LL Regionals vs. Nationals with travel team

[goinglefty]

I was lucky enough to help coach a team that made it to the LLWS in 2008 we got third and easily that groups most memorable softball experience! They were rock stars in our commuinty and all the neighboring towns! Heck it still gets talked about and most of them are freshman in college. Most have played in at least 1 ASA/USA Nationals and Most have played in several USSSA WS including one at Disney. Nothing comes close to that event for the girls.

Goinglefty: In 2011 i was lucky enough to ride the shirt tails of the team from the Central Region (as the manager) all the way to the Championship in Portland. To both regionals and the WS we brought a Newpaper guy and a radio guy. Every day the newspaper put in a complete section on the girls most days consisting of 3-5 pages about the girls and team. And every game was on the radio for our complete area to listen to. I heard stories about factories stopping work and allowing employees the watch our games from the internet using projectors to put them on a wall once we were at the WS for the games that wernt televised. Once we got home it was a circus for a week! 2 parades, a full blown assembly at our high school which im guessing there was way over 1,000 people at. A local car dealer rented a limo for the girls for the first day of school and the girls were taken to the 4 elementary schools and marched around each school like celerities. the young kids were going crazy about the team coming. Both the cubs and the white sox had us to their parks to regognize us for what we did. Absolutely the most incredible experience of my life watching my girls go through all of it!! And i know it will be tough for them to ever top it. For all the people that talk about the competition level they are 110% right! But taking 1 year off for something like this didnt hurt us a bit!!! That same team minus 1 kid won the ASA A 10U Northern Nationals 2 years prior to that and got about a 2"X2" write up in our paper. Not that i was ungrateful for it at all but the girls just dont get the regognition for ASA ball that they do LL. That same team again minus 1 girl we to ASA/USA Nationals last year as 14's. We finished a respectable 33rd the paper never had a blur in it about it. Since that all went down..... travel teams in this town have probably doubled! Every little girl now wants to play softball and try to do what this group did! So because of this 40 to 50 girls that may have not played ball are now excited about the game. Pretty cool stuff!!!
I do remember the 2011 East team very well! You had a good team. But what i remember the most is how much fun you guys had. There was a mom and a grandma that our team got close to and i think some still talk to! A great group of people!!! From what i remember didnt you guys get invited to a Yankee's game and treated like royalty?
Our District administrator really pushed hard for me to take the girls and attempt it again their 13 year old year for the JR league but every one of them felt like they needed to focus more on travel and getting the most competition.

Yes!!! I totally remember Sterling! They were awesome! Great players and fans!

Even though we didn't win it all they were treated like Rock Stars at home too. So many newspaper articles, meeting politicians and getting to go on the field and announced before a Yankee game! It was pretty awesome.

Such a small world. Nice meeting you!

 

[goinglefty]

There is a MASSIVE difference between ASA Nationals and PONY nationals. If I had a team that was going to ASA Nationals I wouldn't even consider LL .... even playing on TV. For PONY, it's a different story, though. Might have to think about it a bit.....

Yeah. I agree. Its not even the same league. But when my dd was 11/12 yo what did I know? Lol. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. We would have gotten destroyed at ASA.

 

[dadonachair]

Soupy62

We were not the 2011 team, We were the 2013 team. We went 6-1. Won the pool games then lost the first elimination game to Asia/Pacific. The people were great. It was great for all the girls seeing the names in the papers. They were Honored by the town councle and local clubs. I was giving inning by inning updates to a bunch of friends back home. The games were on gamecast so friends could keep up with what was going on. I think the coolest thing was that LL paid for it.

 

[ScottyDont]

A lot has been said here, so I'll just say very briefly that a Little League World Series is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would not deny ANY player who made it that far. PONY Nationals happens every year, and nobody remembers the champion next season. Little League World Champions are remembered forever. You can see in town parades today, the 50th anniversary of teams that won back in the 60s. Nobody except the team and the parents cares who won PONY Nationals in 2013, never mind 1964.

 

[ScottyDont]

Soupy62

We were not the 2011 team, We were the 2013 team. We went 6-1. Won the pool games then lost the first elimination game to Asia/Pacific. The people were great. It was great for all the girls seeing the names in the papers. They were Honored by the town councle and local clubs. I was giving inning by inning updates to a bunch of friends back home. The games were on gamecast so friends could keep up with what was going on. I think the coolest thing was that LL paid for it.

Scary thing is...your team will be even better this year. Good luck to Rville (assuming you get out of District 12).

 

[JAD]

Playing in the LL World Series is more of a community event, but the better competition will be at Nationals.

 

[goinglefty]

Playing in the LL World Series is more of a community event, but the better competition will be at Nationals.

Yes. I agree competition will definitely be 10x better at a National. The LLWS is sort of like HS States. It's more of a community thing.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

The community aspect of LL and HS is heightened by the progression over multiple weeks. Nationals are very compressed.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

I was lucky enough to help coach a team that made it to the LLWS in 2008 we got third and easily that groups most memorable softball experience! .

My DD was in Missouri with you folks from IL 2008 or 2009, whichever one it was. (we were there both years for our state of WI). We remember IL because you guys had a really tall fireballer of a pitcher we just did not want to face. I think she was 6'1" and NOT a lanky weekling whatsoever.....

Just curious - whatever happened to this pitcher we were in such awe of? I assume in college somewhere as a freshmen?

Thanks for the flashback though.....



In general now, after looking back:
- We were sad each year to not be able to get past regionals to get a chance to go to Portland. Our best players (the TB Players) were as good as the other states best players, but our talent dropped off so quickly with more than half just being LL players.
- But life is about experiences. The experience of the pageant and glamour of Portland would have been priceless to DD's. That's why I am pushing DD now to keep hs state in her goals.
- If anybody asked me the original question here I would WITHOUT hesitation strongly suggest going to LL,...especially at that age. If your DD was otherwise going to be a star pitcher in the TB 16U ranks then I might say otherwise - but she would have had to have been a 12U pitching as a STAR in TB 16U or above.
- Also, Everyone here knows that if your DD is a very good pitcher you can easily find a TB team looking for a pitcher to support a team going to any one of the TB nationals. Shoot when DD's 16U TB team imploded before nationals I was getting calls the night driving home from that announcement from other regional TB teams coaches looking for DD to come join for their nationals..... Point being TB is forgiving enough that if you plan and fall short of your LL goal if your pitching DD is that good she will still play at some sort of nationals. Ya there is risk with that scenario BUT it does work....

 

[soupy62]

My DD was in Missouri with you folks from IL 2008 or 2009, whichever one it was. (we were there both years for our state of WI). We remember IL because you guys had a really tall fireballer of a pitcher we just did not want to face. I think she was 6'1" and NOT a lanky weekling whatsoever.....

Just curious - whatever happened to this pitcher we were in such awe of? I assume in college somewhere as a freshmen?

OH yes Jen. She was 6' ended up peaking at 6'1" and your right not a petit kid. That was really a turning point for that kid. She got to be throwing the ball in the upper 50's and mom couldnt catch her anymore, dad is a truck driver and was gone all week on the road. Jen really quit practicing at pitching. She leaned more toward volleyball after that. Heck she even quit softball her JR year but came back her SR year. Kind of a neat story about college though. She worked her butt off trying to get scholarships for Vball. U Of Iowa Vball coach couldnt use her so gave her info to the Rowing coach. While Jen was on her way to a school in Minn she got a call from the Rowing coach at Iowa. Jen told them she was on her way to Minn and they offered her right then a full ride and wanted her to turn around and come to the school. So this kid because of her size was given a full ride to a Big 10 school. Like they say you cant coach size! Nice kid and i am glad things worked out for her!

I remember Wisc. Were you there that Saturday? It was 114 before the heat index. It was one of the hottest days i ever remember. I remember sitting inthe shade thinking my skin was going to start on fire! LOL we played 2 games that day and after we won the girls didnt even want to celabrate they wanted to go to the cars and get int he air lol. My daughter was the catch. She was misrible! Yes that team was the 2008 team.