Team NC forming for Jr. Olympic Championship

waddellx2, i dont if i agree with u fully on that, if NC sended strictly 16 yr olds they could compete. Greensboro Batting center won the national championship for AAU this year down in cocoa beach, they beat floridas top aau team, Florida Hitmen, who recruit from all over Florida. they beat GA's top team, East Cobb Astros, do i have to elaborate on them? and they beat another outstanding team from texas, forgot their name. the k'ville cardinals also did outstanding in the USSSA nationals coming in 2nd i think. the D'backs placed 7th in the NAtionall AAU tourny down in fla., which had around 40 teams in it. i think NC baseball has evolved over the years and has become up there with some of the nations elite states. i think if NC put together the best 16's in the state that they could compete with the nations best.

 

Good points.

Here's the way i look at it, NC can definenitely compete at any level with any state. Like dynasty said greensboro batting center won the national title. But the grand daddy of all tournaments in Jupiter, included 3 NC teams. The O's, Impact, and NC Redsox, together the teams beat Teams from texas, tenn., florida, ect. These were not pushover teams either. NC started competing with all other states a few years ago. I predict NC to do better in the tournament next year, Impact and The O's had numerous juniors, if i'm not mistaken the O's had 8 underclassmen on a 3rd place team, that will be there next year. NC is already beating the nation's top ranked teams.

 

Talked to my buddy, whose son went to the Jr Olympic tryout, and he said it was hosted by Donnie Broom of Hartsell Athletic Association and was run by some major league scout (he thought with the Blue Jays). It was intended to be held at Mt. Pleasants field but there were problems with that and was switched to Bernie Edwards, at the Hartsell Complex. My friend indicated it was well run and they had about 50 boys attend. They started out with various drills and running, with the scout observing. Later they hit and pitched. He said he had no idea who the coaches of the team were going to be at this point. They indicated that they were going to have another tryout in the spring and then they would select the team and begin bringing it together. It is intended to host that in Concord as well.

BTW, it is a 16 and Under team. What is wrong with "inviting the 15's" to try out, or even 14's, if they want to spend the money. I don't believe any spots are reserved for 15's. If one was good enough he should be on it, if not, he shouldn't. Anyway, the way I look at it is, it is another possible way for the sponsor to get more boys and thus more money.

 

Thank you, MVaughn for trying to talk with someone who had firsthand info. I hope others in the west will try to find out more and post here since all of this is going on in "your neck of the woods".

 

Sorry I havent responded yet, I have been out of town for a while. I am in total agreement that there are North Carolina teams that can compete with people all over the country. I know this first hand, I play for the on deck o's 17, and every time we take the field we have no doubt that we will win. In the last tournament we beat a florida team that came in 12 i believe down in jupiter. Thats not what my point was. Indeed there are isolated cases where this team beats someone from a big state. But if you compare NC's depth of players with theses other places, we do not stack up as well. Given we can name 3 or 4 top teams here that compete very well, but that is what, maybe 30 or 40 something kids. Now got to florida or california and ask about their top teams that compete on a national level. I garentee that you will recieve a list longer than four. This is evident in the top 100 list that just came out. How many NC players were on it. 1 I think. And in jupiter last month who beat the O's in their final game? I do believe that NC is headed in the right direction, but I dont think we can reasonablly say that we are with the 4 most elite baseball states in the country. Not yet anyway. And as far as inviting 15 and 14's to try-out if it is not some type of money making gimic, and they are serious about winning, then why would they invite entire teams of 15's, especially with the 16 age group apparently so strong. Finally (and i do apologize for the length) was this try out for aau kids only? I only ask because the younger O's team was not mentioned in those teams but they played a year up, and also they didt play aau. Just wasnt sure.

 

Heres one thing you have to consider too though look at the states you said, Texas, Flirida, California, and Georgia, look at the size of these states. Also many of the teams in Jupiter are not just from one area, i.e. East Cobb, they are from all over. Read the Baseball America post, it is impossible to rate all players in the nation, and i havent seen to many baseball america guys floating around NC.

 

And don't you think there might be a reason why you don't see evey baseball america guy walking around NC. Because they go to all of the "hot beds" for baseball, which today is not North Carolina. There are good players here, but as I said before, there are many more in these other places. I'm not saying anything bad about this state, I would love to see NC win a championship, but realisticly I personly do not see it happening in the next couple of years.

 

The 17U have a good shot to do it next year, So do the NC Red Sox

 

Are you talking about the O's?

 

Wad ...

Last year, the 17U AAU National Championship was won by a team out of South Carolina. A lot of the mountain players play with their H.S. teams in the fall. It's difficult to build a team of players that ranges from the Wilmington area to the NC mountains since the distance is over 400 miles in some cases.

A true team NC could compete with anyone. Down in Jupiter, the 3 teams represented (for the most part) three distinct geographic areas. The NC Red Sox were predominately the area east of Raleigh down towards Greenville. Impact was predominately from Durham to Greensboro and the O's were predominately Charlotte. In addition, another 10 players from NC played with other teams than these 3.

Inclusion in the "Top-100" is more a matter of being seen and going to the right tournaments. True showcasing type touraments are just hitting NC now. As they become more and more accessible, look for the number of NC players ranked nationally to increase.

The talent is there.