ASA 18U Gold Nationals in Oklahoma City, 16U Gold in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

[JAD]

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America/USA Softball announced today that the 2014 ASA/USA Girls’ 18-Under Fast Pitch GOLD National Championship will be held in Oklahoma City, Okla. while the first-ever 16-Under Fast Pitch GOLD National Championship will be held in Broken Arrow, Okla. The 18U GOLD National Championship will take place July 20-26, 2014 at the ASA Hall of Fame Complex while the 16U GOLD National Championship will be held July 21-26, 2014 at Arrowhead Park.

OKC and Broken Arrow to host GOLD National Championships

 

[JAD]

It will be very interesting to see how ASA selects teams for 16U Gold. Will there be separate qualifiers? The website says there will be 48 teams in the 16U Gold Nationals - will it dilute regular 16U ASA Nationals? Decrease the number of teams at 16U ASA Nationals?

 

[PA SB Dad]

I think it will also have a domino effect on 14U. Now the best 14U players will have more options to play on Gold teams (18U and 16U) as well as Class A rather than stay in 14U A.

 

[soupy62]

and where will the college coaches go? Im guessing 16Gold could be the new recruting tourney? Obviously PGF will get the scouts but will the coaches that follow ASA all head to ASA 16Gold Nationals?

 

[Jquick823]

I would guess coaches looking for an immediate impact the next year will go to 18Gold and teams that have no money left except for underclassmen will go to 16Gold. I was told by 1 college coach so this is by far just their opinion and not the standard, but they don't go to 18U showcases only looking for Freshman in HS, that's what 16U is for.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

It will be very interesting to see how ASA selects teams for 16U Gold. Will there be separate qualifiers? The website says there will be 48 teams in the 16U Gold Nationals - will it dilute regular 16U ASA Nationals? Decrease the number of teams at 16U ASA Nationals?

16G follows the 18G pattern, however 16G will not have regional qualifiers. All 48 berths are being evenly distributed this year to the territories (12 each) to be awarded at their qualifiers. The berths will be distributed by participation in future years with the top 2 getting 16 berths and the other 2 getting 8. See the published 2014 ASA Code changes for more details.

Another change this year is all the Gold territory qualifiers are now national qualifiers (i.e. open to all teams).

16G will definitely further weaken 16A ASA/USA Nats - and the territorial ASA Nats - in quantity as well as quality. For the most part, any mediocre team that wants to go to ASA/USA Nats will be able to get a berth.

Note: Broken Arrow is around 120 miles from OKC - not exactly in the same area as 18G Nats in OKC.