Rising Stars?

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Anyone have results from Rising Stars? How are Ohio teams doing?

 

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I read in another forum that Buckeye Heat won their first game 5-1 against a team from Kentucky, lost second one 7-0 against a team from Conneticut (I think), won their third one 5-1 against a FL team and was winning their next game something like 3-0 in the third inning. Today they were supposed to have one more game in the morning before coming home.

 

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I'd also be interested to hear what colleges were represented, and any speculation on whether or not a similar turnout could be expected at the January edition (I have read the list of "attending colleges" on the Rising Stars website, but I'm wondering what the difference in turnout is for October vs. January).

 

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The majority of the Big Ten coaches (Mich. Nwern, Ill., Iowa, Wisc., Purdue, Ind., MSU,) and Big 12 coaches are in St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield at the 10-field Chesterfield Sports Complex for the College Exposure Showcase -- the touranment officials did a terrible job recovering from rain -- rain stopped Friday early evening and the games didn't start until Saturday late afternoon -- each team played two one-hour games Saturday -- it's 72 and sunny Sunday, two more games
The biggest fall event is next weekend in Houston, The Ronald McDonald Classic

 

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Buckeye Heat (18's)won the night cap yesterday 9-0 -Rachel LeMaster crushing the ball,Going 8-8 in the last two games (Can you say "In the zone&quotI think Sarah Phillips pitched the game.Today The Heat won like 5-1 with Brittany D.pitching a good game.They played Orange Park tiger sharks today seem like there were a good number of coaches attending.I do know that alot of the southern coaches along with MAC teams attended as well as Ivy league.I believe Joe will up-date everyone on the Showcase as a whole when he arrives back from the sunshine state.
On a different note,does anyone know about the "early signing showcase in Myrtle Beach? We have a chance to go and would like more info on it?Thanks

 

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what age group is this?

 

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My daughter is there and she said the only scouts she saw watching at their fields where Akron U, Kent and Wright State. There might have been more, but under cover! LOL :

She said there where more at Stingrays..........

 

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That's a long way to go to be seen by coaches in your own state,actually there were quite a few more there on Fridays game I heard and also at the clinics they had,I know Georgia tech came and Atlantic Palm beach and I'm sure Joe saw and talked to a number of them,He should be back soon and giving some feedback on the showcase.

 

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Their website says "Over 300 College Coaches will attend this year" so I hope there were more.

 

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On Friday, we had Marist, Georgia Tech, Illinois State, Wright State, Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Akron and a couple of others I'm forgetting about watching us. Over the weekend we also had Ohio University, Limestone (Div. II in So. Carolina) and a few others watching. I'm not sure who the others were.

The key is to be at the main park (Bamford). I was told by a college coach that they put the junior colleges and teams who have played there before at Bamford.

All in all, I'm glad we went, but I'd want to be guaranteed at least a couple of games at Bamford in the future. In my opinion there are just too many teams (210) and there is no way for college coaches to see everything they would like to see. I was told that by a couple of college coaches. Maybe my team would be one of the teams eliminated, but I think 125-150 teams would make more sense and one fewer park could be used.

 

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I was passing out profiles for some of the games and Smith, Springfield, Bingingham, Miami Dade, watched Heat games. We sat next to the assistant coach from Allegheny on plane trip home, and she said it really wasn't much better for the girls at the main complex because there were just so many she wanted to watch and it was such chaos getting to the right field at the right time to do that. So I think that Joe is right in stating that the tournament should accept fewer teams.

The earlier the girls get the information to the coaches as to precisely when and where they will be playing, the better the chance that the coach will be there. I'm guessing there are very few Lana Turners who are randomly "discovered" by their future college coaches.

