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Three for the road: After busy start to summer, trio on their turf for national tourney
By Brian Howell
© 2010 Longmont Times-Call
LONGMONT — For more than a decade, Haley David, Sasha Fong and Brittany Maul have had their lives intertwined.
They have played softball together for years, suiting up for hundreds of games. They’ve played basketball and competed in track together. They have also attended school together for as long as they can remember.
Considering all that time together, they are still close friends.
“We mesh really well,” Fong said.
This week, the trio from Erie High School is together once again for the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Tournament.
Pool play for the 16-and-under tournament is being held in Longmont, while pool play for the 18-and-under teams is being held in Boulder and Louisville. The finals will be held at Stazio Fields in Boulder.
The tournament is one of the marquee events of the summer for girls softball. It draws teams from all over the country. In fact, of the 48 teams playing in Longmont, just three are from Colorado. The rest come from all over the country.
The event got under way on Wednesday with 48 games in Longmont alone.
Two of those games were played by the 16-and-under Colorado Warriors, which feature David, Fong and Maul.
“It’s kind of cool because we’ve played with each other for a really long time,” said David, who plays second base for both Erie and the Warriors. “It’s cool to keep playing with the same people you know and making friendships.”
David, Fong and Maul have been teammates since they began playing competitive softball, Maul said.
“We’ve been playing together probably since first grade, and we have gotten very, very close,” said Maul, a first baseman. “We know how each of us plays, so we feel very comfortable with each other.”
All three of them are great players. They were all first-team all-area selections by the Times-Call last season after leading Erie to another Class 3A state championship.
David said she enjoys having her two Erie classmates on her summer team.
“Both of them are almost my best friends,” David said. “They make me relax when I play. It’s nice to have them around.”
It’s good that they get along, because they spend a lot of time together, especially during the summer.
As most teams do during the summer, the Warriors play in tournaments every week. Two weeks ago, they were in Pennsylvania. Last week, they were in Fort Collins. They are headed to Houston for nationals later this summer.
Playing close to home this week is a welcome change.
“We get to sleep in more and we know our surroundings and our weather,” said Fong, a third baseman and outfielder.
After winning a pair of games Wednesday, the group was headed out to lunch together.
David, Fong and Maul have gone through this routine for years.
They spend all summer together on the softball field, and then spend the rest of the year together in school.
“As much as I should, I don’t,” Fong said when asked if she ever tires of seeing David and Maul.
“There are moments where we have our little fights,” Maul said, “but we’re always going to be really tight. That’s just how it is with us.
“They are great people, they are great to hang out with, they are great ball players.”
Throughout this summer, they have proven it again. They are helping the Warriors have a great summer.
After a short break, they’ll meet up again in the fall to suit up at Erie. They’ll help the Tigers make the transition to Class 4A.
“I’m really excited, especially since we’re moving up,” Fong said of the high school season. “Going straight from hard, competitive games (in the summer) into 4A, I think we’re going to do really well.”
If Wednesday was an indication, they’ll do well this week, too.
After defeating the Oregon Northwest Bullets 6-0 in the morning, they defeated the California Cruisers 8-4. Maul hit a solo home run against the Cruisers.
“I think we have a chance (to do well),” Maul said. “Obviously there’s going to be a lot of great teams in here. But I think we have a chance. We just have to play our game.”
Slugger tourney takes sunny outlook
Forecast bright this year after rain spoiled tournament year ago
By Joshua Lindenstein Boulder Daily Camera Sports Writer
Posted: 06/29/2010
Just because Dan Burns hasn`t seen a weather forecast this week doesn`t mean Mother Nature`s plans haven`t been crossing his mind from time to time.
Burns remembers too well the "nightmare finish" to last year`s Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament, when heavy thunderstorms washed out the entire last day and most of the second to last day.
It`s just that by the time the 10 o`clock news rolls around these days Burns is usually wiped out from another marathon day of prep work for the prestigious tournament that he`s run the last six years.
"I can`t stay awake long enough at night to see a weather forecast," Burns said this week. "I`m hoping that it`s going to be good, so we`ll see."
