So What is Gold....confused yet?

[fastpitchrocks]

Been around this game awhile, here are just some of my insights...or opinions.

Gold is nothing more that a team that is signed up as an ASA Gold team. That means, they can ONLY play ASA Gold qualifiers when it comes to ASA sanctioned tournaments. Once participating, they cannot drop down to "A" or anything else. So essentially, anyone can be a Gold team, however it is only available at the 18u level.

What it means to be Gold?
A long time ago Gold was supposed to be summer ball for signed softball athletes and young college players who were 18u eligible to compete at a high level. Since then, it has been diluted to basically ASA A+. Don't get me wrong, the very best teams in the country compete at the Gold level, however you are finding teams that would have trouble making the ASA A Nationals now trying to compete at Gold. However, the majority of teams at an ASA Gold regional or sector are the creme of the crop from their respective areas. And certainly the ones who make it to Nationals are the best teams in the country for that given year.

Then you have teams who want to use "Gold" as a status symbol...MANY teams are the "Team Gold", however they are not even registered as a gold team....so either they just love the color or are softball posers.

Having said this, there are some solid 18u A teams that fear registering Gold because of the "All or nothing" system. If they don't make the field of 64 in the entire country...no nationals, unless they choose a different sanction. But these teams are not the caliber of the teams that typically play in Gold nationals.

PLAY BALL!

[Demonboy]

Sorry, this board is primarily 12u.

[Sam]

So....how many "real" Gold teams are out there? And my real question....who cares? The same "real" Gold teams compete at Nationals each year.

You miss the entire point why there are a plethora of Gold teams.....exposure. You have to be a Gold team to play in the Gold division of any exposure team worth playing in. It has nothing to do with status and everything about to do with being seen by college coaches as your team plays against top competition.

[DonnieS]

Our group decided a while back to play 18a - I warned everyone, that with our youth, we will be getting our butts handed to us, and then we went about 10 tournaments straight where we made it to the championship game, won over half. This is a young team, the oldest player on the team is my oldest dd at home turned 17 in september. Obviously, what has happened is that the gold has siphoned off those cream of the crop players from the 18a teams, allowing young teams like ours to look better than we really are. So we are off to play gold , though without a name change.

[melsdad]

Gold to me is a slightly darker shade of yellow

[3Bsnag]

Come on Donnie, no name change?
Gold Hotties?

[DonnieS]

>> Gold Hotties? <<

South Texas Gold Stuff
Gold Texas Hot Stuff
Texas Gold Stuff that's hot
South Texas Stuffed Gold
South Texas Wannabes Gold
South Texas WishWeWere Gold

[3Bsnag]

LOL! I liked the middle 2 the best:

Texas Gold Stuff that's hot
South Texas Stuffed Gold