Ohio Underclassmen All star Game

[ManitouDan]

Results from yesterdays play are in and once again the SEO district has been served up as fodder for the other districts. three games , scores were 21-4 , 15-1 and and 17-0 . So our district got outscored 53-5 . Not everyone likes to accept the truth but our district does a horrible job of promoting this game to the players and recently I'm 100% positive the best players are not going to represent our district. some of it is the obvious -- vacations , other sports , summer job... some of it is the coach's just dont put an ounce of energy into promoting the game . I'm sure there are exceptions and to those coach's , a sincere thank you . ( and the guys putting in the time at tryouts and currently coaching-- Thank You ! ) to those that just dont care .. a big thumbs down. College coach's , many from smaller Ohio colleges are present at this event and would be a perfect match for lots of our girls . Wish we , as a district , took the game more seriously and put together a team that is competitive . Two more games today but after getting beat down that badly its hard to bounce back and play good softball .

[Ironman92]

I asked about several of the better players around and many of them didn't come to tryout. The District All-Star game only had 16 players and only a handful of 1st team players were there.

The senior team had a SSU girl playing 1st and the Sheridan coach and the East coach took turns playing 3rd. Maria Johnson was the only high profile pitcher there. It was Waaaaay better at Rio. I appreciate the efforts of those that may have worked hard....but they need more help promoting for sure......didn't even have umpires!

[old-timer]

I think a problem with the Underclassmen All-star Game is that our District has try-outs for the team on a Sunday morning... This creates many problems, the biggest being that Travel Ball players have tournaments on the weekends. The vast majority of better players in our district are probably participating on travel teams. ALSO, on the weekend, there is AAU basketball tournaments. This takes away from many of our athletes being available for TRY-OUTS... I believe we (coaches) need to look at try-outs being held during the week to allow more opportunity for higher quality of players to try-out... Something needs to be done to try to draw the players to better represent our district.

Players MUST attend the try-out to be eligible.

That being said, I want to congratulate the girls that participated in the tournament and REPRESENTED OUR DISTRICT... I appreciated the efforts given, and that where it ALL has to start, ALSO THANKS TO THE COACHES FOR PUTTING IN THE TIME. It looked like a fun event, that I for one would like to have a chance to take part in.

Thanks again and congrats again...

[ManitouDan]

Old timer .. I'm in agreement with you , But the exact same plea for doing things like you mentioned were being made two years ago . When are we going to have leaders step up and make it better ?

[old-timer]

I, for one will ask questions about what can be done to better represent our district, if affiliated with the association. Our district has some very fine players, but need incentive to want to participate in this event.

Would like to see more players interested in participating.

[sox]

Okay, I will speak from the perspective of a parent with a kid that has played the last (2) years in this event.

1) There is a lack of representation from the Southeast at this event and it is difficult to gleen out specifically 'why'. I firmly believe it is because the kids that participate once, never want to do it again. Some are highly motivated individuals and when you get beat by 10-15 runs a game, something has to give. And, word gets around. Southeast produces some very good talent, but that is not represented at this event.

2) I agree the kids should all have to tryout. My dd did not go to tryouts this year and the coach called and asked if she could play as they did not get enough kids at tryouts. After the experience last year, she literally did not want to go. it was worse this year!

Many of these kids/parents sacrifice a lot to participate in this event. I think if they cannot get dates set before TB starts, they should not host the event. None of this will change and we will continue to get mediocre participation.

After the pounding on Monday, (4) kids did not show on Tuesday. Those are automatic outs to the team (another rule that I think needs to change. the only kids hurt are the ones that do show up).

Suggestion: forego tryouts and offer positions in the following order; 1 - All State Recipients, 2 - All District Recipients, 3 - All League Recipients....many of these kids are interchangeable.

My 2 cents worth....

[ManitouDan]

I wanted to clarify something that I accidentally left out of original post -- I appreciate the players who sacrficied their time and did put in the effort to go play in this game . The problem isnt with any kid or parent or coach who did put in the effort. like I said , Its those that didnt put any effort into contacting their players or promoting the game that dropped the ball. I just want to make it better for those that go play in this game. my apologies for forgetting to say " thank you " to the players that did play . Its really tough circumstances to play in this game. MD