If you're in the Northern Illinois area and looking for a well-run tournament, check out the Heatwave tournament in Woodstock. They really do a nice job and make it all about the players and the teams.
Field maintenance is awesome. Fields are dragged and lined before every game, and the infields are watered down every couple of games. (Compare that to the Elgin complex where the chalk must be made of gold since they only put it down once a day, at 8:00 AM, and hitters wind up standing in 12 inch holes by the end of the day.) Concessions are excellent -- burgers, hotdogs, brats (I think), all char-grilled.
The tournament setup is great too. Pool play determines whether you go into the A or B bracket. From there you play for either the championship of your bracket or consolation champion. They award plaques for first through fourth place in each bracket plus consolation champion, too, so you stand a good chance of winding up with some hardware.
I don't recall offhand if they use one umpire or two. I'm thinking two at least in bracket play, and maybe also in pool play. Most of the umpires are pretty good, although I did have a run-in with one who didn't know the courtesy runner rules and refused to allow me to run for a pitcher or catcher with fewer than two outs. She later checked with the UIC and apologized to me for her error, which was nice.
The fields we're played on at the tournament have plenty of room for warm-ups. Dugouts all have sun shades on them, and there are usually bleachers for the fans. They also do a great job of keeping coaches informed of any developments, from early acknowledgement of receiving your check to info on schedule changes.
Competition level varies from age group to age group. Now that they're affiliated with AFA, though, the competition seems to be ratcheting up. In prior years it was a completely independent tournament so I think some teams avoided it.
The only downside is that it's usually the same week as the ASA Chicago Metro tournament -- the one you must play to go to any of the ASA National tournaments. But if you're not planning to go to Nationals it's a great alternative choice.
Field maintenance is awesome. Fields are dragged and lined before every game, and the infields are watered down every couple of games. (Compare that to the Elgin complex where the chalk must be made of gold since they only put it down once a day, at 8:00 AM, and hitters wind up standing in 12 inch holes by the end of the day.) Concessions are excellent -- burgers, hotdogs, brats (I think), all char-grilled.
The tournament setup is great too. Pool play determines whether you go into the A or B bracket. From there you play for either the championship of your bracket or consolation champion. They award plaques for first through fourth place in each bracket plus consolation champion, too, so you stand a good chance of winding up with some hardware.
I don't recall offhand if they use one umpire or two. I'm thinking two at least in bracket play, and maybe also in pool play. Most of the umpires are pretty good, although I did have a run-in with one who didn't know the courtesy runner rules and refused to allow me to run for a pitcher or catcher with fewer than two outs. She later checked with the UIC and apologized to me for her error, which was nice.
The fields we're played on at the tournament have plenty of room for warm-ups. Dugouts all have sun shades on them, and there are usually bleachers for the fans. They also do a great job of keeping coaches informed of any developments, from early acknowledgement of receiving your check to info on schedule changes.
Competition level varies from age group to age group. Now that they're affiliated with AFA, though, the competition seems to be ratcheting up. In prior years it was a completely independent tournament so I think some teams avoided it.
The only downside is that it's usually the same week as the ASA Chicago Metro tournament -- the one you must play to go to any of the ASA National tournaments. But if you're not planning to go to Nationals it's a great alternative choice.
