The question is....is this team really underachieving? On paper, by commitment they do appear that they would be underachieving given their DI signings and such. However, what really needs to be looked at is the actual quality of the roster on the field. Classic case of over-selling players?
Time will tell, this is a relatively young program that has risen quickly but only time will tell if these players pan out at their respective schools. Will they keep these coaches coming back for more players from the program or will they be burnt by the over sell and look elsewhere?
Honestly, I'm not sure but I think we will soon begin to find out.
TX
softball3421 wrote:The question is....is this team really underachieving? On paper, by commitment they do appear that they would be underachieving given their DI signings and such. However, what really needs to be looked at is the actual quality of the roster on the field. Classic case of over-selling players?
Time will tell, this is a relatively young program that has risen quickly but only time will tell if these players pan out at their respective schools. Will they keep these coaches coming back for more players from the program or will they be burnt by the over sell and look elsewhere?
Honestly, I'm not sure but I think we will soon begin to find out.
If you dont like Tim or the American Freedom that is your opinion and everyone has one. Argue your point about any topic, but there really is no need to put down the teen players on this team. I believe the college coaches made their decisons off of talent and nothing else.
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TexasYellowBall - Posts: 298
- Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:08 am
That's was clearly not a knock on his players, but I see where it could be read that way. I apologize if I offended any players and certainly I did not call any specific players or positions out.
However, we can argue the point ALL day that there are travel ball coaches that build relationships with college coaches that make it possible to "talk up" a player and get them to a school where maybe they aren't the right fit. This has happened countless numbers of times.
I also made the comment that maybe that's not the case, I said time will tell if it was an over sell or an underachieving team.
Maybe they are underachieving because of poor coaching. Clearly I think that's very possible!
However, we can argue the point ALL day that there are travel ball coaches that build relationships with college coaches that make it possible to "talk up" a player and get them to a school where maybe they aren't the right fit. This has happened countless numbers of times.
I also made the comment that maybe that's not the case, I said time will tell if it was an over sell or an underachieving team.
Maybe they are underachieving because of poor coaching. Clearly I think that's very possible!
- softball3421
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:20 am
Last post because once again Heybucket has proven incapable of having a rational discussion about a serious topic (the need for more quality umpires at the top level) without any thread evolving into personal attacks on people willing to put their name on their opinions.
1. 2010 - AD Dyess Park; against the Texas Bombers Gold. Your credibility is worthless, and your Big XII coach story is bogus.
2. The American Freedom has had 17 players play their entire softball careers in an AF Gold uniform when they received their Division I offers, or came to us as unsigned juniors/seniors from other programs without any communication with the college where they earned their Division I offer. This is in just 3 years. We have had multiple players turn down Division I offers to accept Division II offers because the offers were the "right fit" for those players. We have had 5 players who had Division I deals when they first joined our team. The extent to which the AF helped those players increase the dollar amount of those scholarships is debatable. As I've often said to our players/parents, neither I nor the American Freedom "get" any player a scholarship: we, like all travel programs, only offer our players the necessary, regular college exposure to earn their own scholarships. We do so by gaining access to top college showcases by consistently putting a quality product on the field. Anyone who thinks that any travel ball coach can "talk" a college coach into offering a scholarship to a player is truly naive in how college recruiting really works. The player ultimately has to consistently perform on the field when the college coach comes to watch.
3. As to "underachieving," I'm not exactly sure what to say. With the exception of qualifying for ASA Gold or Premier Nationals,we have achieved everything any new Gold program would set as a goal: earning top pool/field assignments in top national showcases, including Ronald McDonald, Colorado Fireworks, Bay Area, Rising Stars, and Surf City, where last fall, we tied the Premier back-to-back national champion So Cal Athletics in front of 37 college coaches. We, however, have twice advanced to the qualifying game in ASA Gold in the last two years. Again, this is only our 4th summer of Gold ball. Hopefully, we eventually will qualify. This year, we have six losses in qualifying play - three of those to teams that have qualified, and three of them (Ft. Worth Batbusters Gold, Austin Storm, and SA Hitt) have advanced to the last couple of rounds on Sunday. It's not exactly like we are losing to low/mid-level teams. Not an excuse, but just so you have some context, we also have lost 3 starters to summer-ending injuries this year. Last year, our ace pitcher went out with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome mid-season.
