Regionalism

[Westwind]

There are good players everywhere but outside of CA and maybe TX I don’t think there are enough good ones in any given state to fill multiple (>3 or so) teams that can compete at the National level. Weather plays a part for sure but also “tradition”. Even in MA growing up, different parts of the state were better known for different sports.

Illinois is a really big state and most of the fastpitch tradition does not reside in the northeast corner of the state. Yet everyone associates the entire damn state with one portion of it.

As usual, I got a bit off into the weeds there lol

 

[_MIA_]

Illinois is a really big state and most of the fastpitch tradition does not reside in the northeast corner of the state. Yet everyone associates the entire damn state with one portion of it.

As usual, I got a bit off into the weeds there lol

I am really bad with geography..is it bad that I had to look at a map to understand what you were talking about?

 

[Westwind]

I wish people understanding what I was talking about could be fixed with a map more often, lol!

 

[mudrunner]

100% agree with Westwind. We are in the metro east area ( same as Canonball) and we have a ton of softball talent here. I see the club ranking posted here and several teams on the list DD’s team or other local teams have beaten. Generally in this area there are not a lot of PGF tournaments, and apparently if you play mostly USA and USSSA your not that good lol. Another thing to note is this area is almost entirely blue collar with both parents working. It makes it hard to pay a ton of money to be on a specific team, take time off work, or afford the expense of out of state travel all the time. DD's team plays mostly within 100 miles from here with a few farther tournaments thrown in. I would put some of the metro area talent against just about anybody.

 

[quincy]

Seems that in my area a couple of clubs gather the best players. If you play one of these clubs you will have your hands full otherwise it is really hit or miss.

 

[quincy]

I wish people understanding what I was talking about could be fixed with a map more often, lol!

What is a map?

 

[Strike2]

I'm not sure one can generalize by region, but given a combined population of nearly 70 million, I would expect more teams competing well nationally come from California and Texas. Both states draw some of the best talent from surrounding states as well. However, many very successful players at top D1 schools come from smaller cities in the middle of the country, and didn't travel accross the country every weekend for tournaments.

 

[MNDad]

Illinois area rivals anywhere outside of Cali. Fixed it for you, lol.

Illinois is a hotbed due to the remnants of men's fastpitch. When those guys quit playing, they started coaching. That established a strong women's tradition. I also believe that it helps that we play spring high school softball. I think people underestimate the value that we are playing hs when colleges are playing so there are no conflicts that prevent recruiting.

It takes six plus hours to drive from the top of the state to the bottom, the Bandits and the Chill don't have the market cornered, and a lot of their players are not from the Chicago area. The Bandits pitcher that won PGF Nationals last year was from central Illinois. I think she pitched almost every inning. I'm pretty sure her pitching coach was a former men's player. (A family member if I remember right.) Then you have the "metro east" area which is the Illinois side of the St. Louis area. TONS of good players there. (Thanks in part to Cannonball!)

The University of Illinois should be a powerhouse in the Big 10. They have in my opinion a very good coaching staff. They should be recruiting heavily from within the state. They can't. What limits them is recruiting. U of I is expensive, they don't have much flexibility to fill in the gaps with non-athletic money. They also have a situation where they can't assure players that their money isn't year by year. Their softball facilities are spread out and pretty inadequate. When you attend a camp there, it is a spread out mess. It's a turn off. All of the above makes Illinois players easy to poach.

Iowa Premier has a larger and larger percentage of Illinois players- as well as midwest states that border Iowa and beyond. BTW, their best coach is from Southern Illinois. (The "real" southern Illinois, not Peoria, lol)

Good fix and great post!

 

[newnin]

Not to push this chat a different direction...Speaking of changing times,
the outflux of california residents may start influencing others states.
Or could it?

I just picked up three former California residents in the last month up in Oregon. It has definitely changed my team's outlook for fall.

 

[Lobster Birch]

I looked at the rosters of the top 25 D1 programs a few years ago and about 25% of the players were from California, which is greater than California’s percentage of the total population.