Just Curious

Yea I know what you mean with the AAU situation, and I think they are losing a lot of business from good teams beacause of that. We played in several tournaments in Jeffrson City TN, throughout last summer and fall. They have a ggreat sports complex there, where a man who loves baseball has dedicated many many years of hard work to build. It's kind of a field of dreams type of thing. Is this where yall played or was it somewhere else?

 

yes

We love to go to Jefferson City. We have been playing in Geralds tournaments for 4 yrs now. Great guy. We also like the tournaments the Diamond Devils put on and the Carolina Clipper tournaments. Get a lot of college coach action there. My catcher got a full ride from Presbyterian after we played there last summer.

 

Yes we played in two Diamond devils tournaments last year, and we really liked them. Somebody needs to get some annual tounaments going in Charlotte. Even if it was just once a month. The only ones I know of in this area are the ones On Deck occasionally does. It is a shame that Charlotte is as big as it is and as all of these teams and yet every weekend all of them go out of town and spend their money in some other city to play baseball.

 

Being where we are in the mountains we are used to having to travel for tournaments. With our climate we ought to try to hold some. We did have 12 schools in the mountains keep their teams together last summer and 9 in the fall so that helped a lot with games. It is also improving the level of play here in the mountains. Produced the last 3 state champs in 3A. Don't have any 4A schools in the area besides AC Reynolds. Impact did set us at 1 in 2A this year.

 

I know that here in Charlotte commitment in a player is hard to come by and when the highschool season is over very few teams actually stay together. Most disperse and look for the team where they can get the best exposure. But from what it sounds like to me, most of the highschool teams are playing togther all year. Is that basically how it is where you live? If so I think that is magnificent. I know that while you may sometimes get better teams when you can pick and choose from all the kids, it also can make it hard when you must pitch against a guy on thursday and then share a hotel with him two days later.

 

TC Roberson was probably the 1st in the area to start keeping their kids together year round. West Henderson has been doing it now for 4 yrs and I know Tuscola has for several years now and so does Franklin. Even though we take our lumps against some of the all star teams it really helps in the long run. When you have a HS team playing nearly 100 games a year as a team, well, you know what that can do. Another plus is the kids all get along and have a blast when we travel. It's also kinda fun to win some games when you've got a bunch of soph, juniors, and seniors, all from the same HS against some of these stacked teams. The kids get pumped to play those teams. We are always looking for teams to come in to play in the summer. We have one of the nicest facilities in the state. Sunken dugouts, high walls, a real stadium type atmosphere/

 

I think thats awsome that you can keep these teams together. I'm sure it helps with the comradory amoungst teamates and also creates some good rivalrys come HS season. I would like to see more of that in Charlotte but who can blame these kids with the offers that are made. There are just too many outside influences here, which dont get me wrong, it isnt all bad. On Deck here has one of the nicest facilities to work out in, and they also offer a very good program to play in ( The O's). And I am just afraid that the schools do not have the money, nor the human resources to compete with these types of places.

 

Mudcat , the Intimidators was an 18u team i helped get started . I didnt coach that group but they were part of my Club.
Most of that bunch have graduated , i think 2 of the players are at Kannapolis , 2 at South Rowan and 2 at West Rowan . The NPC is very young this year .
Northwest Cabarrus has the best chance to win the championship at this time based on who returned .

 

Mudcat: I know about the Diamond Devils website to register for their tournaments. What website, or where can you go to find, or who can you call to find out about the Carolina Clipper tournaments that you enjoy and that are competitive?

 

It's www.carolinaclippers.com the site is down right now but will be up this week sometime.