16u Diamonds of the North..?

[da60]

Gunshy or anyone for that matter...is it an absolute that the future bids would not fall to an IN team finishing second to say the Gators, who have obviously qualified based on Diamonds of Central. I know the point was made that an IN 16u team could potentially win every qualifier and all 5 bids, but it is hard for me to fathom IN ASA would "hold" these bids. This would be a great injustice for some very talented 16u teams in Indiana. The scheduleing for these tournaments might also need another look, Stratos brings up an interesting solution about scheduling a couple qualifiers in the fall. I don't have a horse in the 16u race as we are an 18u team nor are we trying to qualify for ASA 18u Natls (already qualified for Northern Natls, so we have been told, which is fine with us due to economy), but I feel bad for these 16u teams which may not even get a legit shot at the National tournament. I would like to believe there is a common goal working here which is to improve girl's fastpitch softball in IN, and IN ASA recongnizes 5 different teams should be allowed to attend the National tournament. JMO.

[gunshy]

Da60, It is my understanding that bids will be passed down at Indiana Qualifiers if the winning Indiana team has already qualified. Therein lies the problem.....everyone has their own "understanding" of how the process is "suppose" to work, but no one really knows for sure. There are no published, posted or written-in-stone rules that state how many bids are available or specifically how they are earned. It seems to change slightly every year and is spiced up by the human element in the process. Not saying that human element is good or bad, but it makes the process more murky and less transparent. Last year the second place team at ASA State was NOT awarded a bid, even though the winning team had already qualified; not sure why?
There is so much emphasis on getting to ASA Nationals at 16u that the bid system MUST be right and without question or subject to interpretation.
It would help greatly if there were a couple of bids available in the fall or if 2 of the June events had 2 bids(1st and 2nd place) to award. It is no longer practical to consume 5 weeks of a summer season that is only 7 weeks long, JUST to try to qualify. Counting Nationals as one of the seven weekends, there just are no weekends left to play qualifiers AND college exposure events, that are so important to the players.

[Justathought1]

Gunshy- Just a quick response to your post. I agree %100 on how cloudy the system seems to be and it sure would help if IN ASA could clarify in writing on their own web site to help clarify on how or why the bids will be distributed. I also agree with you that looking into a 2-birth system at a later date with X-amount of Indiana teams playing would be worth looking into. I also am in the understanding that if an Indiana team has secured a birth then the next available team that is willing to go to ASA Nationals would (or) should be given the opportunity to do so to secure that birth. What happens when a birth is not earned or handed down at the end of the season? Are these births given or taken by other states in the region? I have no idea of what that process is? I would like to understand that process as well.

I hope everyone the best and will hopefuly see everyone at Diamonds of the South..

Michael

[Justathought1]

Move High School softball to the fall and our problems of weather and bids are gone......


Michael

[bucketboy]

Guys I just don't get the thought process anymore with our ASA at the state level.

Teams are being forced to make tough decisions, you have a berth being given out possibly this weekend and a team that could and should get one of those precious berths can't even get in the event.

Then you have the ole if you want to go you have to play in the state tournament and sorry if you sent a $600 check that is non refundable to a big exposure tournament last fall just to get in even though the weekend of the state tournament was changed this year so now it conflicts instead of teams getting a good exposure weekend and then playing in the state the following weekend.

Hasn't there always only been 3 tournaments that are qualifiers in the past?

What about the HOF berth do we get one of those and if so who got it?

I feel sorry for all of you coaches that are trying to do the best for your kids and at every turn are getting hand cuffed by trying to do what is right.

[jag1]

Some very good input...I agree whole-heartedly that if things were clearly defined it would take alot of the B.S. guessing games out of the equation..! A couple of fall qualifiers would definitely help teams to define their summer schedules...(those 2 or 3 more- dominant teams could sew up their berths in the fall and they could plan their summer exposure schedules, while the rest of us could determine which qualifiers might be worth a shot..!) then Indiana ASA could schedule the 2 or 3 other qualifiers the LAST couple weeks of June on the same weekends every year so people will know when to plan for them AND we could have all the kids available for them..! We need to send this whole thread to Cindy/and or anyone else involved with determining when their qualifiers are......