4. And finally, in the American Freedom Showcase at the end of July, we have attracted 32 teams from 6 different states in only our second year. We pay our umpires $50 a game, which is more than the norm. We are working toward the goal I've discussed. Our UIC Mike Nelson is among the best in the business. Our umpire crews from Allen are among the very best because with only 32 teams on one, 4-field complex, our experienced umpire crews are not stretched too thin. And, most importantly, Mike works very, very hard to make sure that his umpire crews see themselves as partners with the travel coaches and not adversaries. So yes, we are trying to change how things work.
5. Lastly, as to my ego. It's enormous. You don't practice law for 18 years, defending lawyers, accountants, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. in multi-million lawsuits without developing a certain amount of individual confidence. But if everything we have done with the American Freedom to establish 5 annual college clinics/camps open to all travel players, which last year had more than 200 different players representing almost every major travel program in Texas and Oklahoma, and the 21 days I personally took off work for softball last year to help our AF kids and others achieve their dreams of playing in college (my own DD committed long ago), is just to feed my own ego, then I suppose you're entitled to your opinion.
None of this will matter, of course, because some anonymous poster with a freshly minted screen name will make a jape intended to tear it all down rather than have a serious conversation about how to solve the serious issues confronting how we can grow our sport.
1. 2010 - AD Dyess Park; against the Texas Bombers Gold. Your credibility is worthless, and your Big XII coach story is bogus.
2. The American Freedom has had 17 players play their entire softball careers in an AF Gold uniform when they received their Division I offers, or came to us as unsigned juniors/seniors from other programs without any communication with the college where they earned their Division I offer. This is in just 3 years. We have had multiple players turn down Division I offers to accept Division II offers because the offers were the "right fit" for those players. We have had 5 players who had Division I deals when they first joined our team. The extent to which the AF helped those players increase the dollar amount of those scholarships is debatable. As I've often said to our players/parents, neither I nor the American Freedom "get" any player a scholarship: we, like all travel programs, only offer our players the necessary, regular college exposure to earn their own scholarships. We do so by gaining access to top college showcases by consistently putting a quality product on the field. Anyone who thinks that any travel ball coach can "talk" a college coach into offering a scholarship to a player is truly naive in how college recruiting really works. The player ultimately has to consistently perform on the field when the college coach comes to watch.
3. As to "underachieving," I'm not exactly sure what to say. With the exception of qualifying for ASA Gold or Premier Nationals,we have achieved everything any new Gold program would set as a goal: earning top pool/field assignments in top national showcases, including Ronald McDonald, Colorado Fireworks, Bay Area, Rising Stars, and Surf City, where last fall, we tied the Premier back-to-back national champion So Cal Athletics in front of 37 college coaches. We, however, have twice advanced to the qualifying game in ASA Gold in the last two years. Again, this is only our 4th summer of Gold ball. Hopefully, we eventually will qualify. This year, we have six losses in qualifying play - three of those to teams that have qualified, and three of them (Ft. Worth Batbusters Gold, Austin Storm, and SA Hitt) have advanced to the last couple of rounds on Sunday. It's not exactly like we are losing to low/mid-level teams. Not an excuse, but just so you have some context, we also have lost 3 starters to summer-ending injuries this year. Last year, our ace pitcher went out with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome mid-season.
4. And finally, in the American Freedom Showcase at the end of July, we have attracted 32 teams from 6 different states in only our second year. We pay our umpires $50 a game, which is more than the norm. We are working toward the goal I've discussed. Our UIC Mike Nelson is among the best in the business. Our umpire crews from Allen are among the very best because with only 32 teams on one, 4-field complex, our experienced umpire crews are not stretched too thin. And, most importantly, Mike works very, very hard to make sure that his umpire crews see themselves as partners with the travel coaches and not adversaries. So yes, we are trying to change how things work.
5. Lastly, as to my ego. It's enormous. You don't practice law for 18 years, defending lawyers, accountants, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. in multi-million lawsuits without developing a certain amount of individual confidence. But if everything we have done with the American Freedom to establish 5 annual college clinics/camps open to all travel players, which last year had more than 200 different players representing almost every major travel program in Texas and Oklahoma, and the 21 days I personally took off work for softball last year to help our AF kids and others achieve their dreams of playing in college (my own DD committed long ago), is just to feed my own ego, then I suppose you're entitled to your opinion.