Luckily for Burns and the 144 softball teams set to square off, there`s mostly clear skies in the forecast this week, with a 30 percent chance of rain on Saturday the only potential blip.
The 14th Louisville Slugger officially begins today with pool play for three separate draws -- an 80-team 18-under draw in Boulder, a 32-team 18-under draw in Louisville and a 32-team 16-under draw in Longmont.
Most teams come from out-of-state, with all getting two pool play games per day Wednesday through Friday. Single-elimination bracket play is on Saturday and Sunday. Games begin at 8 a.m. each day and run into the evening at Boulder`s Stazio and East Mapleton fields, the Louisville Sports Complex and Longmont`s Garden Acres and Clark Centennial fields.
Last year marked the first time in the history of the tournament that organizers had to call the event without crowning an 18-under champion (The 16-under bracket was completed).
Burns said that, while weather and scheduling is always a concern withso many games to be played, last year`s misfortune didn`t cause him to craft any major contingency plans going forward.
For one thing, the weather is generally agreeable and, for another, a pair of other large tournaments in the state this week gobble up most of the fields in the area that could be used as backup plans.
"There are no (other) fields that we can play on," Burns said. "Most of the fields are spoken for."
Burns said cutting last year`s tournament short was tough, but even with shortening the time limits on games there was nothing that could be done since teams and college recruiters had flights to catch out of town.
"It`s difficult to do it but you have to be realistic," said Burns, who offered teams a credit toward this year`s entry fee for games missed last year. "The teams that come here to play are also realistic. I felt like even though we were all disappointed there were no bitter feelings by anyone."
The Slugger has long been one of the most prestigious tournaments in the country because of the level of competition and the amount of college coaches on hand to scout players. Thursday is the first day college coaches can speak directly to high school seniors-to-be.
The tournament`s formula for success has largely stayed the same over the years, though there are a couple of new wrinkles this year.
Teams will be allowed free defensive substitutions and will be allowed to bat 10 players in the lineup if they wish to make it easier to get more kids in front of recruiters` eyeballs.
The biggest change, though, is that college players who are young enough to play will no longer be allowed to help keep the spotlight on kids still looking for a place to play in college. While winning the tournament still carries plenty of prestige and everyone will no doubt have their best players on the field come elimination play on Saturday, Burns said there has been a shift by many teams in recent years toward using pool play as a showcase to get all of their players seen.
"The college coaches who come to see these girls, they`re not interested in seeing (the college players) play," Burns said.
There is one sad note to the 2010 version of the tournament.
Jim Pedersen, who helped start the tournament and ran it for several years before Burns took over in 2005, died of cancer in February.
Burns said many coaches who have brought their teams to the tournament year after year called or wrote Pedersen over the winter as his condition worsened.
"I think everyone kind of had a chance to bid farewell at that point," Burns said.
Split brewing in softball
New elite tourney provides alternative to ASA Gold Nationals
By Joshua Lindenstein Boulder Daily Camera Sports Writer
Posted: 06/30/2010
It wasn`t totally uncommon in recent years at the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament to see college freshmen competing in Boulder fresh off of playing in the Women`s College World Series a month earlier.
With a recent shift in the softball world toward 18-under teams excluding college players who are still young enough to play, those days are now over. But the movement has changed little else for the Slugger. The best teams in the country still come to play and enjoy Colorado`s favorable summer weather, and 350-plus college coaches still come to get a peak at all of that talent.
The movement, however, will bring a seismic shift to the softball landscape
later this summer with regard to the
Sorcerers shortstop Jess Vest (left) throws to Tanna Bindi (right) for
the out at first against the Bullets in Boulder, Colorado June 30, 2010.
CAMERA/Mark Leffingwell ( MARK LEFFINGWELL )
crowning of a national champion.
The Amateur Softball Association`s Gold Nationals has widely been regarded as the most elite title an 18-under softball team could win. But displeasure by many coaches nationwide with some of the ASA`s rules -- and stubbornness toward changing them -- has led to a new elite tournament sprouting up the week after Gold Nationals.
