Hosting Tournaments

[TEXASGLORY]

Trophies are great in 8-U and 10-U, maybe even 12-U if you have not won any. But once you have a few the previous poster is correct, they stay in the car until Dad/Mom takes them in or throws them away. T-shirts are good at 12-U and 14-U so long as whoever does them lays off the L and XL shirts and actually buy shirts that will fit the girls. After that, my vote is take the money you would have spent on trophies and divide it up for 1st 2nd and 3rd. Give that back to the team either as a check or credit for future tourney. This will make it easier for the coaches and the parents as team fees are already difficult to pay and collect for many.

Dan Adkins

[King Slade K Adkins]

I guess the gods have spoken! No more trophies for the kids.

Personally what makes tournaments better to me is having a right field fence that is 115 feet on at least one field at the park. If you have that, then you don't need to do anything else because you already r puttin on the top tournaments.

[Fusion Gold]

I guess the gods have spoken! No more trophies for the kids.

Personally what makes tournaments better to me is having a right field fence that is 115 feet on at least one field at the park. If you have that, then you don't need to do anything else because you already r puttin on the top tournaments.

Aside from your username, this is the stupidest combination of words that I have ever tried to read. Thanks for making me King, of your castle!

[King Slade K Adkins]

Aside from your username, this is the stupidest combination of words that I have ever tried to read.

I'm sure some people got it.

[DonnieS]

Trophies are great in 8-U and 10-U, maybe even 12-U if you have not won any. But once you have a few the previous poster is correct, they stay in the car until Dad/Mom takes them in or throws them away. T-shirts are good at 12-U and 14-U so long as whoever does them lays off the L and XL shirts and actually buy shirts that will fit the girls. After that, my vote is take the money you would have spent on trophies and divide it up for 1st 2nd and 3rd. Give that back to the team either as a check or credit for future tourney. This will make it easier for the coaches and the parents as team fees are already difficult to pay and collect for many.

Dan Adkins

Dan, not a bad idea, but do you think they spend that much on the trophies? I always figured they were in low low $$ range. One of the better tournament hosts in our area (Central/South Texas), the Bombers, have done the credit award for years. They usually gave champion/finalist shirts, good quality too, a trophy, a plaque, and then a credit on your next tournament with them, usually 100% for 1st and 50% for second. At times they gave tickets to the water park there. To me, someone wanting to put on good tournaments would do well to copy what the Bomber group did for the Schlitterbahn tournaments. Whats even better, is when mistakes were made, they would correct them for the next year.

Dont know how far softball is going to go in our family, right now, its strong but I will always remember the fast pitch softball tournament experience as The Schlitterbahn tournament in New Braunfels - driving through the gates and seeing all the fields full of parent packed bleachers, kids for miles in their cool uniforms, a long row of vendors, smell of blood vessle choking fried everything in the air, and the river right behind it. It doesnt get any better than that for the weekend softball tournament.

[Joe]

DFW tournaments should get interesting this year. The competition caused by the VTD/ASA split has some hosting associations going head to head on certain weekends. TDs will have to step up with costs savings, extra benefits to survive.

Here's what I see so far:

VTD: North Richland Hills, Criag's Ranch, Allen, Southlake, Keller, Grand Prarie

ASA: Irving, Hurst, Mesquite, Gateway, Mansfield, Garland, Forney

[TEXASGLORY]

The cost for doing trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies is around $400 per weekend. That is if you are going to present something that doesn't look like you bought it at Dollar General stores. I would do something like $200 for 1st place, $125 for 2nd and $75 for 3rd.

Dan Adkins

[DonnieS]

The cost for doing trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies is around $400 per weekend. That is if you are going to present something that doesn't look like you bought it at Dollar General stores. I would do something like $200 for 1st place, $125 for 2nd and $75 for 3rd.

Dan Adkins

Truly, that would get my attention, hey throw it blue fees while you are at it. I have never run a tournament so dont know though I have bought the plaques and such for various awards. The last tournament we played in up in your area was at McKinney some 5 years back, and that was a well run, awesome tournament, lots of teams, good competition.

[txfastptchcoach]

The cost for doing trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies is around $400 per weekend. That is if you are going to present something that doesn't look like you bought it at Dollar General stores. I would do something like $200 for 1st place, $125 for 2nd and $75 for 3rd.

Dan Adkins

I host a Tournament every April that gives away $500 plus Championship shirts for 1st, $250 plus Runner up shirts and a Plaque for Third place. The entry is $150.00 plus umpire fees @ $30.00 a game for pools and $35.00 a game for brackets. The pools are are 65 min. Drop dead and 75 min finish inning double elimination 4 GG. I give 90 min between games to stay on schedule and Championship game is set no later than 3:00 P.M. This gives everyone a chance to get home at a reasonable time. The money is given as a donation to the top teams organization or coach to not violate any rules. We have done this the past 5 years and it has become a tournament that teams come from Louisana, Oklahoma and all over Texas. This tournament fills up fast for the 10u-14u divisions and is usually full a month in advance. The hardest thing to schedule is the 14u division because of Highschool play. I have always hated to be driving home on Sunday evening at 11:00 P.M. so my DD can go to school the next day. The thing I pride my tournaments on is that the fields are dragged after every game (during Brackets) and watered after every 2/3 games as needed, Great BBQ and CLEAN bathrooms. I'm bais but I think I get the best umpires from the State to work this tournament also. This year we are going to work 3 complexes with a total of 11 fields going on. Each age group will be at a single location with NO MOVING from complex to complex.

Hopefully everyone will take as much pride in hosting the tournaments as I do. I always ask if there is something I can do better after each Tournament and take the responses and do everything I can to make it better the next time. Just something to chew on.

[dueceduece]

Mansfield always puts on a good tournament. Fields are dragged and rechalked between all games and watered in the summer, not just before Championship game. The umpire crew out there is general one of the best.

Mesquite is ok. They usually get to play after alot of rain the way the fields are built. Although the huge slope on the playing field I am not a fan of. But they do good at running tournaments.

Waco enjoyed playing there.
The Bomber Tournament in Central Texas is always good. They are getting better every year.

Arlington does a good job.
Hurst does a good job.
southlake does a good job. Although the last one I was there for was WAYYYYYYYYYY behind schedule. Just too many teams one thing goes wrong and it can mess the whole thing up. Other than that a nice place to play.