None of this will matter, of course, because some anonymous poster with a freshly minted screen name will make a jape intended to tear it all down rather than have a serious conversation about how to solve the serious issues confronting how we can grow our sport.
Tim Soefje
American Freedom Gold
Cell: (972) 922-8866
Email: americanfreedomgold@yahoo.com
http://www.americanfreedomgold.com
American Freedom Gold
Cell: (972) 922-8866
Email: americanfreedomgold@yahoo.com
http://www.americanfreedomgold.com
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americanfreedom - Posts: 55
- Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:55 pm
americanfreedom wrote:Last post because once again Heybucket has proven incapable of having a rational discussion about a serious topic (the need for more quality umpires at the top level) without any thread evolving into personal attacks on people willing to put their name on their opinions.
1. 2010 - AD Dyess Park; against the Texas Bombers Gold. Your credibility is worthless, and your Big XII coach story is bogus.
2. The American Freedom has had 17 players play their entire softball careers in an AF Gold uniform when they received their Division I offers, or came to us as unsigned juniors/seniors from other programs without any communication with the college where they earned their Division I offer. This is in just 3 years. We have had multiple players turn down Division I offers to accept Division II offers because the offers were the "right fit" for those players. We have had 5 players who had Division I deals when they first joined our team. The extent to which the AF helped those players increase the dollar amount of those scholarships is debatable. As I've often said to our players/parents, neither I nor the American Freedom "get" any player a scholarship: we, like all travel programs, only offer our players the necessary, regular college exposure to earn their own scholarships. We do so by gaining access to top college showcases by consistently putting a quality product on the field. Anyone who thinks that any travel ball coach can "talk" a college coach into offering a scholarship to a player is truly naive in how college recruiting really works. The player ultimately has to consistently perform on the field when the college coach comes to watch.
3. As to "underachieving," I'm not exactly sure what to say. With the exception of qualifying for ASA Gold or Premier Nationals,we have achieved everything any new Gold program would set as a goal: earning top pool/field assignments in top national showcases, including Ronald McDonald, Colorado Fireworks, Bay Area, Rising Stars, and Surf City, where last fall, we tied the Premier back-to-back national champion So Cal Athletics in front of 37 college coaches. We, however, have twice advanced to the qualifying game in ASA Gold in the last two years. Again, this is only our 4th summer of Gold ball. Hopefully, we eventually will qualify. This year, we have six losses in qualifying play - three of those to teams that have qualified, and three of them (Ft. Worth Batbusters Gold, Austin Storm, and SA Hitt) have advanced to the last couple of rounds on Sunday. It's not exactly like we are losing to low/mid-level teams. Not an excuse, but just so you have some context, we also have lost 3 starters to summer-ending injuries this year. Last year, our ace pitcher went out with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome mid-season.
4. And finally, in the American Freedom Showcase at the end of July, we have attracted 32 teams from 6 different states in only our second year. We pay our umpires $50 a game, which is more than the norm. We are working toward the goal I've discussed. Our UIC Mike Nelson is among the best in the business. Our umpire crews from Allen are among the very best because with only 32 teams on one, 4-field complex, our experienced umpire crews are not stretched too thin. And, most importantly, Mike works very, very hard to make sure that his umpire crews see themselves as partners with the travel coaches and not adversaries. So yes, we are trying to change how things work.
5. Lastly, as to my ego. It's enormous. You don't practice law for 18 years, defending lawyers, accountants, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. in multi-million lawsuits without developing a certain amount of individual confidence. But if everything we have done with the American Freedom to establish 5 annual college clinics/camps open to all travel players, which last year had more than 200 different players representing almost every major travel program in Texas and Oklahoma, and the 21 days I personally took off work for softball last year to help our AF kids and others achieve their dreams of playing in college (my own DD committed long ago), is just to feed my own ego, then I suppose you're entitled to your opinion.
None of this will matter, of course, because some anonymous poster with a freshly minted screen name will make a jape intended to tear it all down rather than have a serious conversation about how to solve the serious issues confronting how we can grow our sport.
