I watched the 16U Unity vs Hawaii game for a bit and I also watched some of the All star game too. How does the TV bracket thing work? It's different than the power pool right? I would think there would have been different teams playing based on reputation alone. Not to bag on the V Unity Left pitcher, but she was wild and couldn't find the strike zone. The catcher was working her butt off to fend off passed balls. However, I think she'll be a good pitcher. Could've been the stage that made her nervous.For us, this year was a tale of two different answers.
-For the tournament itself, it was not worth it. Seven days, seven games. Eeesh.
-For the extracurriculars, yes it WAS worth it.
The tourney was OK, nothing spectacular. DD's team was in the 16u power pool. They won the first two then lost to VA Unity and Birmingham Thunderbolts in the TV bracket. The college coaches were out for those games, then kind of disappeared for the rest of the week. The team easily won their first in the champ bracket on Friday, then lost the next two.
The valuable stuff was the camps and the Future Stars game. DD's org held two events. Monday they had a run-of-the-mill org workout. A couple hours, nothing too special, some coaches came but many other orgs were doing the same thing at the same time.
The day before, they held a skills camp for like 5 hours. What was different was we had coaches from 12-13 schools come and coach the skills and the scrimmages. They were compensated for their time, but it gave them lots of time with the players and a real chance to interact. Several of the schools are on DD's short list, so that was great, and worth the trip on its own.
The real fun came at the Future Stars game on Thursday night. It was so cool to see her play on TV. She had a great game, doubling in two runs and she STOLE HOME on freaking ESPN. That memory is totally priceless.
So overall for us the trip was worth it for sure, but mostly because of the extras. There sure is a lot of sitting around unless you head to the mountains. If you plan on going for the camps and various special events it can be a great event.