I doubt they really care about PGF who is truly a minor player with no legs that is comfortable a niche market.
Trust me, they care. The reason USSSA started the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship is directly due to PGF.
I doubt they really care about PGF who is truly a minor player with no legs that is comfortable a niche market.
All of the college coaches who are here in SoCal for the 14U/16U national championships this week would disagree!
Trust me, they care. The reason USSSA started the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship is directly due to PGF.
Yes PGF rules the roost for a full week during one tournament. What about the other 51 weeks in the year? (cue the crickets) In a single weekend ASA and USSSA will host more tournaments than PGF does in an entire year. This makes PGF a minor player in the big picture. Kind of like comparing Lamborghini to Toyota. The lambos are faster and flashier but Toyota out sells them a zillion to one.
People like to crow about "All of the college coaches" that attend PGF or some other national event. And this matters because? It is not much more than propaganda by the associations and especially the TB coaches to get families to pony up the bucks for a trip to the West coast. Sure college coaches attend PGF. Unfortunately for most coaches even SoCal is a better place to spend a summer weekend over where they coach. Especially if the school is picking up the tab. I suspect that if the AD's ever started asking what they actually accomplished during those trips for many college coaches it would be game over.
Those ignorant to the recruiting process are lead to believe that if they are at one of these events with "All of the college coaches" at some point Patty, Cllint, Tim, or Hutch will come over, sit down and see their kid do something amazing. Then not knowing a thing about the kid, her GPA, intended major, where she is from, etc. the coach of DreamU will have her locked in on their radar. Recruiting process complete! So outside of some absurd fantasy such as this, someone please explain why having "All of the college coaches" at an event matters if they are not coming to look at your kid?
Yes PGF rules the roost for a full week during one tournament. What about the other 51 weeks in the year? (cue the crickets) In a single weekend ASA and USSSA will host more tournaments than PGF does in an entire year. This makes PGF a minor player in the big picture. Kind of like comparing Lamborghini to Toyota. The lambos are faster and flashier but Toyota out sells them a zillion to one.
People like to crow about "All of the college coaches" that attend PGF or some other national event. And this matters because? It is not much more than propaganda by the associations and especially the TB coaches to get families to pony up the bucks for a trip to the West coast. Sure college coaches attend PGF. Unfortunately for most coaches even SoCal is a better place to spend a summer weekend over where they coach. Especially if the school is picking up the tab. I suspect that if the AD's ever started asking what they actually accomplished during those trips for many college coaches it would be game over.
Those ignorant to the recruiting process are lead to believe that if they are at one of these events with "All of the college coaches" at some point Patty, Cllint, Tim, or Hutch will come over, sit down and see their kid do something amazing. Then not knowing a thing about the kid, her GPA, intended major, where she is from, etc. the coach of DreamU will have her locked in on their radar. Recruiting process complete! So outside of some absurd fantasy such as this, someone please explain why having "All of the college coaches" at an event matters if they are not coming to look at your kid?
My daughter's PC is the PC for a D1 college and after one training session we discussed potential TB teams for my DD and the recruiting process. When I brought up National TB team in our area that has kids committing to the Oregon's and Alabama's of the softball world, she laughed. She said do you want to pay $12,000 a season to subsidize other kids from around the country that are being flown in to play in tournaments. Those out of the area kids are getting recruited by the Alabama's and Oregon's. If those coaches come to watch the team, they are watching their players to see how they are developing, not yours.
FYI, the guys that founded PGF were longtime 18G coaches along with being major showcase organizers and they kept their businesses separate from PGF (i.e. Haning/Hay - Surf City Tourneys; Barsalona - Diamond 9; Rico - SoCal's Finest/TCS). They created PGF to unseat ASA as the preeminent national championship without harming their showcase businesses. Expanding local/regional events is difficult because it requires finding numerous experienced organizers across the country to run them. They have a few (e.g. Ohio), however they're hard to come by.Yes PGF rules the roost for a full week during one tournament. What about the other 51 weeks in the year? (cue the crickets)
FYI, the guys that founded PGF were longtime 18G coaches along with being major showcase organizers and they kept their businesses separate from PGF (i.e. Haning/Hay - Surf City Tourneys; Barsalona - Diamond 9; Rico - SoCal's Finest/TCS). They created PGF to unseat ASA as the preeminent national championship without harming their showcase businesses. Expanding local/regional events is difficult because it requires finding numerous experienced organizers across the country to run them. They have a few (e.g. Ohio), however they're hard to come by.
Trust me, they care. The reason USSSA started the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship is directly due to PGF.
I agree with your "fantasy" scenario. What you're failing to recognize is that a lot of the teams that are here have kids who have been on the radar and getting looked at over an extended period of time. Two kids on our 01 sister team have verballed this week, and my best friend's kid on a different team has gotten four offers. Yes, I saw Hutch, Patrick and Clint's son walking around yesterday, and I've also seen coaches from multiple teams having conversations with the D1 folks selling their kids, with a lot of the Texas squads especially active. What that shows me is that they've done their legwork over the long haul, and PGF nationals is the venue where the goal of committing comes to fruition. To assume that college coaches are coming here to merely "vacation" smacks of condescension.Yes PGF rules the roost for a full week during one tournament. What about the other 51 weeks in the year? (cue the crickets) In a single weekend ASA and USSSA will host more tournaments than PGF does in an entire year. This makes PGF a minor player in the big picture. Kind of like comparing Lamborghini to Toyota. The lambos are faster and flashier but Toyota out sells them a zillion to one.
People like to crow about "All of the college coaches" that attend PGF or some other national event. And this matters because? It is not much more than propaganda by the associations and especially the TB coaches to get families to pony up the bucks for a trip to the West coast. Sure college coaches attend PGF. Unfortunately for most coaches even SoCal is a better place to spend a summer weekend over where they coach. Especially if the school is picking up the tab. I suspect that if the AD's ever started asking what they actually accomplished during those trips for many college coaches it would be game over.
Those ignorant to the recruiting process are lead to believe that if they are at one of these events with "All of the college coaches" at some point Patty, Cllint, Tim, or Hutch will come over, sit down and see their kid do something amazing. Then not knowing a thing about the kid, her GPA, intended major, where she is from, etc. the coach of DreamU will have her locked in on their radar. Recruiting process complete! So outside of some absurd fantasy such as this, someone please explain why having "All of the college coaches" at an event matters if they are not coming to look at your kid?