- Mar 7, 2016
- 242
- 28
Do we have any other Kansas teams on here?
Because Directors of USA softball in Kansas (not metro areas here) couldnt agree and a power struggle happened last season a new association was born in Kansas. Two of the directors decided to split from USA and form IFA. Softball in Kansas was already pretty divided as is with the central, Northern and West portions of the State playing USA ball and the metro and eastern areas playing Utrip and USA metro. Kansas isnt large enough for three associations and all that will come of this move is now tournaments will be even more diluted team wise and the umpire shortage our state faced now became even worse. We are fortunate that we played both USA and USSSA. However most teams in central Kansas do not do the same and will be forced to make a choice between the two associations in order to play locally. The problem is they both book tournaments the same weekends all summer long and chose to overlap their State level tournaments all to try and push the other out. These tournaments and associations cant survive when their entry counts are halved. There is going to be some money lost this year or tournaments canceled due to low entry numbers.
At this point in the year the past decade most tournaments have numerous teams entered. This year aside from a free tournament USA runs the most teams in any one tournament at any age level is 1 team registered. UTRIP on the other hand still has the normal entries for this time of year. Most teams I have spoken with are waiting to see what happens. Several teams that have reached out to us to get an idea of what we are doing have declared they are avoiding IFA. I know UTRIP is making a push to move more towards Salina, and Hays area and we feel this is a good move. However local rec directors are fighting it since they have an alliance to IFA. By that i mean not allowing UTRIP to host tournaments during the May/June/July time frames. Then they claim no one wants to play UTRIP when all they allow is a March tournament to be hosted by UTRIP.
THe point of this is its a sad time for softball in Kansas when disagreements between money hungry people will cause associations to fold and local area teams will lose the option of playing tournaments they have played in the past several years. We have always traveled to play UTRIP, or KC Metro USA ball and have played quite a few local USA tournaments to round out our schedule. This year aside from two USA tournaments we have decided to play the rest UTRIP and travel every weekend. It makes zero sense to play locally when tournaments in the past with one association choice could only manage 8-12 entries per age division. Add in a second association and multiple tournaments within 30 mins drive each weekend and those counts will only go down. New teams are not forming each year its going the other direction. Something will have to give and those teams that are not willing to drive will fold or be left with local leagues only.
Because Directors of USA softball in Kansas (not metro areas here) couldnt agree and a power struggle happened last season a new association was born in Kansas. Two of the directors decided to split from USA and form IFA. Softball in Kansas was already pretty divided as is with the central, Northern and West portions of the State playing USA ball and the metro and eastern areas playing Utrip and USA metro. Kansas isnt large enough for three associations and all that will come of this move is now tournaments will be even more diluted team wise and the umpire shortage our state faced now became even worse. We are fortunate that we played both USA and USSSA. However most teams in central Kansas do not do the same and will be forced to make a choice between the two associations in order to play locally. The problem is they both book tournaments the same weekends all summer long and chose to overlap their State level tournaments all to try and push the other out. These tournaments and associations cant survive when their entry counts are halved. There is going to be some money lost this year or tournaments canceled due to low entry numbers.
At this point in the year the past decade most tournaments have numerous teams entered. This year aside from a free tournament USA runs the most teams in any one tournament at any age level is 1 team registered. UTRIP on the other hand still has the normal entries for this time of year. Most teams I have spoken with are waiting to see what happens. Several teams that have reached out to us to get an idea of what we are doing have declared they are avoiding IFA. I know UTRIP is making a push to move more towards Salina, and Hays area and we feel this is a good move. However local rec directors are fighting it since they have an alliance to IFA. By that i mean not allowing UTRIP to host tournaments during the May/June/July time frames. Then they claim no one wants to play UTRIP when all they allow is a March tournament to be hosted by UTRIP.
THe point of this is its a sad time for softball in Kansas when disagreements between money hungry people will cause associations to fold and local area teams will lose the option of playing tournaments they have played in the past several years. We have always traveled to play UTRIP, or KC Metro USA ball and have played quite a few local USA tournaments to round out our schedule. This year aside from two USA tournaments we have decided to play the rest UTRIP and travel every weekend. It makes zero sense to play locally when tournaments in the past with one association choice could only manage 8-12 entries per age division. Add in a second association and multiple tournaments within 30 mins drive each weekend and those counts will only go down. New teams are not forming each year its going the other direction. Something will have to give and those teams that are not willing to drive will fold or be left with local leagues only.