Where to play this upcoming season

We live in Southern Illinois. For the past couple years I have run a small independent 12u team. We just closed out a very successful year, one that would've seen us registering as a B team this year had we continued. At the conclusion of the season it was decided that our families wanted different things. Myself and one of my assistants wanted to continue to push and look for tougher tournaments to play which involved traveling further. Many of our families wanted to keep things the way they were.
Rather than try to fit square pegs in round holes we decided to move to another team in a larger organization. A team that, like us was hoping to continue pushing harder and playing tougher competition.
I am tasked with managing the team and scheduling.
We are moving up to 14u this year and I would like to create a schedule that will challenge our players and push them to grow. It is not our goal to chase trophies and instead would rather forego the trappings of short term success for long term gains.
Our goal is to play in 1 National tournament and to qualify for a world series in some sanctioning body.
We are not interested in ASA at this time, but I do plan to schedule at least 2 PGF tournaments. Also, the park I serve in hosts 3 non-sanctioned tourneys a year that we will play in. That leaves me with about 6 tournaments of which I would like to find a sanctioning body to focus on and qualify for a world series type event.
Now, I know that qualifying for a world series is not all that tough of a feet. Heck, my C team was qualified for FASA and USFA's world series last year, but the families didn't want to travel.
So I am looking for advice/suggestions on where to play next year.

(Fyi, I was born and raised in Carmi.)

I think you are going at this wrong. Unless you live in the St. Louis area, your specific problem is that your area is rural.

You have to go the big metro areas and play those teams. Good in Marion isn't the same as good in St. Charles, Barrington, or Beverly. (There are some good players in your area, but there are few good *teams*.)

If you want to see how good your team is, you have to go to the big metro areas.

I would focus on playing in tournaments in Chicagoland, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio. Find out what is available in those areas, and then pick a qualifier.

USSSA runs a few good tournaments in Mattoon.

St. Louis Area would be your best bet - There are both USSSA and NSA there.

Indianapolis also used to have a few good ones.

KC might be a little out of your travel range, but hosts some hosts some relatively big USSSA tourneys. Huge compared to what we have in Columbia. And hosts USSSA National Championships at just about every level. Check out Playmsp.com

What are your daughter's goals? Does she think she wants to play in college or are you simply looking for better competition? If the later you've been given some helpful advise, if a college scholarship is the goal, it gets a WHOLE LOT more complicated.

Thanks for all the great advice. While I was hoping for something a little more specific, as to sanctioning bodies, I'll take all these comments into consideration.
I'm going to try to focus on metro areas nearest us for this season.
KC is a little out of our range, this season, but will definitely be a thought for next year. We're going to play near Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville and Indy.
As for my daughter's specific goals, she does plan to one day play college ball. We're not too worried about scholarships, but anything will be nice.

If she wants to play D1 level college ball, especially at a high level, she needs to be playing on an elite team that plays in the top showcases across the country. If she's not at that level and wants to play at a fairly local college make sure she notifies the coaches when and where she will be playing and/or goes to their camps. Believe it or not, you're in the prime age group for recruiting purposes, especially at the higher level. the top schools are recruiting 2018 and 2019 kids right now. Coaches have limited time and resources so they only go to a few select showcases, especially in the fall. While there may be some good local tournaments with good teams, that alone doesn't mean there will be many, if any coaches there to see her. If they don't get seen it's tough to get recruited. Good luck!

In Chicago and Indy your best competition will be to play PGF National Qualifiers: PGF Central Region

In Chicago, ASA tournaments also attract top teams to national qualifiers look at TeamPages: Chicago Metro ASA - Chicago Metro ASA and Mizuno Hawks Softball for ASA National Qualifier events

PM me with any questions on those areas, happy to help.

undergroundga said:

We are not interested in ASA at this time, but I do plan to schedule at least 2 PGF tournaments.

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Just curious.....why are you not interested in ASA? In Ohio, if you want to play good competition you play ASA or PGF.

Lenski said:

Just curious.....why are you not interested in ASA? In Ohio, if you want to play good competition you play ASA or PGF.

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No real reason, just not interested. We are going to try our hand at some PGF tournaments. Most people in our area do ASA, but we are trying something different.
We're going to attend our first PGF tournament in OCT, outside Chicago.