Calif teams VS everyone else!! what are they doing better?

[Danible]

What on average, would be the number of games a 16U Cal team plays in a calender year. Say from August to August.

[3rd Base Coach]

in Calif - 150 to 180 games from aug to aug.

[pixsguy]

dd teams played about 110 before we got to nationals...you figure three/four games every sunday starting in sept all the way through mid december with a couple of tourneys...then mid-january throo august with a bunch of saturdays and a few more tourneys (vegas, fresno, states, regionals, last chance)...you easily play 110+ by the time nationals comes around...hopefully my hair will grow back in during this month off...haha

[Martin]

SoCal averages 10 inches of rain per year. About 340 days per year have sunshine. Houston averages 46 inches and Dallas has 33 inches.

Los Angeles is the 2nd-Largest city in the country. Houston is 4th with 1.4 MILLION fewer people. The population density of Los Angeles is twice that of Houston, meaning this greater number of people are more able to connect with each other due to shorter distances.

San Diego and Dallas are roughly the same size with the same population density, but San Diego is 116 miles from LA and Dallas is 240 miles from Houston. It is therefore considerably easier for the teams in the San Diego metropolitan area to connect with the huge population center in LA than it is for Dallas-area teams to connect with the smaller center in Houston.

The largest median incomes in the country center in California (mostly Fresno, but also LA). This means more disposable income for the residents.

SoCal has a tremendously rich tradition of fastpitch softball. They have dominated the sport since its center of gravity shifted from Chicago in the late 1940s. The PAC-10 is the birthplace of elite college fastpitch and remains the standard of excellence. UCLA is the elite team of this elite conference. It is only natural that the players who have succeeded in these programs over the past several decades stay in the area where they grew up and played in college. If experience counts, then the level of instruction in SoCal must easily outclass any other area of the country.

The success of these programs creates an excited fanbase throughout the region. The thousands of young ladies who live in SoCal can see firsthand what their opportunities are. They are exposed to high quality programs at a young age and are thus motivated in ways that girls from Minnesota and Pennsylvania and most other places have a more difficult time replicating.

So, we have one of the nation's biggest population centers providing a huge number of recruits, sitting on absolutely gorgeous weather allowing for 340 days of outside training per year, with some of the highest incomes in the nation allowing them to spend their disposable income on the excellent coaching that is in the area due to over 50 years of continued interest and success at the collegiate and olympic levels.

Given these conditions, the suprising result would be if SoCal DIDN'T have many great teams. Unless you enjoy conditions similar to SoCal (not many of us do), the better question to ask is: how do teams from other areas succeed? The Connecticut Brakettes have dominated the ASA Majors tournament for years. How do they do it? The Lemont Rockers of Illinois just beat the Minnesota Elite for the 18U ASA "A" Nationals. What is their story? How did the Virginia Shamrocks win a Gold Championship? I think there are lessons to be learned in these organizations that can be used by most non-SoCal teams.

[Danible]

And to add to it, how did the best freshman college pitcher succeed growing up in the middle of cornfields in the midwest, I.E. Melloh at Fresno State.

[Sam]

Weather and population. Arizona plays year round also, but we only have 1/5th the population of CA. When you have 6 times as many girls to choose from, you have all that much better chance of finding more talent. Texas also has a huge population advantage.

Not to mention, every time we seem to develop some good home state players, they jump ship and go play for a CA team.

Don't buy it. Didn't Erin Arevalo play for the Hotshots?

The population in SoCal only matches the competition for players. The best players don't end up on even one or two teams.....Batbusters, Firecrackers, Cruisers, Angels, Pastime, etc....

There is absolutely no excuse for AZ teams.

[RegionRookie]

Last year had a chance to watch several CA 14U teams at ASA Nationals. Spoke with some parents from the Corona Angels and learned some interesting things .....
- Not too many of the REALLY good players participate in more than one sport. Hence fewer conflicts.
- Team speed is VERY important
- Not too much team hopping going on. Turnover very low.
- Players are taught personal accountability and advanced techniques at an earlier age
- Play a LOT more practice games and fewer tournaments. Only play the tournaments that count the most.

[dallasfungo]

I don't have an accurate record but I think our team played about 75-80 games from Sept to July, best I can tell.

I think the intent of the original post was to consider more broadly the factors underlying the relative strength of CA softball programs. Certainly there will be uniquely skilled athletes who surface outside CA. My sense is that those players' abilities are more the result of genetics than a depth of coaching excellence, local history in the sport that drives popularity, or the effect of facing quality opponents on a regular basis.

Good observations about team turnover. There are no published statistics but I'd guess that in the Dallas area most of the top teams will experience 25%-40% churn every year and may retain only 4-6 girls for more than 2 years.

[hotcorner]

Here on the East Coast (Maryland specifically) the other sport, lacrosse takes away a lot of top notch athletes from softball. As lacrosse catches on across the country and Colleges add it to their program where do you think they come looking for players. It is similar to a college softball coach looking for quality players in California. The chance to receive a scholarship in lacrosse far out wheighs the chance for one in softball here in MD.

[Yellowball]

Soccer is far more popular in So Call vs. Softball. There are hundreds of girls playing at each age group in our city.