There is no perfect solution. There is a ton of misinformation and lack of research and understanding. There is a process that ASA has in place for giving, awarding and handling berths. If you are a coach, there is no excuse for you not to know exactly how the berth process works for the sanctioning body your team is playing in and hoping to go to Nationals in. While I am not an ASA representative, I will share what I have researched.
1. Each ASA Association - in OH there are 3 - Dayton, Cinci and OH - get's 1 berth at each age for 200 sanctioned teams and 1 more at 1000 and more at other thresholds. Dayton for example gets 1 at each age as they have just over 200 teams in their assoc. These berths 'can' be used in a association tournament only - for Dayton - Clyde could hold his USA/ASA Qualifier for JUST teams in his sanctioning body. As many of our Hawks teams are in his assoc - that would be a huge benefit for us competing against local teams rather than what he 'choose' to do, open it up to all Ohio teams. The Ohio associations basically have agreed to open their USA/ASA berth qualifiers to each others teams. They don't have to.
2. Each association also gets 1 NATIONAL Qualifier berth each year (at least I know Dayton only gets 1 - not sure what OHIO Assoc gets) in 1 age group. Last year Dayton had 14u, this year 16u - which HAS to be OPEN to all ASA 16u teams across the country. The OP made some strong, uninformed comments about that so let me clear that up as well.
- That NATIONAL Qualifier for the Dayton Metro 16u Berth was posted on OFC back in April. That was Clyde tournament - no other organization 'ran' it for him. He created a flyer for it, which he asked for me to email to ALL 16u teams in the Metro back in April - 2 months ahead of the tournament - and it was posted (as pointed out earlier in this thread) on TournamentASA in April. I emailed over 44 16u teams the FLYER and a LINK to the online registration for it in April. If your coach did not put you in - ask him why not. One coach was talking about it being 'un-publicized' at the Metro. I sent him "the email" as sent back in April with HIS email in the TO list of those that got it. BTW: We had a draw for a blind bracket made Thursday night at Kettering - Hitter23 was there - in case we needed to cut PP during the Metro due to rain and jump right into bracket play.
- So, 4 teams - entered - my team, lasers purple, tenn elite (which was NOT last minute - their coach found it on OFC in May and told Clyde if they needed a berth after the opening of their season they would be up, so after not qualifying the weekend prior - they jumped in as any team would - I know he and clyde had several calls as it approached as we all did. If we won the Metro, we would have pulled out) and Ohio Edge. When it looked like rain early in the week - Clyde called us all and told us that if we did not get it in - he would flip a coin thru the bracket. ON FRIDAY - he got an email from the Kettering Park Director saying the fields would be closed all weekend due to weather. 100% out of his control. He told us all to drive to Springfield and he would flip. He told the Tn team they could have a rep there. I drove 2 hrs, my team lost our first 2 flips and we were out in 5 minutes. I drove 2 hours back home. It was a fair as could be - I had ZERO room to complain. I would have preferred to win the berth, play it on the field, or an Ohio team win it (so there would have been one less team to fight for it at ASA State) - but it did not work out that way.
One note about Regional Nationals - Eastern, Northern etc. Those are 'less' coveted, less attended and are more easily obtained - if you play ASA and want to go - qualify any weekend or ask for an at large.
USA/ASA Berths are the opposite - Associations can't 'make' up berths - there is a SET number allotted by ASA across the country according to the policy I mentioned above and they are tightly managed.
Lastly, there are "At Large" berths - the USA/ASA - Let's say they allocate 200 BERTHS to 16u USA/ASA (I have no idea the number - it is based on host site capacity) - as the date approaches - associations can turn their unused berths back in to the tournament - and the Host ASA Assoc can use them for at large berths for teams that want in and deserve in based on their performance and number of ASA NQ's they played in. I am not sure if the OH ASA has some at large - I guess those would be any of theirs that no one won or wanted - I am sure that rarely happens. I would like to know if they do myself. What I do know is that a Assoc Commissioner can call on one of his/her teams behalf and try to get an at large berth. Again, if you are a coach and you do not have a good relationship with your teams ASA Commissioner - shame on you. They will work for you if so.
Some side notes, we run the Dayton Metro - we get NO berths as a result - I heard someone say the host of a USA/ASA qualifier gets berths - ask OFC Heat, you don't. Period, we have to fight for ours same as everyone else. It pays as a coach to understand the process. Also, they really have to give out berths on that weekend - regardless of rain/weather. TEAMS schedule well in advance - as Strohbro said - in my teams case next weekend - we have players going to Colorado to showcase, one to a camp at Florida where she was invited to come, 2 out of town - it was our only planned weekend off all summer as a team - you have to plan and allow your players to plan their recruiting camps well in advance at 16u. No smart team would drop a Stingrays, Lasers, or GAPSS tourney for a makeup qualifier - recruiting is too important to the girls, and it will cause a snowball, ripple affect that will screw everything up all down the line for TD's with team dropping out last minute etc - as what happened to ASA State 16u with several last minute dropouts.
So, that's what I have learned about the process - I hope this helps other. In the end, to quote so many college coaches - this is BIG GIRL BALL - suck it up and deal with it. At the very least do your homework before complaining.
No one likes having to drive back to Findlay - but if you want the berth - get in your car and go to the draw. Good luck to those that do.
PS. I have known Clyde Brewer for 6 years now. He is one of the fairest, 'in it for the girls' man I know. He tries in every instance to do what is right. With our help he has taken one of the smallest ASA Associations and created one of the largest USA/ASA Qualifiers in the country. 144 teams last season. He does not deserve the 'comments' made about him above - either from uninformed posters or ones that should know better. He runs a youth league (the vast majority of his Assoc teams are 'local' B teams - inner city, local girls. 3 days a week for the girls that really play for the fun of it. Something we all tend to forget at times...