At Large births this year?

[BIG DADDY 24]

Ebay, thats great !!!! would it come with free shipping ?

[Trophy Hunter]

Maybe they could donate a berth for Heybucket to auction off since they get so many good ideas from here, and tons of good press.

[coachEd]

I dont know if these were at-large berths, but it looks like there were 2 more invites given out for two 14u teams that didnt appear to earn a berth at one of the qualifiers (actually, neither team played in a qualifier), and both teams are from the East coast.

[jonriv]

I dont know if these were at-large berths, but it looks like there were 2 more invites given out for two 14u teams that didnt appear to earn a berth at one of the qualifiers (actually, neither team played in a qualifier), and both teams are from the East coast.

Who are they?

[coachEd]

Vienna Stars (Virginia) and Burmingham Thunderbolts 98 (Bama).

[coachEd]

Well, there have now been 3 PGF 14u qualifiers cancelled due to lack of participation (Colorado, Georgia and New Jersey). That makes a total of 7 berths that were in play to be earned that have not been issued at qualifiers. It still remains to be seen what will happen to those and whether teams that participated in qualifiers (and particularly, those that played in highly attended qualifiers) and ended up 1 or 2 spots out of a berth may get rewarded.

[PDad]

Another team appeared on the list of 14u teams - Carolina Elite. They were entered in the Southeast Qualifier with Birmingham Thunderbolts 98.

Vienna Stars team won VA ASA State and has beaten the Shamrocks team that qualified in Indiana at least twice.

[Trophy Hunter]

Well, there have now been 3 PGF 14u qualifiers cancelled due to lack of participation (Colorado, Georgia and New Jersey). That makes a total of 7 berths that were in play to be earned that have not been issued at qualifiers. It still remains to be seen what will happen to those and whether teams that participated in qualifiers (and particularly, those that played in highly attended qualifiers) and ended up 1 or 2 spots out of a berth may get rewarded.

Any coach who is sitting around hoping to get "rewarded" with a berth they didn't earn hasn't done a very good job managing his team toward a nationals berth. Putting all your eggs in the PGF basket is really poor planning, considering there are under 70 berths available nationwide meaning the vast majority of teams won't be playing PGF.

It is in PGF's best interest to give any open berths to teams from areas where they are trying to grow their presence. Giving berths to SoCal teams makes no sense unless it is a last minute type deal, since it appears they have most SoCal coaches by the short hairs already.

Question to the coaches hoping for a "reward" - What are you going to tell your players when you get nothing, and all they get for a year of hard work is a week at home while other teams play in some Nationals somewhere around the country?

[coachEd]

TH, all good points. Except with there being so much brew-ha-ha about PGF being a good ole boys club and handing out invites to teams that didnt even try to qualify, I was suggesting, to perhaps maintain at least a modicum of integrity in their berth system, that they grant the unissued berths to teams that at least tried to qualify in one of the qualifiers, but came up just short.

I agree 100% that a coach putting all of their eggs in the PGF basket is not the wisest thing to do with so few berths available in qualifiers (only 30 total were available for all the 14u qualifiers, and it looks like 7 of those 30 wont be issued through the originally scheduled qualifier), but heck, I'm not coaching a team ......

[Safebyahare]

Cal teams placing in CO vs who in PGF Nationals,,,,
16u
Fireworks:
2. Firecrackers----Aurajo going PGF
5. Minors Gold----Esparza didn't qualify (tried twice)
9. Cal Cruisers----AE second try NW qualifier
9. Cal Lite----------** going PGF

Sparkler
5. So Cal Choppers--Moore going PGF
9. Firecrackers--------Pasco going PGF
13. Case Batbusters going PGF

Boulder
1. Team Mizuno------- going PGF
2. Corona Angles Knighten going PGF
3. Corona Angles Perez going PGF
5. OC Batbusters Myers going PGF
5. So Cal Athletics going PGF