ASA Rules Changes for 2010

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Not sure there won't be differences, but here are the Rules Changes on my list.

YES:
All 16U & 18U to pitch from 43'.
All 16U & 18U may wear metal cleats.
Foul first bag can be any contrasting color.
Warming/heating bats not considered altered.
Slow pitch arc now 6'-10', instead of 6'-12'.
Ban electronic equipment in the dugout.
Ban artificial noise makers.
Ratified requirement of ACE certified coach in JO championship play.
Added that all adults in the dugout or on the field in JO must be background checked.
College Players may play 18A, but not 18B or 18 Gold.
18 Gold Pool Play will not be used for seeding.
18 Gold will place top 4 returning teams (if they qualify to return) in four corners of the bracket.
Territory has the option to host (4) 18 Gold Qualifiers instead of 2 (split berths evenly).
There will be (4) Territory Nationals for 18 Gold teams that do not qualify (Southern National, but no berth attached).
18 Gold National will be in OKC one out of three years, Executive Director to award the other two years.
18 Gold Tournament to be 7 days, ending FIRST Saturday in August.
Women's 23U to have East/West Championships to lessen travel costs.


NO's:
Keep 10U at 35' pitching.
Keep SP base and pitching plate distances.
No added penalty for warmup catcher mot wearing a mask.
No requirement for defensive players to wear face mask.
No added EP players in fast pitch.
No requirement to pull bat back if squared to bunt.
No added "courtesy" foul in Slow Pitch.

 

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The new Gold rules about no college players is flat out gonna kill some gold teams....... get ready for the wailing and nashing of teeth to begin

 

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I agree Tim, No college players on the ASA "Gold" teams will throw a wrench in some gears.

 

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When do you "officially" become a college player?

 

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I would venture to say the day you start school,,,,,,,,,, sept of your freshman year.........just a swag though

 

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But yet 18A can have college players now. Now I am really confused.

 

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But yet 18A can have college players now. Now I am really confused.

They wanted college out of gold,,,,,,,,,, so teams like the gold coast hurricanes wouldent roll thru with 9 out of 12 kids in their roster that play college ball............ trying to appease the cali fastpitch folks

 

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But now the best teams potentially will be the 18A group. I am just waiting to see how this plays out.

 

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yup will be interesting............. maybe a fall back plan for ASA,,,,,,,, if premier takes to many gold teams the best teams will go play ASA A Nationals............. could be interesting

 

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What ASA has essentially created (whether this was their intention or not) is:

- An 18A division which will be the highest level for competetive purposes, comprised of the best overall players.

- An 18G division which will be strictly a "showcase" level, comprised of talented, yet unsigned, players and aimed at recruitment purposes.

 

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What ASA has essentially created (whether this was their intention or not) is:

- An 18A division which will be the highest level for competetive purposes, comprised of the best overall players.

- An 18G division which will be strictly a "showcase" level, comprised of talented, yet unsigned, players and aimed at recruitment purposes.

Well said Bretman. You beat me to it.

 

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To me it appears that the ASA has insured the "Gold" division will no longer be the "elite" division of the past. Now the "A" division will be the "Elite" division. Or am I missing something ?

 

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I don't know. I'm not sure I can picture teams being put together for 18A purposes with the best college sophomores-to-be. I think most of those girls either won't play or will find top 23-U teams. I can't picture them them going to 18A Nationals.

The thing I thought was interesting from the new rules was that Gold will apparently now have regional nationals like the Easterns and Westerns. That might help push Gold along in places like the Midwest, and give Gold teams out West a Nationals to play since most don't qualify for Gold Nationals.

Also, it takes someone with the power of a Gary Haning to get ASA to make changes. Without Haning putting together Premier and taking most of the top teams, ASA would not have made these changes.

 

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It seems as if this was done to help the recruiting process for the college coaches. Why show up at Gold Nationals if 3/4 the players are not recruitable (college players) and most of the other 1/4 have been verbally committed since their fresh/soph year of high school?

From spysoftball.com:

Banning college players from Gold was an idea whose time had come. Gold competition should be more evenly matched, breaking the string of Gold tournaments in which returning college pitchers dominated and often won the Gold championship. Hopefully, college players will find teams in 23U and Women?s Majors for the summer of 2010. Oddly, by inference, a college player can still join a 16U and 18A team and compete in those nationals, which doesn?t seem to make much sense. Disequilibrium applies to any age group.



Readers with knowledge of tournament play will be quick to note that moving the date for Gold eliminates direct competition with the Premier tournament, which will be held August 9-14 in 2010. The seeming rationale was to avoid going head-to-head on the calendar with the new Premier tournament which is expected to attract 40 or more of the current top Gold teams.


But, with the change, Gold now competes directly with 16U and 18A, as currently scheduled. The probability, given the continuing emphasis on early verbal commitments, is that the number of college coaches/scouts attending Gold will be markedly reduced, depending on the site chosen for Gold. Eg, if Gold were held on the West Coast, a sizable contention of Gold teams could elect to play both, which is permissible under the ASA code, as explained by ASA Commissioners to SPY. Whether Gold teams from California would trek across country is an open question. For certain, many college coaches will definitely mark 16U on their 2010 calendars; will they also recruit at the two other options for that same week?



Gold coaches will welcome the decision to rotate Gold out of Oklahoma City, returning to the Hall of Fame every third year. SPY is advised by ASA officials that decisions on where the 2010 Gold tournament will be held will be made this coming weekend by the Board of Directors. The Council broke precedent with the provision that site selection for Gold will be made in the future by the Executive Director, rather than bid like other classifications.

 

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With Gold, 18A and 16-U all now being played at the same time (I think that's correct?), this will spread college coaches pretty thin. This makes it more imperative for players to do even more work to get noticed by coaches. I can't imagine any coaches except local ones will be going to the 18A Nationals. Not that there aren't good players there, but the Div. I coaches will obviously be looking at 16-U and Gold and most of the rest of us probably don't have the budget to fly across the country to go to any of those Nationals.

 

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Most Gold teams at gold nationals had 3-4 college players on the team. On a roster of 14-16 or more girls, not the majority that most think. SPY ran a list of all the college players on each team a few months ago. It is my opinion that ASA is appeasing Gary and some of the other Cali coaches, and trying to expand the growing 23u age group.

 

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Most Gold teams at gold nationals had 3-4 college players on the team. On a roster of 14-16 or more girls, not the majority that most think. SPY ran a list of all the college players on each team a few months ago. It is my opinion that ASA is appeasing Gary and some of the other Cali coaches, and trying to expand the growing 23u age group.

That might be the case. But look at this way. Half of the starters, including your pitcher, catcher, ss and CF wont be D1 athletes now. If they really wanted to expand the 23u group, they would have dropped colleges players completely. ASA doesnt have the foresight or interest in growing the 23u division. It represents such a small percent of their total enrollment, not worth the trouble.

 

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Maybe the area with the greatest growth potential though. More girls are playing college ball now than ever before. I would not be surprised if ASA drops college players in the A division next year....just thinking ahead?

 

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Gold will still be the level for the "BEST" non-college players and the most competitive teams in the country. Teams will still be comprised of 80-90% signed college players (high school seniors) and 20-10% of the best underclassmen they can find. Most, if not all, Gold teams had less than 20% of their roster in gold from this freshman eligble college pool. Now, yes, some had more, some had less. But usually only 2 or 3 players were college freshmen. So teams will learn to do without those 2 or 3. Most college freshmen that I know were so exhausted after their first full year of school that they needed the summer to rest.

I do not believe that D1 eligible 18u players (as a whole) are going to return to play 18u A. Some players may return home and help a team here or there, but I do not, nor does anyone else I know of think that all these D1 freshman are going to be scrambling to find 18u A teams to play for. There will be some D2 and JUCO players, wanting to play a little more and/or looking for some exposure who will, but not a flood gate opening of them.

I believe you are going to see an increase of 23u teams. I believe ASA has already anticipated that by creating the new East and West 23u Championships for 2010.

I think the age limit should have been stuck to or elminated them all together because they are receiving compensation for their softball ability and are no longer amatures, but not what they did.

JMO,
Ty

 

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I think Gold is on their way out by attendance by college coaches due to college coaches looking at 18u "A" for recruits. If 80% percent of Gold is already college committed..... why spend recruiting budget to go see 20% percent in Gold versus 100% percent in "A" ?????

Time will tell.