Thoughts after seeing the best

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Just returned home from Colorado. We played in Aurora at the Colorado Fireworks and some of us made it over to Boulder a couple of times to watch the Independence Day tournament.

About half of our team watched the OC Batbusters (Haning), as well as the Corona Angels, Arizona Hotshots, Arizona Suncats, So Cal Athletics, Shamrocks, Beach Girls, etc. It was a great experience for our girls to sit there in the first row and watch these teams. The top 18-U Gold teams are indeed playing at a different level than anyone in Ohio. But once you get past those top 15 or 20 teams, I saw no reason why the top Ohio 18-U teams couldn't play with the rest of the crowd.

At 16-U, the Indy Edge lost the championship game in Boulder to the OC Batbusters. I have no idea why, but the Edge didn't throw its lefty ace in the final. Had they used the ace, I think the Edge wins that tournament, as she is practically unhittable.

While the overall quality of teams was very good at 16-U in Aurora and Boulder, and there was quality top to bottom, the top level wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be. Grand Slam finished in the top 8 at Boulder and lost in bracket play only to the Indy Edge pitcher. We finished tied for 17th out of 55 in Aurora and lost 6-4 to the team that got 3rd and 1-0 to the Xtreme Edge (TN). When I watched the 16-U OC Batbusters play the Corona Angels in the semis at Boulder, I couldn't help but sit there thinking that my team (which is even a young 16-U team) could play with these teams. The pitching was about what we've seen all year at Stingrays, Compuware, etc., very good, but not overwhelming. At Aurora, we finished ahead of many of these California programs that we've all heard of. We played two teams that each tied for 5th at ASA Nationals last year and beat one 7-2 (Sudden Impact, TX) and lost to the other 5-3 (San Jose Sting).

I guess the bottom line is that, other than the top level of 18 Gold, I think we're probably selling ourselves short in Ohio. I know that my team next year won't be the least bit intimidated by anybody we might go up against in Colorado or ASA Nationals.

 

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Thanks for the post;thats great info I always wondered how we stacked up against cali teams. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

 

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Also just returned from COLORADO, BOULDER tournament
where I watched the GRAND SLAM 16-U play some verygood
softball teams. Using big innings and solid defense to go 4-2
in pool games and 2-1 in bracket play. GRAND SLAM had wins
over the TEXAS MTSTIXX in a practice game and wins over
the CA SAN DIEGO BREAKERS- TWICE, NJ PRIDE, MO SURGE,
AZ HOTSHOTS AND CO COMETS-MARTINEZ. GRAND SLAM finished tied for 5th place out of 32 teams losing to 2nd place finisher INDY EDGE. Also watched the CA BATBUSTERS, CARONA ANGELS, CA USA-ATHLETICS AND FRESNO FORCE.
Very good teams but after watching I think we can play with them!!

 

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JoeA, as usual, you're right on the mark -- the top couple teams in each age group in Ohio can compete with the teams outside of the Top 10 in SoCal
The edge the Top 10 in SoCal have -- and this can NEVER be fixed -- over the best in Ohio is logistical. Those teams drive four blocks any weekend of the year and play the best youth softball teams in the world ANY weekend they want!!!
No way can a Midwest team duplicate that kind of mental and physical training.
I will give SoCal instructors the definite edge on developing pitchers, although the rest of the country is definitely catching up with a few studs (Osterman, Van Brakle, Ritter) sprinkled around.
The hitting mentality promoted in general in SoCal is shortsighted -- very susceptible to off-speed -- In 1999, my Grand Slam 16U team beat the Panthers Gold in an ASA national championship pool game 5-2 behind a pitcher whose fastball topped out at 56 mph
It's great to see Michigan (although I can't stand Maize & Blue!!) win the NCAA title. It's great to see the Force, a midwest team, win ASA Gold last summer, even if the team was stacked with college kids. Some of the top SoCal Gold teams are college-laden, which is absurd anyways since this should be exposure time for potential college recruits.
The mental game toughness achieved on a weekly basis and the emphasis on softball (the top athletes don't automatically go to basketball in LA) will keep SoCal on top. It's just not as ugly as it used to be.
The day Ohio can pull the top athletes (including African-American female athletes) into softball and the day Daddyball is outlawed at the high levels and ALL of the top players are on one or two elite teams coached by professionals, that's the day Ohio will truly be able to compete with ALL the SoCal teams.

 

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Joe again congrats for raising the bar in Ohio and taking your team out west. Bigtrain has been there and is right on message. Remember though, the Fireworks and Boulder tournaments don't allow signed seniors, so many of the teams will be slightly stronger at the ASA Gold/18U Nationals.

I hope your team and their parents have gotten addicted to that level of play. Once you do you can't wait to keep playing at that level.

The Lasers Gold won the ASA Hall of Fame Tournament and is again showing Ohio is getting stronger.

