I never said my team has a goal of going to Nationals. We aren't at that level yet. Our goal is to be better at the end then we were in the beginning.
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I never said my team has a goal of going to Nationals. We aren't at that level yet. Our goal is to be better at the end then we were in the beginning.
See thats the thing, people that just seen us on tv that really dont know us it would be very very easy to judge us. You talked about goals, the teams that know us know what our goals were from day one 5 years ago. We got a team of local kids put togther with the goal of trying to play in the Little League World Series. That was our goal the entire time. We did what we had to in order to realize that dream. We played this group in national tournaments the last 2 years, so its not that we tryed to protect our little league players. The idea with those national tournaments was to play on a big stage against great teams. When we were 10 we won ASA A State (there was 6 teams there but thats another rant) i thought was a pretty big accomplishment we went on to win ASA A Northern Nationals which i thought was a freaking HUGE accomplishment! Our paper ran about a 2"X2" article which was great normall the travel teams int he area dont even get that! Before you get me wrong its not about the publicity just giving you a little back ground. Every year since 2008 when another Sterling team made it to the World Series this group got together and watch the World Series Semi final and Final games. Its something they are had dreams of doing. Now had i said at the begginning of this season. Well girls we are not going to go do what we have planned we are going to go finish if we are lucky in the top 20 of the ASA/USA Nationals i would have had some crushed kids.
I definatly understand your input and in some ways agree with it, however for us to take 1 year off from the TB national scene to realize a dream these girls set out to do some time ago would be wrong. Just to give you a little more insight and all these girls had some ideas this could happen if we won just not to this extent. First we were flown to Portland Oregon (many of these girls first plane ride) the first day they pick the team up in limo's and drive them to the field (almost all of thier first limo ride). They throw brand new uniforms on these kids, walk them into another room with Easton rep's where each kid is given her choice of an Easton Synergy, Stealth, or Synge, a new batting helmet, 4 pairs of batting gloves, and each catcher is given a set of top of the line catchers gear. They are then strolled over to another building where each kid is given a very cool World Series jacket and t-shirt by Russell. They are then walked over to the most beautiful field these kids may ever play on for pictures and given roses. We then go to an ice cream social and the girls get to meat and hang out (for an entire week) with 4 teams from other countries. They play 2 games on ESPN, and come home to a hero's welcome! Almost the entire town came to an assembly to acknowledge the girls, they went on to eat at local establishments almost every evening for 2 weeks straight. The team was honered at Wrigley Field and our 3 pitchers threw out the first pitch in that game, 6 days later it was US Cellular. The State Capital building vist is soon and in the spring the girls will probably be flown by private jet to Washington DC to meet the President. I have to be honest with you Quake giving up 1 national tourney for that experience wasnt even considered by any of us. I am sorry not every softball girl has at least a chance to do what we did! I will always put my team in a situation to be pushed and excel at a high level (hence the 4 14U toureys we played as 12U's this summer) but will also remember its about the ride. From this point on this group will only be doing TB and try to compete at a National level every year. But ill never regret this year!
If this is the same Quakes coach from the QC area, feel free to look me up! If there is ever anythig myself or any of our Steam family can help you with we are all in. Its great having a relationship with everyone we see all weekend at the park all summer. Good luck with your girls this season! That move up in age groups is always kind of an intimadating one! Im in the same boat this season lol. Ill be around i love these fourum there is always good information to find on these things.
- Oct 25, 2009
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soupy62, absolutely is a strong word, but you absolutely did the right thing. NOTHING could have been better for those kids than what they experienced. If you can do it again for another team I would do it!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Job well done, Soupy. IMO, its great today that the LLWS dream can be shared by boys AND girls. To achieve that dream is an experience that will remain with them forever. "Sacrificing" a year of U12 travel ball to go down that road isn't a sacrifice. Good luck next year.
Soup62,
I was very excited to see you in the LLWS! What an fantastic experience for the players! We played your team in 10s at state a few years ago. (I agree another rant
). It was one of the best hitting teams I have seen at 10s. We still talk about that team!That team was a very good team! It inspired us to work even harder. When we watched the game on TV, I dug out the old scorebook from the state game. It was really cool to see the same names.
