I think some of you are missing my point including Spaz, i am not referring to these so called "super teams" forming just for PGF, although i do see some teams picking up kids at end of season, and PGF allows this and i think it is kind of nice for kids to get the chance to show their skills one more time that season, when they otherwise would not, and that goes on everywhere not just socal. Lets get off the budget thing and paid coachs, as i know the amount of time coachs spend working with kids, well some coachs lol, and the budget thing referring to being paid wasnt my point SPAZ, its the amount of money a team has to attract certain players, supply the kids with first class training facilities, as much equipment as a college program, and top notch coaching, and get the best fields every weekend and play in front of the best schools in the country week end week out, great weather year round to practice and HS teams playing in Fall and Spring is just pure insanity, NOT because they are buying you a freakin cheeseburger. To be honest im jealous if anything Spaz cuz you guys have the red carpet each year
.Most of the SoCal Super teams only leave their own beds on weekends ONCE a year WITH a 30k budget, and some of the tournaments they play in are their OWN, so yeah. Back to my original point, these "super teams" that are STACKED to the gills with 3 pitchers going to TOP 5 colleges in the country and a boat load of big time talent SITTING in the dugout is NO match for us poor folk up North, sorry. Until you see that you are really missing the whole transformation of SoCal super teams, at LEAST at the 18G level. You have teams flying all over the country from back EAST and South with HUGE budgets ,week end week out just to be seen. On top of that you have teams rolling up in team buses with name on it from the Midwest, others with four or five 15 passenger vans, one of which JUST for equipment (socal),, seriously shoot we share having kids bring the first aid kit and one other carries the wiffle's thats our "equipment van". Norcal was real close to hanging with the big boys until the recent transformation of these "super teams", call it what you want, AND the infestation of copy cat teams up North that have severely spread out the talent base that there is up here, PLUS we have more and more talented NorCal kids feeling the need to jump on board the "super teams", just so mom and dad can tell everyone they do, when they dont really need to, and all that has KILLED our chances!. Until NorCal figures it out the slide will continue, as the rest of the country has already jumped on board with the dreaded SoCal teams. Can it be done up North, hell yea with the right personality leading the charge, will it be done probably not.
Bottom line is, the days of NorCal winning a National title are gone, at least at PGF, but with that being said once you figure it out that its NOT all about winning and its about providing an opportunity for our kids to get an education at a great university, then everything is ok, because 2 weeks after PGF is over nobody cares, and a LOT of lucky kids are packing their bags to great schools and thats what its all about,
FWIW