The Premier National Tournament, which will be held Aug. 9-14 in Huntington Beach, Calif., was the brainchild of a group of coaches on theWest Coast -- with input from other club coaches from around the country -- who said they have been trying to get the ASA to make changes for years, only to see those requests repeatedly denied.
Chief among the changes is not allowing college players to play, thereby leveling the playing field by only allowing players who are still in high school or who just graduated in the current year. The change also helps coaches get more of their younger players who are still looking to earn college scholarship offers onto the field in front of college recruiters.
Gary Haning, coach of the Orange County Batbusters juggernaut club from California, is the tournament director for the Premier tourney. Haning said he`s been part of ASA for decades and that starting the new tournament was not part of an anti-ASA movement.
"It`s just a matter of we wanted something different," Haning said Wednesday after his team`s pool play victory over the Virginia Shamrocks at Stazio Fields. "We tried to work within the system to get it. After many years, it became apparent it wasn`t possible to work within the system to get it, so we changed."
Malicious in intent or not, the Premier tournament seems to be stealing much of Gold Nationals` cachet by attracting a large portion of the nation`s elite programs this year. The Premier`s championship game will be televised live on ESPNU or ESPN2, with its semifinals and 16-under finals and semifinals streamed online on ESPN3.
The Shamrocks, another of the country`s perennial powerhouses, is headed to the Premier. Coach Tommy Orndorff said his team is registered for a Gold National qualifier but might not go to the tournament even if it qualifies.
"We typically go across the country to play the best teams in the country, and they`re not going to be at ASA Gold (this year)," Orndorff said.
In November, the ASA changed its stance and said college players would no longer be allowed at the Gold level. Softball`s national governing body also shortened the schedule of Gold Nationals and decided to rotate the site of it to places other than Oklahoma City -- two more points coaches wanted to see change. Gold Nationals will be in Marietta, Ga., this year.
But by the time those changes were made, plans for the Premier were already moving forward.
Some teams, like the Kansas City Peppers and East Cobb (Ga.) Bullets, are going to both tournaments, but the travel costs of doing both are too much for most teams.
Chris Sebren, who runs the Gold National tourney as the ASA`s assistant director of membership, said his organization doesn`t hold any ill will toward the Premier`s organizers, though he admitted some disappointment in seeing some teams split off.
"We wish them the best with what they`re trying to accomplish," Sebren said in a phone interview with the Camera. "Obviously as the national governing body of softball, our goal is to crown a national championship for 18-under gold softball. A lot of top programs are still coming. Hopefully we`ll both see a strong showing team-wise and recruiting-wise."
College coaches at the Slugger Wednesday expressed some mixed feelings about the shift to college players being left off of the summer teams. While they like the idea of seeing more unsigned players, some liked having their freshmen come back to get more experience over the summer.
And while most of the club coaches praised the changes and the new tournament, a few thought it was bad for the game overall to dilute the nation`s top teams into two tournaments.
Arizona L`il Saints coach Jackie Coburn, who played collegiately at Arizona, was one of those coaches. Still her team tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the Premier instead of the Gold Nationals because of its proximity and the reduced travel cost for her team.
Most coaches at the Slugger felt that the Premier would be the nation`s elite tourney this year, though some felt it could be possible in the future for everyone to return to the ASA fold for one national championship if things played out right -- and especially if the Premier ends up not being sustainable.
Bill Conroy, coach of the Beverly Bandits from Illinois, is on the board of the Premier as well as the Gold National committee. His team will play in the Premier this summer but said he is invested in the sport of softball`s success more than one organization or the other.
"I think they need to bring everyone to the table and have a powwow," Conroy said. "(The ASA) made a lot of concessions. They need to make a few more."
The Slugger`s willingness to adapt to the wishes of the teams involved, meanwhile, is part of what has made it such a success, coaches said Wednesday, one big reason -- along with the locale and recruiting that goes on here -- that the tournament figures to remain arguably the nation`s most prestigious outside of those that determine national titles.
Phil Mumma coaches the California Sorcerer squad that won Gold Nationals last year. His team will play instead in the Premier this summer.
"That`s why this tournament is so good is because they listen and they try to do the best for the kids and the best for the clubs and the coaches," Mumma said. "They have done a wonderful job here."
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