I'm glad to see that Ohio is breaking that cycle of mediocrity that continued to plague it from year to year.

BigTrain, that Southern Force team only had four seniors on it when it won the ASA Gold Nationals. In fact they had a 14 year old starter and a couple of 16 year old starters. Cassie Caroll their senior pitcher was just a phenom. She led Georgia to the SEC League Championship.

BigTrain, many of us got your message and learned from the old Grand Slam team that pioneered the way. It must be refreshing to see that the seed your team planted is growing taller each year.

Kudos have to go out to Bill Hileman who has always consistently played a tough national schedule year in and year out.

 

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Daryl, Thanks for the props -- we had eight girls off that Grand Slam 16 team in 1999 go on to sign DI scholarships -- that was the big payoff!!!
Of course, the big surge was turning around during the middle of the win over Panthers Gold and seeing Candrea, Martinez of UCLA, Rittman of Stanford, Murphy of Alabama, et all with their noses stuck in the fencing on the backside of our dugout, trying to see what the hull was going on!!!
We beat four SoCal teams that ASA tournament, but simply could not handle the incessant pressure and finally succumbed -- they exacted their measure of revenge in a big way!!!
But it was a hulluva ride while it lasted!!!
We're back at the kindergarten level again with the 10U Little Slammers -- and having a great time with the kids!!! It's a successfull combination -- we're smarter and they don't think they know everything (at least not yet!!)

 

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"I hope your team and their parents have gotten addicted to that level of play. Once you do you can't wait to keep playing at that level."

daryl, you hit it right on the head. That challenge was invigorating and definitely addictive. Our girls were pumped at the end of the tournament and welcomed each game as a new challenge. Competing against the San Jose Sting, Sudden Impact (TX), Colorado Buckaroos, Oklahoma Attack, West Cobb X-plosion (GA), Texas Impact Gold, etc., brought out the best in us and left the girls thirsting for more. With the quality of teams we played at Sluggerfest and Compuware before that, the girls have learned what great fun it is to go out and be thoroughly challenged every game. We haven't won a tournament this year (we've cashed a bunch of place and show tickets), but this has been the most successful travel team I have coached because it has pushed itself near its limit.

There is something to be said for putting together the most challenging schedule a team can realistically form. With the schedule we've played and then watching the top Gold teams at Boulder, our girls are definitely much more mentally tough and prepared than they ever were before.

My only question is how in the heck does everyone afford playing on the road all the time, including two or three full weeks on the road every summer where you have to fly?

 

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Congrats to all the teams that made us look good back here. By the sounds of it, the competition was fierce and the experience was first rate. I am sure the girls will remember this experience for quite a while.

JoeA, the only way to travel like they do is to get 2-3 major sponsors who don't mind spending some money on their team. I don't know how anyone can afford this either....The sponsors would have to be pretty generous to enable teams/coaches a chance to travel routinely outside Ohio.

Other than that, I will continue to play the lotto. LOL

 

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JoeA -- how ya doing!!!
Anyways, to give a potential answer to your question ``how do families/teams afford to play around the country all summer?'' I'll submit that competitive people with long-range goals don't mind spending nickels today for dollars tomorrow.
If you spend $5,000 a summer for two years (crucial sophomore, junior summers) that's $10,000 -- Heck, one year's full athletic scholarship at even the weakest DI state school is worth more than $15,000 -- multiply that times four and you're now talking $60,000 return on $10,000. And multiply that if you go to a private school or out-of-state school.
My father -- God bless him -- used to get on me about spending $3,000 a summer to send my son to St. Louis for two months each summer to play on baseball team coached by former major-league All-Star Ron Hunt -- My father's suggestion was based on common sense -- put the $3,000 in the bank each year and my son would have his tuition money to attend the University of Akron while living at home.
Being stubborn, I kept (as I called it) investing my money in Ron Hunt's live-in baseball program for three years where my son learned the fundamentals of the game of baseball AND learned some great lessons in life from a great teacher.
Oh, and my son went on to earn a baseball scholarship from the University of Notre Dame and this spring was named Rookie of the Year in the Big East and a Freshman All-American!!!
The point of all this is: If your kid has the talent AND the desire to play at the next level, how can a parent with the resources available not give the kid the opportunity to reach her potential??? But it happens all the time.

 

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Congratulations Joe to you and your team. ?What an experience. ?For your girls to be excited about that caliber of competition is a credit to both you and them, and I'm sure it will only make them hungrier than ever to work hard and excel.

As a stupid question, as a result of your trip will you do anything differently or is it just that those better 18U teams have that much talent?

