suffer from this a bit. We have delt with it for a year now so to deal with it for another year will not be that big of a problem.

Hope all had a great turkey day!!

There will be many Junior High girls playing 12U ball this Spring. So as to not mess them up in Iowa - should all the bodies move the rubber to 43' to not have them sufer???

One thing to remember in these small towns - Unless they have a dynamite pitcher, moving it back just makes an Average Pitcher than much more Average..........

 

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Why should Iowa be any less looked at on this situation? How many girls are playing JV or Varsity ball in 8th grade and are still on 14U teams? We have a lot. I don't think that is just an Iowa thing at all, but maybe it is.

Maybe ASA needs to make concessions to allow each state set the rubber distance.

Not real sure what town size has to do with dynamite pitchers or average pitchers but whatever.

 

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Wasn't saying any state should be looked at any less......
Here in Ohio, one of the main reason's OHSAA didn't mandate a set distance for Junior High was because many 12U players will be pitching from only 40'. So it is a two way street there.

Kentucky is the only state touching Ohio that allows 7th & 8th graders to ply Varsity ball. At our high school, only a real stand-out is gonna play Varsity as a freshman. That may be a little to do with town size.

Does Iowa allow Junior High to play Varsity?
And do they have various classifications due to school size?
Cause the remark about small towns refers to a high school with 300 kids vs. a school with over 4000 kids........
Sure there will be a small school who can beat a big one, but on average how is that gonna turn out? The average Div. III team in Ohio is not gonna beat the average Div. I. Kinda like a Select team drawing from basically one county vs. a Select team which draws it's players from multipule states. It can happen - But the odds are not in their favor..

Why should Iowa be any less looked at on this situation? How many girls are playing JV or Varsity ball in 8th grade and are still on 14U teams? We have a lot. I don't think that is just an Iowa thing at all, but maybe it is.

Maybe ASA needs to make concessions to allow each state set the rubber distance.

Not real sure what town size has to do with dynamite pitchers or average pitchers but whatever.

 

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Iowa allows 8th graders and up play on Varsity.
Our schools are set up a lot like yours other then terminology. We don't call it Divisions ours are "A's", ie - 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A based on school admission.

I understand the David and Goliath thing real well. I am in a community of 2500. We are a 1A school but two years ago we had an 8th grader pitch us through districts and to the first round of state. Last season that same girl, now a freshman, and another freshman pitched their way to a 5th place finish at state. Now that being said they had 7 pretty darn good girls behind them to help pick up the slack. But that is school ball and school ball is not travel ball. Our HS feeder ASA program struggles in summer competition but our closest Elite Travel program that picks from a much larger pool of kids performs very well. So I completely agree with what you are saying about size. However if you can take the kids you have at a young age and teach them proper mechanics in all aspects of the game you can have a pretty competitive group when they get to JH or HS ball. Our community has to rely on our travel programs to get our kids up and running or they are left behind badly. By the time they get to Middle School ball you can tell who has a good travel ball program and who does not. They stand out like a soar thumb. That being said by then they are playing teams of like size.

Anyway sorry to ramble. Bottom line is that ASA will not and cannot make everyone happy on this subject. So everyone will have to deal with it the best they can and that was really what I said to begin with. We did it last year and we will do it again this year no big deal.....:cap: