NORTH AMERICAN 8U, 10U, 12U ALL SANCTIONED WORLD SERIES - Standings - Facility & Tournament Reviews

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Standings - Facility & Tournament Reviews by members

NORTH AMERICAN 8U, 10U, 12U ALL SANCTIONED WORLD SERIES Girls Softball Tournament, standings can be posted by Tournament Director
or Members of TheSoftballZone. Tournament Facility & Reviews by members of TheSoftballZone for NORTH AMERICAN 8U, 10U, 12U ALL SANCTIONED WORLD SERIES Girls Fastpitch Tournament.

07.31.2015 08.02.2015

12u 10u

NORTH AMERICAN 8U, 10U, 12U ALL SANCTIONED WORLD SERIES

5

Columbus,OH

ASA

$510

Bill Beckham

419.841.2596

 

[snoman76]

Facility - Berliner - No need to explain
Concession - good
Umpires - Used ASA umpires - I will say they were pretty good. Even the games I watched the umpires did a good job......BUT there's always that one exception.. Josh working field 8... I don't know what this guy does for his 1st job but he should stick to it because umpiring is not his calling. He's in it for the wrong reasons. Telling the girls at the beginning of the game HIS strike zone is 1 ball off the plate on both sides so come out swinging. Yelling at the girls between innings "NO ONE WALKS ON MY DIAMOND" . I'm all for hustling on and off the field but he was extreme. Every 1/2 inning he would yell out "LETS GO (insert team color) HUSTLE UP" It was obvious that the games were in his hands and no one could take them from him. All he cared about was getting through 7 innings before the 90 minute time limit. He should consider hanging up his 1985 chest protector, yes the one with the strap, and go be a dick somewhere else.

 

[Fastball19]

Yea he was something else! I think I may have talked to you are the brackets about him!

 

[gcg3refs]

Facility - Berliner - Great facility
Concessions - had most any thing you needed.

Umpires - for the 12U were lacking training and rules knowledge; i.e. older, heavy set ump walked with a limp, never moved from home plate, and best of all - wearing the pillow chest protector, circa 1985, Field 14. He interfered with every play at home, would never call it, one play, ball got stuck in the pocket on the pillow, he grabbed it threw it down, never called time. Calling phantom interferences, on the teams, etc. He was very similar to Josh - hurry up, hustle, get on field, warm up pitcher - 1 pitch throw it down. Pretty funny considering most of the umps never moved from their starting positions, which, on the bases were usually wrong, standing next to 2nd base or behind third base.
We figured the best ASA umps were at the National tournaments, they were not at Berliner this weekend.

 

[snoman76]

We figured the best ASA umps were at the National tournaments, they were not at Berliner this weekend.

I get that some are better than others but there should never be such a variance like there is between one umpire to the next. They all get the same rule book to use 1/2 don't know the rules and the other 1/2 are never wrong. I was surprised yesterday when an umpire told me I was right and he was wrong. Not that he didn't know the rule but he was just a little ahead of himself. He made the correct call and thanked me. I get that umpires will make mistakes, its what they do to correct it is what helps make them a good umpire or not. Since we are on umpires, why are they all so afraid to call illegal pitches? "they're just 10 or they're just 12" doesn't fly with me. These are the "learning years" correct? So what are we teaching if we allow them to continue pitching this way? Just because someone wants to be an umpire doesn't mean they should be. If they can't do it then all it does is give that sanctioning body a bad rep because odds are we don't remember the umpires name (I'm horrible with them) but we know if he/she represents ASA, PGF, NSA, PONY or whatever. Could go on forever..... Maybe a new thread starting....

 

[Miller]

I agree about the umps. One umps rear was puckered so tight he couldn't haven broken wind. Threats to throw out anyone for stepping out of the dugout without calling time. Also "Josh" must have been used to calling rec games. We got the same speech about the strike zone. We hit a home run and he was amazed.

 

[Softballfarm]

Hi Everyone...

My 03 team made its second appearance at the NAAS WS this weekend and I have to say it is an awesome experience for the kids. The entire experience is a super time for everyone and Bill and his team did great job running a super event. We played in the 12u division which had 112 teams from 16 states.

--The entire event was held at Berliner Park in Columbus Ohio, which, is an amazing place. 32 fields?? Are you kidding? What a great place for softball and to hold an event the size of the NAAS WS. The park has ample parking and a good number of porta johns and flushable restrooms. There was a $5 charge per day to enter the park.

--In May, the TD had sent a survey to the coaches asking for input to break the 12u division into a Platinum and Gold divisions for the upper and lower seeds of each pool. The coaches agreed and I must say it made for a very competitive Sunday. My team had a "bizarre" pool play which pushed us into the Gold bracket but the overall quality of teams at this tournament was very good. I think this decision was best for everyone as the 1st round of games looked to have very few blowouts.

--Opening ceremonies were very well organized. The parade of teams was a great event and each team was announced over the PA system. The skills competitions were nicely organized and the final results were posted publicly at the player's village. I think a nice touch for the skills competition would be to have the players' names etc announced over the pa system. It would be nice to know who is who. The pin trading is a great time for the girls. It is really neat to see the girls meet new people and seeking out who has the "cool" pins.

