Spud Fest

Big Lake, Minnesota was the setting for this ASA/WSL event. Long Haul/Miken was the winner of the tournament, but did not accept the berth to the Major WSL Worlds in Panama Beach, Fla. Pov’s/TPS finished in 2nd. and will accept the WSL berth. At this time I do not know if either the Miken team or Pov’s will accept a bid to the ASA Super in Sanford, Fla. I’m sure we’ll know later on that. I know this was a great weekend for the ASA/WSL, as the three tournaments that were ran this weekend, Bismarck, North Dakota, who had 397 teams entered in Class B,C,D & Womens, along with a Senior Division. This tournament has been around for quite a few years. It is called the Sam McQuade and is truly an unbelievable event. This year the people running this event got together with John Daniels and his WSL Association bringing the Fox Sports Net TV people to film this event for a show later on. Also this weekend there were 84 teams in Big Lake, Minn. in the Open Class B,C, & D. The last one was an NSA/WSL event called the Texas Shootout Finals. Ninety five teams were entered in this B,C & D Event. I don’t think softball is totally dead around the country. These people who run these events of this nature truly must be very hard workers to get these kind of numbers in NIT’s. I think a fine example was the one in Big Lake where normally a week before the tournament they’ll know just how many teams they will get, but this year four weeks before the tournament they knew they were going to go well past the numbers they have had in the past. I believe this is happening because of the work and promotions from all the Tournament Directors of these tournaments and the promotion from the WSL office and the promotions from people like Pat Sullivan and the WSL staff who are putting in hour after hour of hard work to make this happen. Congratulations to all the winners and the participating almost 600 teams who were a part of this ASA/WSL huge weekend.