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I hope all of these girls are focusing on their education so they can take it to the next level......... real life and a career?
when are the bandits tryouts anyway?
They dont have tryouts. Teams are formed well in advance of August (6 months or so).
Ohio simply hasn't had enough of its very top players whose families have been willing to travel the country, as woolfman mentioned above. Or rather, nobody from Ohio has been able to pull it all together and those top players leave for the Bandits or someone else.
Seems like that is changing, with quite a few now deciding that you need to play on a bigger stage. When we decided to leave for a bigger venue, there was only one, maybe two girls willing to make the commitment at that time. All the discussion on this board at that time was about how could Ohio get a Gold team started. Maria from the Lasers Orange tried to organize a gold team, but did not get the support she needed to sustain a team. And it takes a lot of support to maintain something of that level.
Now it seems more and more recognize the benefits of playing at a nationally competitive level. We might of rethought doing it if there was a viable Ohio option then. And its not all about getting seen on the national circuit. Its about facing the same type of competition that you will see in college ball. Some of the bandit girls are going to smaller schools, and some to powerhouse schools. You just wont see 65+ mph pitching on the Ohio circuit. And if you do happen to run across one of those pitchers, you will be unprepared. You need to see that type of pitching every weekend, or you will not be ready when you get to college.
even if that puts me in the chair watching (which alot of people may have wanted anyway!). Coach Murph
@Dan:
I'm not angry with you, at all, and you don't need to apologize. I was sincerely asking you if you had any ideas about what we could do to create a better pipeline to coaches.
@Coop:
Bill Conroy used to own the pro Chicago Bandits team and he is now "an Owner/Director of the Premier Girls Fastpitch and Surf City Tourneys" in charge of " sales and marketing, which includes TV contracts, Media and Sponsor agreements". I'm guessing that he either gets compensated for that work and the work he does for the Beverly Bandits or his partnership in HTS Consulting ("High Tech Solutions, Inc." out of Chicago) gives him adequate wealth to spend the time and money that he clearly does on fastpitch. I think that's great, but there aren't a lot of fastpitch coaches in Ohio that have that kind of money and time. We do the best we can and given our limited resources it doesn't surprise me that players who have the resources and talent go out of state to get the kind of support that Bill Conroy can offer.
@SoCal Dad:
Good point, but I'm also sure that those Laser coaches are maintaining their college coach connections to make recommendations on older players even while they cycle down to the younger ages. My point is that it probably took these coaches a long time to get the credibility and the pipelines to Division 1 programs that they have. They are to be congratulated on that, but I think it is overly optimistic to assume that coaches with time-consuming day jobs and with teams that only charge $700 - $750 in fees can develop similar pipelines overnight.
@MarkT:
I'm not conversant in the changes for Premier qualification though I did read on the PGF web site that there will be fewer direct invites and more teams attending through qualifiers. And if that trend continues, you are probably absolutely right that Cali teams will travel the country trying to get berths.
I hope we get a PGF qualifier in Ohio or a contiguous state, as it is always fun to compare our talents to the teams from Cali and other states. Plus BH95 has those open weeks created by the Ohio rule that USA/ASA berth holders cannot participate in Ohio ASA tournaments awarding further ASA berths.
Been searching for a 2nd year 16u college exposure type team for a good friend of mine and can't believe the large changes in the scenery . No more Doom 95. No more Championship Fastpitch, not many openings (if any ) with the other top clubs. where are all these kids landing ? going to 18u clubs ? getting mixed in with 96 DOB teams ? Maybe we will find out after tryouts .... This player was looking for team in Southern/Central ohio . MD
I hope we get a PGF qualifier in Ohio or a contiguous state, as it is always fun to compare our talents to the teams from Cali and other states. Plus BH95 has those open weeks created by the Ohio rule that USA/ASA berth holders cannot participate in Ohio ASA tournaments awarding further ASA berths.