Panama City Beach

JAD said:

The USFA World Series @ PCB at 14U is sill one of my fondest softball memories. Great mix of softball and vacation and it sure beats Bloomington, IL, Salem, Va, Chattanooga, TN.

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IL or IN? ASA/USA are held in both, however I've always seen them refer to IL site as Normal.

We made back-to-back trips to Normal and Moline, IL. PGF added 14U the following year and saved us from Midland, TX.

SoCal_Dad said:

IL or IN? ASA/USA are held in both, however I've always seen them refer to IL site as Normal.

We made back-to-back trips to Normal and Moline, IL. PGF added 14U the following year and saved us from Midland, TX.

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ASA probably referred to it as Normal, IL, but we stayed in Bloomington. Nothing but corn fields surrounded our hotel. Really made me wish I was at PCB with my toes in the sand!

WaNole said:

PCB is fun, but don't expect to be seen by any coaches. It's just another Issa, NSA type tournament just near a great beach.

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While I will agree there were no coaches at PCB, I bet there were just as many that saw my DD the next year in Normal, IL!

My main complaint about PCB is that by July I'm so tired of being that ridiculously hot all the time and it's even hotter there than it is at home. Plus at the 8U and 9U levels (when we went), half the girls on the teams are too distracted by the beach to pay attention to softball. Also, in 8U we went as a pick up on a team that fell apart immediately after, and in 9U we went with an unhappy team we were planning on leaving. Probably if we went this year it'd be more fun, with a team we love. But I am looking forward to a change of scenery. I don't have any complaints about the tournament itself. Really, it was just our specific circumstances.

Loved the USFA at PCB. We went twice, 10 & 12's. I guess as DD gets older, I tend to remember more of the good and less of the bad from her early softball days. Planning on going to Normal, IL this summer. Not going for recruiting, don't care if there are colleges there. It's still ok to play to win sometimes, even at 16U. I will say that there were quite a few colleges at 14U Nationals in Salem a couple years ago, including a couple P5 schools.

Read this thread now I am getting ads for cars in Panama City?

grcsftbll said:

Probably if we went this year it'd be more fun, with a team we love. But I am looking forward to a change of scenery. I don't have any complaints about the tournament itself. Really, it was just our specific circumstances.

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Be careful what you wish for...we went from the beaches of PCB as a first year 14U to the cornfields of Normal, IL as a 2nd year 14U team. With USFA we played at least two games a day, while ASA played one game a day until Thur. In PCB when you are not playing, you and the family are at the beach, playing in the sand, eating seafood dinners. In Normal, IL you are sitting in the hotel room watching the corn grow outside your hotel window, and eating fast food. Our extended family came to PCB and turned it into a true vacation. How many of them do you think came to Normal, IL??? Zero, zip, nada...

I went to ISU, hatter.

JAD said:

Be careful what you wish for...we went from the beaches of PCB as a first year 14U to the cornfields of Normal, IL as a 2nd year 14U team. With USFA we played at least two games a day, while ASA played one game a day until Thur. In PCB when you are not playing, you and the family are at the beach, playing in the sand, eating seafood dinners. In Normal, IL you are sitting in the hotel room watching the corn grow outside your hotel window, and eating fast food. Our extended family came to PCB and turned it into a true vacation. How many of them do you think came to Normal, IL??? Zero, zip, nada...
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That picture cracked me up! We're going to Pigeon Forge this year. Should be stuff to do besides corn photo ops.

grcsftbll said:

That picture cracked me up! We're going to Pigeon Forge this year. Should be stuff to do besides corn photo ops. ����

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Have never been to Pigeon Forge for softball, but we did go to Salem, VA one year for ASA. It was not much better than Normal, IL...