- Jun 22, 2008
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No Open teams before 14U.
12U players can’t move up.
Girls must play with their community rec team or get waiver to play for another team. Doesn’t matter if your community only fields rec C teams. They own you until 14U.
All USA teams are required to play in a league. (Six game minimum)
All USA teams are required to attend the USA state tournament to advance to Nationals.
No tryouts are allowed before USA Nationals have finished.
No recruiting a player who has “committed” to another team.
Not all of these are bad ideas. It’s just very restrictive.
More and more teams here are playing PGF regionals or nationals. The trouble is most of the orgs here have developmental teams that can’t compete at that level. If they’re top teams go against any of these rules it could cause the entire organization to get banned from USA sanctioned tournaments. With nothing local to play other than USA they’re stuck. The club/travel orgs that don’t have developmental teams are all in the “B” range and best suited for USA or its local partner NAFA so they won't go against the grain.
The sad part is that if someone complains, OKC refers them back to the people about who they are complaining. While there is no doubt that local conditions should have an influence on local play, when it comes to championship play,USA Softball should stand by their code and, if necessary, shove it down the throat of the commissioners if necessary to preserve the integrity of the national organization. Of course, this JMHO