What do YOU think makes a good travel ball Tournament?

Hey brother I learned from the best
guru

 

My pet peeves

1. Good Umpiring. An umpire can make or break a game, a tournament. One organization in particular, which I will not name, has atrocious umpiring. Every single time we played a tournament with them there was some form of major drama centering on umpiring. I have been witness to the obscene (a batter called out on 1B because a hard hit line drive hit the 3B player), the ridiculous (illegal sliding because a girl slid into 2B and the 2B player turned to tag and tripped right over the slider) and the mindboggling (games stopped for 15 minutes, 2x's in one game, because umps made contrary calls and would not follow the rules pertaining to umpiring). In these situations, girls are left frustrated and unfocused because they know when the play a good, clean game of ball, good calls are all to often rare, and bad calls are all too often common.

2. Absolutely agree with the late game followed by early start. Too often we get home at 1:00 in the morning and have to turn around and leave out again at 5:00 to be warming up for an 8:00 game. Lack of sleep plays havoc on an athlete - how are they supposed to bring their A game when they have had 3 hours of sleep?

3. The effects of weather on a player. Last summer we fell into the loser's bracket after our first bracket game (only time we had ever done that). Granted, our fault for losing (some big mistakes) but the next day with a heat index of 106 degrees our girls faced this game schedule: 9:00 am; 10:30 am; 12:00pm; 1:30 pm, 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm for if needed. NO breaks in between on a field with poor shelter; no time where they could eat lunch. All the fans in the world were not cutting down on the heat. We won the 9, the 10:30, the 12:00. Our SS dropped from heat exhaustion at the 1:30 and was out the remainder of that game - which we won. We won the 3:00, and 2 OF'ers dropped from the heat. All players were back to play for the 4:30 when one of our pitchers mentally and physically broke at the 4:30. We settled with 2nd. My dd went home with sun poisoning that weekend and was in the ER Monday morning - there was not enough sunscreen in the world to protect her skin under 9 hours of blistering heat.

4. Good safe fields. There a couple of fields that I have run into out there with potholes in the outfield, and ankle twisting holes on the infield. Maintain your fields people!

5. Fluidity of the schedule. There is nothing worse than a schedule that has you playing on pool game on a Saturday and the other pool and all remaining games on Sunday (makes for a long day in either winner or loser bracket) or on the other side of the scheduling issue both pools, and 2 games on Saturday keeping you there until 11pm and taking a return trip of 2 hours on Sunday for the winner bracket game at 4:00. Keep the schedule as even as possible!

 

looks as though everyone has the same idea...i personally like 7 inning games, or 1 1/2 hr time limit, maybe not in pool play, but tournament play

 

My team played in the AAU scrimmages this weekend and it was awful. The ump's where awful. The 1st 2 games we played where the 1st 2 games the ump's had Every ump'ed. They didn't know the rules from a hill of beans. The other pitcher was going to her glove 3 times before every pitch. Had a strikeout called on a girl who was maybe 4"0 at her helmet. Thats no lie. Last game had a ump who was a parent of the team we where playing. His strike zone was everywhere. Didn't find this out until the game was over. We had 1 ball in the last game to play with. This was the worse weekend of softball I have every been a part of. We want play AAU every again. We where a YOUNG 10 with two 8 year olds and had to play 3 teams that where 2nd year 10's. I know it was a scrimmage but there was 2 other younger 10's and we should have been playing them. The funny thing is we hung right with everyone of the teams we played. Thats why they play AAU and not NSA or ASA. Just a reminder to the teams that are thinking about playing AAU and NOT from Charlotte beware of the HOME COOKING.

 

Don't Forget

I have been in your situation and understand what you are saying. Don't forget the new guys in North Carolina. ISA. This is the first year for ISA Fastpitch in NC but they are trying hard to make sure everyone has a good experience at the ball park. Umpires are a great concern for ISA. as well as making sure everyone remembers why we do what we do.
It's For The KIDS.
Check them out at www.playisa.net

 

Not all teams feel that way

This past weekend we played in our 2nd AAU warm-up and found it to be a great experience. The umpires were just Ok, but remember it was a warm-up event and it is my understanding that AAU uses this event every year to train their umpires so that when the games really count, THEY WILL GET THE CALLS RIGHT. During the regular tournaments they do field maintenance almost every game, they let teams bring their coolers, they offer water in the dugouts and the umpires are always friendly and approachable. We also had a couple new umpires this weekend that were struggling with the rules, but as I had mentioned earlier they were in training so we understood. Everyone has to learn. Better during the warm-up then during a normal event when every game counts.

We look forward to playing AAU this year, and encourage teams to play in at least one event just to see how it is ran.

 

Great name by the way!!!!
Sammie Cassell

 

AAU

I understand the frustration of the coach from Hickory and we suffered as well. But I don't understand how you can go from complaining about a tournament to taking shots at other teams. There are many reasons for a team to play AAU instead of NSA, ASA, ISA, WFC etc. We happened to be one of the teams mentioned and we play AAU because we are obligated to our sponsor. Having said that we do have several dates that we will play NSA. As far as hanging in with the second year teams you need to take a look at who was pitching and the line up. Do you actually think we would go all out to beat up on a first year team? It is called coaching courtesy.

 

HARDLY EVER DO WE HEAR !!!

You know w/o the umpires we couldn't play the great game of softball,and so many times we are criticizing them instead of appreciating what they allow us to do. I'm as guilty as the next person complaining about the bad calls or he shouldn't be in this profession comment,but in reality w/o him or her we couldn't play in tournaments,and enjoy the great times with our kids during the summer. Look at the positive things they do for each and everyone of us. They give their time on weekends so that our kids can play ball,and interact with other kids. There wouldn't be any scholarships for your kids from colleges ,because w/o them your kids wouldn't be able to play in front of college coaches...REALLY THINK ABOUT IT !!! And if they were not playing a sport such as softball, they might be doing drugs, or pregnant. It has been proven ,''NOT IN ALL CASES " , but girls that are really active in sports are less likely to have premarital sex, yes I said it !!! So next time you see an official on the field, tell him or her that you appreciate what he does for your kid, who knows, you might get a call that you may not ordinarily get next time he or she is behind the plate!!


GURU