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Heck - who really knows....
But here are some thoughts from the deap south. After spending the majority of my life in Ohio I was one of the people that thought that if OSU would recruit the 3-4 of the best players in Ohio every year that they would be a much better team. I also thought that there should be more teams playing, or striving to play, in the ASA Nationals. Ohio at that time had only a couple "Gold" teams and a few that went after ASA regularly. I am not sure if that has changed over the last 7 years - but I had an interesting disucssion with the organizers of the Sun Classic. I asked why there weren't any Ohio teams in the event at Disney. Their comment was that they haven't accepted a team from Ohio into their events in years. They went on to frankly state - "not a great softball state". Now we all know that perception is reality in a lot of cases. Unfortunately that is the case related to Ohio Softball. And in my opinion it is misguided. Teams from Ohio have had success at ASA in the past - not sure about recently though. We do have kids playing D1 softball at big schools. We do have good teams but they don't seem to get noticed. I was surprised that there weren't any Ohio teams at Rising Stars this fall. Those type events build reputations among the TD's and the recruiters. These TD's all talk to one another when choosing teams for exclusive events. Its a closed society...lol
The biggest difference I see in Florida is simply that at age 16u there are teams - many teams - that chase ASA and Gold tournaments. And the better players gravitate to those teams. Even if they are not of championship caliber - they play and they get noticed. At the younger ages it is a mess here. The term DADDYBALL was coined here...lol.
Again - it is all about perception. College recruiters will take a southern or western kid over a midwest kid simply because they perceive the kid has played tougher competition. Not always true......
But here are some thoughts from the deap south. After spending the majority of my life in Ohio I was one of the people that thought that if OSU would recruit the 3-4 of the best players in Ohio every year that they would be a much better team. I also thought that there should be more teams playing, or striving to play, in the ASA Nationals. Ohio at that time had only a couple "Gold" teams and a few that went after ASA regularly. I am not sure if that has changed over the last 7 years - but I had an interesting disucssion with the organizers of the Sun Classic. I asked why there weren't any Ohio teams in the event at Disney. Their comment was that they haven't accepted a team from Ohio into their events in years. They went on to frankly state - "not a great softball state". Now we all know that perception is reality in a lot of cases. Unfortunately that is the case related to Ohio Softball. And in my opinion it is misguided. Teams from Ohio have had success at ASA in the past - not sure about recently though. We do have kids playing D1 softball at big schools. We do have good teams but they don't seem to get noticed. I was surprised that there weren't any Ohio teams at Rising Stars this fall. Those type events build reputations among the TD's and the recruiters. These TD's all talk to one another when choosing teams for exclusive events. Its a closed society...lol
The biggest difference I see in Florida is simply that at age 16u there are teams - many teams - that chase ASA and Gold tournaments. And the better players gravitate to those teams. Even if they are not of championship caliber - they play and they get noticed. At the younger ages it is a mess here. The term DADDYBALL was coined here...lol.
Again - it is all about perception. College recruiters will take a southern or western kid over a midwest kid simply because they perceive the kid has played tougher competition. Not always true......