Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

The first Super Major Qualifier of the year, The ASA Super in Kissimmee, Fla., will be played April 7th & 8th. at the beautiful Osceola County Sports Complex located off John Young Parkway, east of Orlando. This is definitely a tough weekend to host this tournament due to a long standing tournament that is being played in Thomasville, Ga. called The Rose, that has been played many years and has always attracted lots of very good A teams from around the southeast and is no different this year, as they have all of the top A teams entered. Because of this, the entry’s for this ASA Qualifier will not see the best of teams here. The format will be a round robin, followed by a single elimination tournament. One thing for sure is that two of the best Super teams will get a chance to see where they stand very early in the season when Long Haul/Taylor Bros./Shen Corp/TPS squares off against Hague/Resmondo/Specialty Tank/TPS, which should be very interesting. The other teams entered in this tournament are all local area teams. Believe me this will not be the only tournament in the 2001 season having trouble getting enough teams to participate in their tournaments. Obviously the problem is very simple, there’s just too many NIT’s spread out, and not enough competitive teams to fill the slots. Right now the USSSA has lowered it’s qualifying tournaments down to ten. The NSA will hold five, and the ASA will try to hold about nine. With all these Super tournaments it is virtually impossible to fill. A prime example of what is happening today is that one of the great tournaments of all time is having a very difficult time getting enough teams to fill the upper bracket, and that is “The Twitty”. For years the Twitty was neck and neck with the Great Smoky Mountain Classic, and now they can’t get enough teams to play. As I said before, “the only way to keep tournaments like the Twitty going is to put them on the baseball fields, so that the many A & AA teams will come and be able to compete with them, it’s as simple as that”. Yes there will be some tournaments that will attract 12 to 20 teams and hopefully they will be competitive. This year a lot of the tournaments are going to be played on baseball fields, which I’m sure will make it more competitive for the lesser teams, let’s hope so. I’m excited and can’t wait for the season to get going, just as I know all of you are. Let’s go out and try to make this year a very successful and competitive season for all the teams, the associations, sponsors and most of all the true softball fans who do come out and support Big Time Softball.