Florence Showcase

Great weekend for ball. Saw alot of talent, Parlandsoftballdads daughter ashley went yard today and busted the ball Talked with prklandsftbalaldad, the guru, moma duck,abbeyfan, jfagala,nsoftball10, kinda had a tbr reunion Oh yea blues went 1-1-1

 

Wow what a drive EWWW!!!

Wow busy weekend for my group.
Ashley and the Triangle Lightning went 5-0 and beat some good teams. Don't remember alot of details but i know they bested the Carolina Cobras, the Virginia Legends, the Tennessee White Lightning,SC Bandits, and the Whitby Lightning
Morgan (Filling in for a slightly injured and sorely missed Hannah Alexander, boy, that's some shoes to fill) and the Carolina Attitude16/18 were 2-1 when we left this morning (had to come back for practice.)

Thouroughly enjoyed the unofficial TBR meeting held behind field 2 (the only shady spot to be found) Meeting MamaDuck and Krodacrome (sp?), and of course spending time with Guru, LedfordGuy,the ever wise Abbeyfan, and Jfagala. Even ndsb10 was moderately tolerable this weekend lol. Somebody said we need to have a end of year TBR get together maybe at Rock Hill for the Super Fusion? Let's party. Missed ya cheeze and cometfan

Had the honor of meeting the Waugh family and spending a few minutes with them. I know it's been said time and again but can't be said enough. WHAT A SPECIAL YOUNG LADY AND FAMILY. She's already fussin' about her hair being dirty lol.

Special shout out to 2 very young and talented teams on the rise. Fagala's Lady Blues 14/16 and Plemmons 14/16 Carolina Attitude. Two teams to watch for in the future.

For anyone not mentioned or that i forgot to mention Lord I Apologize mean no disrespect just my first thoughts when i got home. And by all means come on over at any time Guru and I will talk to just about anybody but beware LedfordGuy bites.

 

THIS IS SO NOT GOING TO BE PC!!

First, let me say it was nice meeting and putting faces with some of the other TBR members and that other than Florence being the hottest city on the East Coast, that the weather was great this weekend.

That being said, I have a major question (1 that is probably not going to be appreciated by the tournament director, etc.) Why is it that whenever you go to a tournament in the NC/SC area you alway end up having the same teams ending up in the same pools?? We have played in several showcases that have been put on by the Cardinals, Bandits, and other actual playing organizations and have been placed on the back, lower, however you want to term the less desirable locations and have played the same teams over and over.

Now, just statistically speaking, if you were to place all the names of the teams entered into a specific age bracket in a hat and randomly draw them out the odds of playing the same teams over and over all summer would be next to nill. However, it seems that for some reason the directors (should I just go ahead and call the the "Good ol' Boys??) feel that certain teams should only play each other or that they are going to penalize specific teams for some other reason (ie. don't like the coach, players, etc). Every one likes to talk about how we have such a large base of talent in the NC/SC area and that we are steadily spreading that knowledge around the US, but at some point everyone should realize that we are only going to be able to continue to do this if all the teams are offered a chance to play the best competition that they would be able to at whatever event they participated in. Granted, you may at some point be on one side or the other of a game that ends up being called due to the run rule but if your DD is interested in pursuing improving her abilities, that may happen now and then. How do you think the teams that carry the so called "big names" got them, they went out and played the best teams that they could, it just seems like they are no longer willing to offer that opportunity to any of the other teams that are out there now. Are they afraid of being beat and losing that name recognition or what.

Another item on my list would be the field determination for these events. Is it just that the director is lazy? Why could the teams that played on the lower fields one day not move to the upper fields the next. Not only for the supposed coach exposure (another item that I felt was highly lacking this weekend) but what about the families of the 24 teams that were stuck down on the lower fields all weekend with no shade available as well as the 24 teams that were down there with no where to warm up that was readily accessible to them. (Freedom staff locked all the access gates to the outer areas of the field so we had no where to warm up other than between the fields where all of the spectators were sitting without having to leave by the main gate and try and crowd in around the 2 fields that had small areas behind them.) That was dangerous for the players and the spectators.

Final item. Where were all the coaches???? Were they all up on the other half of the complex? I know that our girls sent out emails to all the DII and DIII, JUCO schools that they had been talking to, but I think I saw a total of about 4 coaches all weekend and 2 of them were from the same school. I know that travel is expensive, but dang!!!!!! We as a whole had an unbelievable weekend, with no one there to see it.

JMHO,

MD

 

ON THE OTHER HAND

Now after you have just read my other long winded post, please let me express our thanks and congratulations to the players for the NC Lady Lightning this weekend.

What a great weekend. We went undefeated all weekend and as a team had 8 (count 'em 8) out of the park home runs this weekend. The team was obviously seeing big yellow cantaloupes coming at them all weekend.


Thanks so much to Janna Lewis and Kristen G. (I would try to spell her name, but know that it would never even end up close) for lending their talent this weekend. Also, it was great having Erica H. again (you look soooo good in Navy and Gold, it should become your permanent).

HR hitters

Shaylene Sullivan
Erica Harris
Janna Lewis (3)
Kristen G.
Elisha Elliott
Missy Wills

Great hitting by everyone 1-10.

MD

 

Tourney

There were ten coaches I believe, four from one D-11 conference, I believe three junior colleges or community colleges and two from another D-11, and a D-111 school. I walked to the lower section on Saturday to watch our 16U and others play and saw four colleges coaches watching various games.
The tournament director can only e-mail and call coaches in hope they will attend. he can not make them! Also, many coaches say they will attend and then do not show. The Bandits tournaments have improved a great deal over the past two years and I know Ken works very hard to try and assure coaches will attend.
You had a good point about the heat and lack of shade, don't U think many college coaches stayed away because of the extreme heat?
Reputation gets U jobs, opportunity, and in softball the better fields. Teams that have been attending for years, that bring the most college coaches to the park get the better fields. It is just a fact at all the showcase events. Colorado, Plantation, Dynamites, and others cater to the teams that help them attract the college coaches. Don't know your team but I am sure they are a good team and with a little more exposure will get the attention U desire.

 

Got it!!!

MamaDuck,
Why don't you join one of the organizations that are always on the field that you want to be on and are always in the pool that you want to be in? That way, you're always where you want to be!
DDD

 

Good points...

..mama duck. As for field placement, upper or lower makes no difference as long as your team is grouped with "marketable" teams. I do agree with you that the warm-up areas are far better on the upper fields, and respectfully disagree with you on the "shade" issue. Wow, it was hot up there too. As for the college coaches, you are right. I saw very few.
My gripe is teams playing times. How can team X play at 8:00 in the a.m. then wait around all day to play at 5:00, then 9:00. It makes sense to me that a director would try to avoid these types of downtime. JMO

 

Perfectly happy

DDD, let me say that my DD is perfectly happy with the teamates and coach that she is currently with, but it would just seem (and not only to me) that this is how it is . Just general observation about how tournaments are run after having done this for the last several years and continuing to see the same trend over and over.

MD