--All fields were well maintained and the schedule for teams and umpires was 100% from what I saw. Each field we played on had safety bases. The turf fields were sweet for the teams to play on. It made them feel like they were playing on center court.

--The TD, Bill, was accessible and could be found usually at the command tent at the player's village. He was nice to speak with and genuinely was concerned for everyone's enjoyment. My schedule was provided to me timely and I received a number of emails and updates on their web site with details, updates of the upcoming weekend. All scores could be texted in or turned in to the tent. The score board and brackets were kept up to date and I always knew where my next game was going to be.

--I have mixed emotions of the umpires. I had a few umps on field 14 that I felt were cocky and behaved in a way that made them the center of the attention instead of the players. Most however were polite and would engage in discussions about rules etc in a professional manner. I started a thread in the rules section of OFC to detail an odd couple of rule interpretations my team endured in one game on field 25 but our disagreement was handled adult like and courteously...albeit incorrectly regarding the rules. I really liked the ump we had on field 6 as he seemed to enjoy the game as much as the players and parents did. He absolutely loved our game and congratulated my player who hit a grand slam over the fence in the 3rd inning. Very nice man.

--I cannot give a chili dog report as is my usual practice. I absolutely refuse to spend $3.75 for a chili dog. Call me cheap but...

--What I didn't like this year was the hotel reservation service mandated by the tournament. I realize this is out of the TD's hands but all it amounted to was paying more for a hotel that I already had reserved. The service sent out a Mickey Mouse email, poorly written, with incorrect grammar and spelling informing me I was non compliant because I didn't reserve my hotel thru them. Once I relented I found my $64 a night "Thunder Elite organizational rate" at a local Ramada went up to $115!! AND my hotel manager told me the service is also taking 10% off her end as well... ugh. Again, I accept this is outside the control of the TD and that the city of Columbus is leveraging a kick back for their own pockets, but this type of BS is what really ticks me off. We have sanctioning bodies trying to force us to buy their insurance, we have tournaments forcing us to use their hotel reservation service etc. Why can't we just play ball?

--I highly recommend this tournament. My team traveled just 2 1/2 hours and played seven games against teams from 4 different states. It has all the buzz and pomp of a WS and is at a park that has to be seen to believe.

Joe Nay
Thunder Elite 03

--

 

[us3odums]

I have to agree with you he was nasty and very abrupt to anyone with a question he was rushing us the entire game he was a mess!!!!

 

[Jw04coach]

My Diamonds 04 competed in the NAAS WS for the first time and we had a blast. Here are a couple take aways from our experience.

There isn't a better venue around than Berliner Park. 32 fields, plenty of parking, and a bearable $5.00 a day parking fee. We did have to play on field 30 a couple times, which I'm pretty sure wasn't even in Columbus anymore, and everything was more limited way in the back of the park. Parking was a little hard to find on Friday when we arrived, but we managed. Concessions way in the back was limited to a food cart, but at least the effort to have something was made. Concessions up by the turf fields, back in the city of Columbus, were way better.

My team did not participate in opening ceremonies but I wish we would have from everything I heard. Sounded like a lot of fun for the girls. My girls did enjoy running around Friday/Saturday trading pins with other teams and comparing their collections with fellow teammates. That was a good bonding time for the team, we went as a group to seek out pins on Saturday, and you would have thought the pins were solid gold the way they ran around chasing down other teams that they hadn't traded with yet.

The umpires we had were typical 10u umpires, inconsistent but maintained their inconstancy throughout the game. We did have two really great guys Saturday morning on field 26 that were there for all the right reasons. They really tried to make it enjoyable for the girls and called a decent game while doing so. Unlike the above reviews, our umpires didn't try to show who was boss the whole time thankfully.

The back fields could have been maintained a little more during the day. Never lined or raked that I saw. At one point, the opposing team had a batter about 4 feet behind home plate moving my catcher back to 6-8 feet behind the plate. When I politely called time and asked the umpire where the batters box was, he replied "That's a good question Coach, I'm not sure". He then proceeded to draw a line with his foot that was still too far behind the plate but I guess that's all he could really do. There where also a couple times that they didn't call foul balls, or did and shouldn't have, because there where no marked baselines after the first game on the day. None of this changed the outcome of our games necessarily, just wish fields could have been lined at least a few times during the day and especially on bracket day.

Pool play scheduling was a little strange for our team, 3 games pretty much in a row Friday afternoon and only one Saturday morning. It did give us time Saturday to have some team bonding, so no real complaints on that. The decision to split the group into Platinum/Gold brackets was a good one. My team went 4-0 in pool play and had a number one seed in the Platinum bracket for Sunday. The competition was good in the Platinum bracket and allowed some of the younger teams to compete amongst themselves in the Gold bracket. We made it to the final 8, but lost to a decent West Virginia Diamonds team.

All in all, this was a fun tournament with some good competition and a year ending tournament feel. The TD did a great job and everything stayed on schedule for the most part. Highly recommend this tournament for teams not wanting to leave Ohio for a sanctioned Nationals. We will definitely be back next year!