 

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Our team Ohio ICE Poole/Philen was the only Ohio team to play whole tourney @ Bramford (other than our 3 practice games @ Piccolo), Ohio Attack did get one game there on Sat. We had coaches @ every game from all over the country but....they were invited for the most part by our players and I assume our opponent's players. My DD teams had coaches from George Mason, Grand Valley State, Wright State, Nova , Lynn College, Ball State, Rutgers, Kent, Miami , Central Michigan and many others watching some for more than one game. I did talk to a group of Umpires who were @ Central park and they said yes there were scouts but not like @ Bramford.....got to love the College coaches courtesy tent that is set up there, hear they feed them really well, I know @ Bramford they had golf carts going around continuously offering the scouts water bottles and @ 92 degrees it was hot.
Big train we did have most of the Big 10 represented and some of the Big 12, all of the MAC, I know last January even Stanford and UCLA were there, didn't see them this year . but really wasn't looking for them. I have to agree with the number of teams and complexes used, too many , 4, it must be overwhelming for the scouts to see every player they want to see, so I would think they would have to have a plan, ie. Only see those who have contacted them, who play positions of need, or even possibly only go to 2 out of 4 fields.... Weather wise we had rain Saturday morning, not sure but I think they may have lost one round of games then they delay 30 mins and shortend the games to 75 mins from 90, our team lucked out as our games weren't scheduled till 6:30p when it was beautiful again so other than losing a bit of playing time we got all our games in.
The kids really showcased well and kudos to Mandi for her Grand Slam in last game against the Alabama Thrillers!
This was definately worth the trip to Florida for our team.

 

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What a showcase they put on. Yes Joe is right they should have fewer teams. Bamford was the place to be. I watched the West coast Hurricanes against the Texas Magic Gold. The West coast girls were huge and the Texas Magic were small and very fast. Texas girls batted left all but one. I thought I was watching Arizona play. They put it to them.The Buzz of college coaches were like a bee hive at some games. The other fields got a few coaches. To get looked at you have to be a team that has a record of being a great team. Joe's team was at our same fields and there was some coaches but not like Bamford and Ranger. I'm sure it's very political and years of being involved with the tournament to get in the better fields. Parents keep marketing your DD's to the coaches and they will come. All in all it was a great weekend of ball.

 

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Xpress played at Bamford, for all of there scheduled games, all practice games were at the other fields

 

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I'll just go ahead and share the e-mail I sent to Rising Stars today after they asked for recruiting "successes" at the tournament. Of course, I took liberty with the request.

Patti:
Thank you for your work for the tournament. The recruiting activity was a mixed bag for us. We were at Driftwood, which was clearly not the place to be. We're not the OC Batbusters, but we are a team that finished high at the 16-U ASA Nationals and had Big Ten, ACC, SEC and many other D1 coaches following us there and in Colorado.

For our Friday game we had about 10 colleges in attendance, which was great and we thought we would be getting quite a bit of exposure during the weekend. We had maybe 6 colleges total for our Saturday-Sunday games, with none on Saturday night and maybe 1 or 2 on Sunday morning.

I had several college coaches I spoke with when I went over to Bamford and at the airport yesterday tell me we really needed to play at Bamford, or at least Piccolo. I had a couple of them tell me they had more girls they wanted to see than was physically possible, so it was just easier to stay at Bamford to see the ones on their list who were there. I realize of course the logistical problems of having so many teams. If cutting the tournament down to not use Driftwood eliminates my team, so be it, I could live with that.

Thank you,
Joe Abraham
Buckeye Heat (OH)

 

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BigTrain, I was in Chesterfield this weekend, and I have to agree, the tournament was very poorly run after the rain. I spent about a half an hour with Coach Hutchins during the first two games (yes while there were atleast 4 more playable fields) and she was extremely upset. It made my job recruiting very difficult, trying to see all the teams we wanted to was very hard when you never knew who was playing where or when. Over all, it served its purpose for our needs, but there could have been a whole heck of a lot of improvement.

 

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sorry MV Xpress, didn't see your girls while we were @ Bamford...didn't mean to slight you, but it is a huge complex , our games were all @ Yankee field which is that spur off of the center core by the Coaches tent, so we only passed by the other fields and concessions on the way in and out, I am sure you guys represented Ohio Fastpitch well. How did you guys like having the same umpires each game? Ours didn't even switch plate and field duties.....thankfully the plate umpire had a fair strike zone, all in all very good officiating.

 

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No problem, we were at Ranger, I know what you mean about the umps. I would have like to have the teams switch fields also. The one we were at had a large hole where the pitchers rubber was, almost a parting of the sea.
But all and all a great time.

 

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Where was JoeA when the above pic was taken? Out with his Supermodel girlfriend in South Beach or out riding around with Rhonda in her "Slightly Damaged" rental car?? ?

 

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Joe was with Shakira when Rhonda nearly ran them over on the sidewalk... ;D