 

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An earlier post talked about SoCal teams being able to play great teams without travelling far. I will grant you that they have an advantage during part of the year for weather, but how about trying to put together a couple of friendly tournaments with teams that have the same goals in mind. Wouldn't it be a great start to a season to have Joe's team, a couple of Lasers, Grand Slam, Stingrays (I'm sure you can add others), play a weekend or two round robin. 1-you can cut down the cost of a couple of weekends, and 2- every game is quality competition.

 

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bigtrain: Hey, doing well here. Unfortunately, I have to actually work this week and next. Your points are well taken. Saw you guys won another one with your 10-U club.

From what we observed and what I read here or on the Huddle, the teams out there have shifted their teaching to the rotational method. We saw girls staying back and having little problem with the change of speed.

DogsDad: That's a good idea and one we've kicked around, as opposed to traveling to play 4-5 fall tournaments. We might play two fall tourneys and try to organize two or three friendlies with teams like you mentioned.

 

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Hey JoeA, I guess we all should be thankful we HAVE a job that we HAVE to show up for!!!!!
Dogsdad -- the softball mentality AND the weather are two HUGE advantages SoCal has -- They start their fall/winter season in late September. It runs through Dec. 10, takes Christmas time off, and then resumes for BIG month in January, then breaks for high school ball. BTW, In SoCal, a high school coach can NOT coach any of his players in summer ball.
Between the big events, they play the four-team ``friendlies'' on Sundays -- four teams get together with two fields and umpires and each team gets in three games. Imagine on a given Sunday, you play Haning's Batbusters, Gordon's Panthers and Flash D Gold!!!
Sure, you might be lucky to get one hit that day, but you have the potential to get better because you've faced that level of pitching. My daughter plays in the Big Ten and after three summers of playing in SoCal during her high school years, she had no problem adjusting to college pitching -- she hit .330 with 10 HRs as a frosh.
Playing in that competitive environment gives all of those players a HUGE leg up on the competition in the rest of the WORLD.
Hell, if you tried to get a friendly like that going in Ohio in early Oct., you'd be missing your best players due to soccer and basketball. Softball is No. 1 in SoCal, the rest of the sports are on the back burner!!

 

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I wanna be a "sponge" when i listen to the likes of bigtrain & joeA.
Unstead of Fall Ball,lets have some "friendlys" like HERE in Mt Vernon,lol. I need my buddy Bigtrain to bring his 10U here ,to show the "locals" that you can play fastpitch at an age under 15...
No doubht joe would like to do battle with the likes of the LASERS,Cobras,Stingray or others!!
I'm sure my daughters team would be game. Just a thought

 

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Hey Boldie, welcome back from Colorado -- must have been UNBELIEVABLE competition!!! I've always contended the Boulder event was an ASA national event in early July!!!
Hey, we'd love to play friendlies in lovely Mount Vernon!!!
Thanks for the kudos on the young athletes -- the biggest thing I've learned this go-round (my last, BTW) is that we are dealing with young athletes, not 10 year olds, and they will play as hard as you ask them to play. If you let them cruise, they will cruise. If you demand they play hard, they will play hard a vast majority of the time. Oh, we've had some less-than-lovely moments, but the mental approach keeps getting better. Anything less and we'll never have a chance to compete with SoCal!!!
Good luck to Kenzie rest of year!!! Kick TBell's butt on the course -- he already lost one bet to me (not on the course, of course)!!!

 

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Guys,
I'm going to get "real serious" about putting this together.We have 2 fields at high school for lets say a 10U doubleheader starting at 9:30AM. 14U/16U Doubleheader start after 10U like at 12:30. 4 teams in each grouping. Lets try to do it twice in Sept on a Sunday!!
JOEA-you interested?? I'll see Lucky tonight to put a "bug" in his ear about this.

Before other teams start jumping in,we'll only have spots for 1 or 2 other teams in each age group!!

My minds working now!! lol,watch out..

 

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phew! I just filed some hotel bills, glad I haven't added them up!

 

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Bold1: We might be interested, depending upon the weekend and the teams involved. We're certainly willing to play good 14-U teams like yours, but we would also want to play "up" like everyone else, so we'd be looking for that as well.

Anyway, just e-mail me on your thoughts. Thanks.

 

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Joea,
You said their focus is on "rotational". So the west is going full circle again? It just goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun.

What is your thinking on which way to go now-sit 'n spin or linear?

Right now, I go with what the kid looks like they can handle. I know there are a couple of players I have that are stay- back-and-drive-it kids that are crushing the ball. I've got a couple of lungers and a couple of turnout spinners who I am trying to convert to linear. It gets soooooo confusing. ;D

 

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Cmh72, I'm pretty sure it's a combination of Linier in the pre-swing and rotation somewhere between toe-touch and heel-plant. Check out Rightview-pro by Don Slaught. It's basically an extention On Charlie Law Jr. philosophy. We learned about it earlier this year from an excellent hitting instructor from the Cincy area named Howard Carrier. Michigan also used this program.