What do YOU think makes a good travel ball Tournament?

NSA

NSA implemented a church service at some tournaments last year. They had great intentions but executed it very poorly.

Now I am a Christian man that misses regular church attendance when we play a tournament on Sunday so I am in favor of making this available at a tournament. However, here is the problem I have with it - It was scheduled for 10:00 on Sunday morning and all play was halted during the service.

8 year old daughter played 2 games on Saturday with the last game ending at 7:00. Dinner with teammates and a one hour drive home gets us home and to bed by 10:00. Daughter falls asleep on drive home.

9:00 game on Sunday - need to be at field by 8:00. Breakfast, shower, and drive to park requires that 8 year old (and 5 year old sister) to be out of the bed by 6:00. Daughter sleeps on drive to the park.

Now, you have all of the kids arrive and play one game. You stop all activity at the ballpark for a church service (again, I support the service as an option). Kids play multiple games in a row after the service in the heat of the day.
I asked the following questions:
1.) Why not have it at 8:00 prior to games. NSA answers "noboby will attend."
2.) Why not have it while play continues and those preparing to play late and warming up for second game can attend. Their answer - "Nobody will attend"
3.) Why not have it at 11:30 so the girls have an hour break to rest and eat during the service. NSA answers - "Wow - I hadn't thought of that!"

If NSA wants to be a christian based organization that would be great - they could have prayers before games, etc... However, I recommend that they remain just being a softball organization and hosting tournaments. If you want to have a church service, feel free to do so. However, don't stop play and certainly don't require 7 & 8 year old teams to arrive at 8:00 to play one game and then stop play for an hour.

 

Ohhh, don't even get me and Guru started on 7 year olds playing ball 2 hours from home at 8:00 in the morning. Georgia/4 and under diaper league lol.

 

Playing one hour from home - the difference from Weddington to Huntersville playing at 9:00 in the morning.

 

Bama79

Who is taking "shots" at a team? If your talking about me your wrong. I said the umps we had that weekend were awful. I didn't take a "shot" at any team. I did say a parent from the other team was the ump. If I would have known before the game started I would have gotten 1 of my parents to ump the field. Thats all that was said.

 

AAU

Your quote was " The funny thing is we hung right with everyone of the teams we played. That's why they play AAU and not NSA or ASA". You implied that we weren't good enough to play anywhere else.
The majority of tournaments we coached were in NSA last year with some WFC and we did extremely well. This is our first experience with AAU and the level of competion in 2008 is as good as most of the other sanctions at this point.
I would have to say that right now one of the best teams in any sanction plays alot of AAU tournaments. Eight out of the 15 or 16 teams playing in the NSA state tournament play a majority of AAU tournaments.
It is about finding enough teams in one tournament to have decent competition whatever the sanction maybe. Lets face it there aren't as many 10u teams this year.

 

I agree

with the face that without the umpires you would not be playing. As someone who had over 20 yrs of umpiring at every level from rec ball to Div. 1 ball every one needs to remember that when a close call goes against you it is very rare that the umpire has time to think who do I want this call to go against. I am not saying that every call that they make is correct or that every umpire does a good job, there are some people who want to try but just are not cut out to be an umpire and they are quickly weeded out. Trust me every one who is out there umpiring is there because they love the game. It is true that they get paid for working the games but when you figure the distance that some of them travel and the hours that they are away from their family it is not much compensation.

 

regarding the aau tourney and umpire in question- last game of night, only one umpire to call game, etc... I think we were the opposing team that tarheel played. Let me make clear- the umpire (only one we had) was NOT a parent, related to, or even known by anyone on our team. He was horrible. Both pitchers were pitching well. A pitch across the middle of the plate, belly high, he called a "ball" and then would laugh. A pitch that batters had to jump back from to keep their ankles intact was called a strike, then he would laugh. He did not set his timer when the game started, pretty sure we played at least 30 minutes too long. This type of officiating was an insult to ALL coaches and ALL girls (both teams) on the field. We have played AAU, NSA, ASA, WFC and never seen him before or anything like him. I know this was a "trial " for the umpires, but I hope AAU realizes that this guy really misses the mark and does not need to be back. We have had some really good umpires in all sanctions, but he was not there for the right reasons (the girls).

 

The Funny thing is I didn't say a THING about your team. Someone on my team may have but I didn't. You need to know who your talking about before you start pointing fingers. I think you had a good team and I enjoyed playing you. Like ClevelandLefty stated that night was awful. All I was talking about was the ump. Don't worry if I don't like something I will say it to you. Not here first. I said what I had to say to the ump first and then I got on here. Get your facts right before you start pointing fingers at me.

 

2 pool games followed by double elimination,WARM UP AREAS AROUND FIELDS and shade,also helps to have respectable umpires.