Congrats! You created a good thing, had a plan and put it to work! The players will never forget that experience.
Soup62,
As I have said in all of my previous posts.....I AM HAPPY FOR THE GIRLS. My point is this....it isn't OK to DROP DOWN and play lesser competition. Period. If that was your plan from the beginning...plans change. Would you ever enter your Steam team in a "C" tournament? Of course you wouldn't. Except to play on TV and get all of the other things you mentioned. The LL Word Series is a "C" tournament and "A" teams don't belong there and that goes for the Waco team also.
I have always taken on girls that aren't at the top of the softball skill list. We play in some big tournaments to see where we need to get, but we also play in smaller tournaments so we can be on a level playing field. When we go to the bigger tournaments I know going in that it is going to be a tough weekend. That is why we also schedule smaller tournaments....so our girls can go out and compete against similar competition. But, you know what almost always happens???? Some "A" team comes and play so they can win a trophy. Absolutely ridiculous. So, this isn't just about you, but all coaches that do it. Too many coaches are concerned about trophies instead of just seeking the best competition.
As I have said in all of my previous posts.....I AM HAPPY FOR THE GIRLS. My point is this....it isn't OK to DROP DOWN and play lesser competition. Period. If that was your plan from the beginning...plans change. Would you ever enter your Steam team in a "C" tournament? Of course you wouldn't. Except to play on TV and get all of the other things you mentioned. The LL Word Series is a "C" tournament and "A" teams don't belong there and that goes for the Waco team also.
I have always taken on girls that aren't at the top of the softball skill list. We play in some big tournaments to see where we need to get, but we also play in smaller tournaments so we can be on a level playing field. When we go to the bigger tournaments I know going in that it is going to be a tough weekend. That is why we also schedule smaller tournaments....so our girls can go out and compete against similar competition. But, you know what almost always happens???? Some "A" team comes and play so they can win a trophy. Absolutely ridiculous. So, this isn't just about you, but all coaches that do it. Too many coaches are concerned about trophies instead of just seeking the best competition.
That is your idea of The Little League World Series? A "C" tournament? I would agree 100% its not the best competition on the planet lol. However at State we played a pretty good team and only beat them 4 to 0. At Central Regionals we played a 2 and 3 run game int he first 2 games. Then caught fire and beat Ohio pretty good but like i said at that point we were playing above our avg games. That Texas team was very solid, the Cali team was a pretty good team! So was the Southeast team. Let me ask you this if your daughter had a group of friends that were good enough to do something like this and had Little League as an option would you tell them no its not right? And your right a few other organizations play games on TV. But how fair would it be for my team to compete against the likes of a Corona Angles, or American Athletics that are pulling kids from a population of millions in a place where practice outdoors lasts 11 months a year. I get what your saying i really do, and had i done something backhanded to do what we did i would deserve the critism. There is no way for you to understand what this summer was to these girls without doing it. I promise you had i went to Natioanls this year and the girls did incredible and got 20th place i would be as proud of them! But they wouldnt have the memories from this experience and that wouldnt have been fair to them!
Quake,
I think you are just looking at it a little backwards. They played "UP" at the other tournaments to get better to reach their goal.
And sometimes the "A" doesn't have any other choice to play in a "B" tournament because the majority of tournaments are "B". In some areas it is really hard to find "A" tournaments especially at the younger levels.
I think you have it backwards. We aren't talking about "A" playing in a "B" tournament. We are talking about a TB team playing in LL...which at best is a "C" tournament.
Actually, that is the same rant. The reason there were only 6 teams in that tournament is because very few coaches thought they could win that tournament, so they played "B". Again, a coach should never enter a tournament because they think that is the easy path to victory, but instead to challenge their team to play to its highest level. But that is why in this area there are hardly ever very many teams at the "A" level state tournaments.
They probably found out that you guys were playing so they didn't bother.
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