The date you were thrown out is NOT relevant to the argument that you routinely try to intimidate umpires and you take it too far and have to be removed from the game. At a SHOWCASE no less. Where the score does NOT matter! There are no VALID reasons to even argue, let alone do so to the point that you have to be thrown out of the game.
Without a doubt a travel coach can talk a college coach into signing players without seeing them at all. I know of several cases where this has happened! Maybe not your experience, because of your tendency to talk about how great you think, your team, and your individual players perform. No way would I take your word for it!
Did you "earn" your way into top pools and field times or did you "talk" your way into those things? Example - Colorado Fireworks this year. Fireworks had a rating system this year and your poor performance last year (1-5 in pool and bracket play) earn you just two of 6 games (of which you were 3-4 - just an average team, just like your ASA record this season) at the main complex this year and your past performances have not been good enough to get you a Super 96 invite either. BTW - even talking about injuries is absolutely making an excuse. Very few, if any, teams do not deal with injuries during the course of a year. My DD's team has three out currently and two others who are just coming off knee injuries. Figure out some other reason you are underachieving! Coaching???
$50 for your umpires at your showcase is still not the $75 you claim they deserve. Why do you have to work toward the goal you have discussed? You are the head of the American Freedom, correct? You are the TD of the tournament, set the umpire fees at whatever you wish. Not sure that I believe you are paying $50 even. That makes your showcase $700 per team for entry and umpires if you are doing pay at the plate. But clearly your showcase is top notch so I'm sure if you added another $125 for umpires teams would still be knocking down your door to get in.
BTW, you act as if you personally know all the umpires who are working the showcase this summer? Care to provide a list of names? You didn't even know Steve's name, I seriously doubt you can reference how good or bad your crew is expected to be. Also, you realize that Mike typically works with VTD, not ASA right? I'm not sure which would be considered better, but it's a completely different lot of umpires than this thread began discussing! Since these are all top notch umpires though, I'm sure the rest of the fastpitch community would love to know who they are so we can run out and hire them for our games. Maybe you could at least provide a list of the guys who called last years games? If you don't want to publish them publicly feel free to send me their names in a PM. I know one thing for fact - the umpires won't complain about the $75 per game. I'd also venture to guess that you wouldn't know Mike from his twin brother Eric if one of them walked up and punched you in the face! Heck, I'd bet you didn't even know that Mike had a twin brother named Eric.
Finally, I truly do believe that your "21 days" off and all the other stuff (some of which I admit is good for softball) ultimately comes down to feeding your ego.
PS...it literally cracks me up that you come on heybucket and post and act as if you are surprised that someone would post something about you behind a screen name. That is and has always been what heybucket is all about! Don't seem so shocked and appalled.
- softball3421
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:20 am
Tim, just so you know the best coach American Freedom ever had was Coach Trout btw he thinks your a idiot!!!
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intheknow - Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:52 am
intheknow wrote:Tim, just so you know the best coach American Freedom ever had was Coach Trout btw he thinks your a idiot!!!
....Tim is a saint compared to Trout.
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TexasYellowBall - Posts: 298
- Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:08 am
So I copy and paste a news article about Trout and it gets pulled. HHHMMM, guess everyone still thinks the things he does is ok...
- texasugly1
- Posts: 194
- Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:19 pm
Just read the article on why Trout was "rumored" to be let go. Can't believe it...
Peanut Butter and Jelly baby
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pbj2000 - Posts: 532
- Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:23 am
- Location: the dirt
pbj2000 wrote:Just read the article on why Trout was "rumored" to be let go. Can't believe it...
www.rivervalleyleader.com/.../pambianch ... ball-coach -assistant-fired
www.couriernews.com/.../article-Arkansa ... l-coaches- fired
www.magnoliareporter.com/...arkansas... ... 11e1-814b- 0019bb2963f4.html
Now this is public information. If you want to pull it I would like to know why? Just PM me and give me a good explanation. Trout did wrong and everyone at the ball field should know. Your own daughter might be the next 18 y/o taken advantage of or how ever the situation went down. Only person to really know is him and her.
- texasugly1
- Posts: 194
- Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:19 pm
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