by Wooahhhh » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:55 pm
just my opinion
1) The state has great teams from all over. Population-wise, Southeast Florida has the most people and as is the case in California, the areas with high population can easier produce the highest quality teams. But teams/organizations from Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and even the panhandle of Florida can be competitive. Obviously, the panhandle's population comes no where near the peninsula's.
2) Rising Stars in Davie is a big nationwide "showcase" tournament. One of the biggest tournaments is the NSA States tournament. Best competition is found in the ASA States tournament. Typically the biggest tournament that isn't a state tournament is either the Clearwater Lady Bombers Memorial Day Classic or the Swamp Classic in Palm Beach Gardens (WPB) in late June.
3) Affiliations vary across the board. ASA is gaining momentum, NSA is huge and state-wide, USSSA is state-wide but more popular in the SE part of the state, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Also, ISA is known in the Central Florida area (Tampa and Orlando).
Girls fastpitch softball in the State of Florida has exploded in popularity within the last 5 to 7 years. We do have a history of 30 to 40 years, it's just very limited in numbers (yes, I'm comparing us to California). We have no shortage of teams today, but I feel the State struggles to consistantly put a large quantity of high powered teams together. Some organizations are working towards that goal. 18 Gold (Gold Coast Hurricanes, last year) and 18A (Tampa Mustangs) are our recent ASA successes. The Mustangs are the State's oldest organization and Coach Cooper of the GCH is highly respected. It will be interesting to see if the popularity of the sport in Florida, the organizations involved and the year-round climate help us achieve a higher number of quality teams in the near future. I hope so. Just one guy's opinion. Didn't mean to slight anyone, any organization or any tournamemt.