Your opinion on the 16u ASA State tournament

For years I have read this message board and enjoyed all of the wonderful insight that it has provided. I have never posted before and I will probably never be allowed to post again considering the sensitive subject I am about to bring up. Here is my question. Was this year’s 16u ASA State tournament typical for most ASA State tournaments?

I am a parent, not a coach and my DD has played travel ball for years. This year was our first experience with an ASA State tournament. My DD was picked up to play in the 16u division at Mallard Creek. I have always heard that ASA was the cream of the crop as far as tournaments go. Unfortunately I was disappointed in this year’s tournament. The quality of teams was definitely high, but other things were disappointing. The fields were decent, not great, and I never saw them worked on any during the day. The parents of the teams that had the second games on Friday night were charged to enter the park only to watch them warm up before the storms hit and be sent home. No refunds or discounts on the next day’s games were offered to the spectators that had basically donated their 3 dollars to ASA. Although the incident between two coaches Saturday evening was out of everyone’s control, ASA seemed to blow it off and both were allowed in the park the next day. And the umpires didn’t seem to be much better than what we usually see. Many of them were the same ones we see most weekends.

Was this tournament typical for most ASA tournaments or because of the large amount of teams did this one turn out sub par? Not trying to offend anyone, just wondering. I still think it was a good tournament, just not what I expected.

 

I will Respond.....

I dont want to criticize the folks who organize this event as I am sure that we will never know the amount of work it takes to put this event on. My guess is that many of the issues were out of their control.

ASA has set a standard in my opinion of excellence and HAS become the gold standard of how SB should be done.

That Said,

I was very disappointed in the selection of Mallard Creek as the site for the 16U division. The field and complex are not up to the typical standards that ASA normally provide for their tournaments. My guess is that it was the best they could do to allow the number of teams that entered to play in the same city. I know the other fields must have been booked.

Also the concession stand was under staffed the entire weekend and 20 minute waiting time to get a bottle of water is unreasonable.

Might not be a basd idea to think about security in the future........ I know the fight was out of the ordinary but ya never know whats gonna happen in the heat of competition.

Quality of Softball was awesome!!!

Just my .02

Rob

 

Look @ In This Respect !!!

First of all nobody but GOD above can control the weather,and in the summer there is a 60-70% chance of evening thunderstorms. How do you charge for any outdoor event ? If you take a vacation at the beach and spend $1500.00 a week on a beach house or condo,etc... and the weather turns bad you don't get your money back because you couldn't get out in the sun, maybe not an apple for apple but just an IE. The only real issue is that maybe there could have been better maintenance on the fields, I agree some of the workers are just pure lazy, but overall they do a decent job on the fields. Now to the issue between the 2 men, as long as there are men there is going to be egos,and fighting will break out time to time, this will never stop as long as the Earth exist !! Not saying it is right, but it will always be !! I don't think this post will warrant you to be banned !!---LOL

Guru

 

Thanks

I appreciate your comments. We only get better if we know what we fall short on.
We try very hard to host the highest quality tournaments for the highest caliber teams. ASA is the cream of the crop. In NC, we have had an explosion in team entries for all of our tournaments. We have came from 16 team in a state tournament just 4 years ago to 80 this year. We tried to seperate the age groups because of the expectation of having more entries that most complexes in NC can handle. We will continue to play our state tournament in NC.
We fell a little short on preparation in Charlotte. The folks at Mallard Creek were willing to work with us on short notice. We greatly appreciate that as well.
I can assure you that we will get better every year as we grow and find our faults. They will be fixed.
Also in NC ASA, we have a zero tolerance policy for any malicious act carried out during an ASA tournament. It will be handled quickly and dealt with in a fair and just manner. Penalties will be severe. This matter in Charlotte is handled.
I welcome any comments, positive or negative, as I believe that is the only way we get better.
Rick McHone
NC ASA JO Commissioner
336-416-6056
[email protected]

 

My thoughts...

This was our first ASA State tournament. We were over with the 18U's at Renessaince field and overall, things were good.

I liked that the game times were 1:40 as that gave everyone a fair chance to play an entire 7 inning game and not play against the clock which also allows for coaches to do different things with their lineups and get all of their girls a lot of exposure for the college coaches.

However, having game times that long did not allow for field maintenance. Most of the batters boxes were gone by the second or third game and by the end of the day, there were a lot of bad bounces in the rough infield. Would have been nice to have a built in break midpoint in the day to wet the fields down, drag them, and chalk where needed.

Also heard that on Saturday morning, the gates didn't open until 7:15 for 8:00 games. Heard there was a line of cars as far as you could see in both directions waiting to get in. Most coaches want their girls there at least an hour before to start their pre-game warm ups. We got there a little after 7:00 on Sunday and the gates were already open.

Also as stated in other threads, there was no merchandise to purchase (maybe that is not as big of a thing at showcases???) and the garbage cans were over flowing. There was a lot of wind which blew the garbage all over the place and made it stink depending on where you were sitting.

 

You Just Don't Remember !!!

I know of 2 incidences over the past 7 years !!!

Guru

 

yeah, but those involved cheeze, so they don't count ...j/k

 

Thanks

Thanks for the feed back. I still feel that this was a good tournament, just not what I expected. I know things come up that you have to deal with on short notice and that is why I asked if this tournament was the norm or different due to those issues.

Guru: I understand your point about weather but I disagree. This was not a week long beach trip it was a single ball game at a mandated time. I understand that no one on earth controls the weather and that this time of year it is always a gamble. But if you go to somewhere like Carowinds and it gets rained out you get a rain check or a discount the next day. I would assume that if you went to a movie and a storm knocked the power out before the movie started you would expect your money back or a ticket for a later showing. Just seemed like letting those teams parents in the next day with some sort of discount would have been the responsible thing to do.

Cheese; Thanks for not banning me on my first post. J