[gunshy]

I have had these very conversations with Cindy numerous times. I am sure she cringes every time she sees my name come up on her email. I tried to explain to her the reality of our 16u schedule, relative to qualifying for Nationals. There are just 7 weekends in our whole summer season(including Nationals) and unless you have a clearly dominant team like Bucketboy had last year, you really can't afford to gamble and schedule just 1 or 2 qualifiers. Having played ASA Nationals the last 3 years, we found out quickly that we could also not afford to play the same local teams EVERY weekend in our Indiana qualifiers. Teams need to get qualified early and then find the best competition possible to prepare them for the elevated level of play at Nationals. The regional tournaments (not qualifiers) with the best competition are usually full by Christmas, so teams have to enter these events way before the ASA Qualifier schedule is even posted. I posed all of this to Cindy last year and here we are again, same old problems.
Surely, Indiana could have at least 1 qualifier in the fall and have the first summer qualifier after the HS tournament give bids to the first and second place teams. This would relieve a bunch of pressure and create the necessary space on the calendar to benefit the teams AND allow ASA time to get all their qualifiers done AFTER high school ball is finished.

[bucketboy]

Gunshy you again are dead on.

I just don't understand why the schedule had to be changed as you are right DD's team had the opportunity to get qualified as well as play the exposure events we needed to play so that all the kids got the looks they needed as your team needs to do this summer.

OK does this make sense

This weekend which is the weekend of the state tournament is Compuware, Diamonds of the North and Music City Hits all exposure events right?

Next weekend is Diamonds of the South

Following weekend is State Games both qualifiers

4th of July week and weekend is Colorado or other events exposure weekend

The following weekend is ASA state, but needs to be moved back a week to not conflict with Stingrays etc...

This schedule would allow teams the ability to do both exposure and qualify and not put coaches and kids in a bad situation and allow the 2011 class the same opportunities my daughter had last year but I don't know all the details and I am sure there is some reason why everything was changed this year.

[da60]

Bucketboy, you are probably pretty close with your tournament schedule...you would give coaches the opportunity to play exposure tournaments and still make IN ASA happy by showing up to play in their qualifier tournaments to try for a berth. I presume you would move Diamonds of Central to a fall qualifier since trying to run it the same weekend as IHSAA regionals makes no sense. Just out of curiousity, with 4 berths remaining, how many 16u IN teams have a legit shot at them. 10? 12? more? less? Just asking because during the high school season I saw a number of talented players in this age group here in central IN alone.

[Indcindy]

To all of you who are concerned about qualifying for Sioux Falls, SD. I do not have any involvement with the Diamonds of the North other than helping out with check-in, etc. I have no involvement with teams entered, deadlines, schedules, etc. I am at Portage this weekend and I have told ALL teams who have checked in that the USA/ASA berth is for an INDIANA team only IF THEY WIN THE TOURNAMENT. I made that decision based on the emails I received from those of you who waited to enter and did not get in. There are 13 Indiana teams out of 37 entered in the tournament. We gave a berth at Diamonds of Central Indiana -- nine teams entered and two dropped out due to lack of players. Since the berth was already promised, I didn't take it away. The Diamonds of the South, the Indiana ASA State Games and the state tournament will award berths to Sioux Falls. If the same team wins all three events, the berth will drop down to the next team that has not qualified. IF an Indiana team does not win the Diamonds of the North, that berth will be awarded on July 3-5 at Chuck Klein in Indianapolis if we have at least 12 teams enter. In regard to the state tournament conflicting with the Stingray Tournament -- I have tried to avoid as many exposure tournaments as I possibly can. At some point teams must make the decision as to whether they want to qualify for the USA/ASA Nationals or play in all of the "exposure" tournaments that are posted. We do have some teams who only want to give it one shot only at trying to qualify. One of those teams happened to be the team who finished second at the state tournament last year. I did not "pass the berth down" due to the 20-24 teams who had tried at every tournament last year to qualify. I cannot run a qualifying event for the USA/ASA Nationals until the actual year it will be held due to roster and ASA Code restrictions. If any of you have helpful suggestions, I would love to hear them or you can channel them through Troy (gunshy?). Good luck to all of you this summer.