ASA Tournaments and Mizuno Affiliation, is there concern??

[onlooker]

..........

[Bleacher bug]

Thanks Junkie, you are right my Radar has not been on for this. I actually believe you have confirmed for me my fear however.....correct me if I am wrong:

In addition stating in your logo ASA Tournaments Official Website is quite misleading!!!!). These are NOT ASA tournaments, these are now Mizuno Hosted tournaments using ASA rules and a website called asatournaments.com

ASA does not equal Mizuno - The affiliation needs to now be removed doesnt it? where am I missing it? im sure this will look like an attack on an individual, its not..im more pissed the GSSA and ASA nationally lets this crap go on. feel free to advise me if im just over reacting to protecting the field.

I would not say these are Mizuno hosted tournaments using ASA rules Gary is a TD who happens to coach a Mizuno 10u team. Which by the way last year fell under the name Roseville Thunder.

Being that this has always been done in his tourneys I would say they are Gary Ybarra's tourneys using ASA Rules. I wouldn't lump Mizuno All American into it being that he coaches a team there. We didn't yell and scream about teams being in different brackets last year when he coached the Thunder 10s team. As someone else stated If he was with the Hype or Heat I wouldn't consider them the tournament host. Gary has been hosting tournaments for years and using the name ASA Tournaments.com for years. I honestly do not think the way he brackets tourneys has anything to do with the Org he coaches out of. If he changed the name to GY Tournaments would it be different? (Honest question there not being a smart ass.) Just wondering if that is the issue is that he is using the ASA Name to promote his business.

One thing I would have an issue with if I was a 10s coach is his own bracket. Roseville heat plays in the bracket with probably the top 4 teams for 10s in Nor Cal while Gary's team plays the soft side of the schedule??? That to me I would have an issue with if I was in 10s. Still in my opinion not a Mizuno AA issue that's a GY issue.

Mizuno All American does host their own tourneys and they have been very open and up front with that. http://www.all-americantournaments.com using ASA Rules. Just like the Breeze http://www.californiabreeze.org or like Fresno Force http://www.fresnoforce.com Not sure how Gary was able to use the banner he does but I think most have always know he is just another tournament director. The only reason any of these org's or TD's can say they are ASA tourneys is they use ASA Ump's and teams have to be ASA Registered so insurance is taken care of.

[lvtwft]

There is a difference between championship play and non championship play with regards to ASA. Been to tournaments around the country that separate based on orgs for sat in non championship play that are also related to asa. Heck traveling out of state in non championship play I have had tourney directors not have my team play another from my area that are affiliates to asa. I also saw gary at the breeze crab feed, does that make him bias to them also?

[onlooker]

...............

[onlooker]

........

[Momo's Dad]

Thanks Junkie, you are right my Radar has not been on for this. I actually believe you have confirmed for me my fear however.....correct me if I am wrong:

I should expect to see RR, Breeze, DF, IFA, TC Smash, All World and any tourney hosted by a club/organization to do their part to ensure same org teams do not play against each other on Saturday. I actually can appreciate that and have no problem with that for these types of NON ASA tournaments. None of these teams are implying they are hosting an ASA event, none of them. they may say they are using ASA rules, but they are not trying to mask themselves as as ASA outfit.

Which leads me to.......I think I know my problem now....

I've been duped....even though all along I know this is one man's business (kudo's to that), I have been under the belief that in years past (up until this week's brackets came out) that ALL of his tournaments are held to the ASA standard. I could not understand how the ASA would let someone who is NOT ASA affiliated run a site with ASA in the name if their standards were not being followed to a "T".

It's now clear to me (assuming this is NOT random pool play) that using the words ASA in his business name could be perceived as an attempt at deceipt to the end user (intentional or not, selecting asatournaments.com as a business name when having no affiliation can be considered deceipt to the consumer. In addition stating in your logo ASA Tournaments Official Website is quite misleading!!!!). These are NOT ASA tournaments, these are now Mizuno Hosted tournaments using ASA rules and a website called asatournaments.com



ASA does not equal Mizuno - The affiliation needs to now be removed doesnt it? where am I missing it? im sure this will look like an attack on an individual, its not..im more pissed the GSSA and ASA nationally lets this crap go on. feel free to advise me if im just over reacting to protecting the field.

edited to add - this is the first sentence on home page:

"On behalf of the Greater Sacramento Softball Association, I would like to welcome you. Our goal is to host the highest quality tournaments in the Northern California area. We welcome feedback on how we can improve our tournaments so please feel free to provide me with feedback. "

Is there any professional affiliation and is GSSA suporting non random pool play, or is this just another attempt to provide affiliation? im getting irritated now, sorry.

'Fear'? Aren't we talking about 10, 11, 12yo girls playing softball??

Over the course of a long season, I'm sure a lot of 10u and 12u teams will play a lot of other 10u and 12u teams and from time-to-time, those teams facing one another in actual tournament play will be from the same organization, but most times, they will not.

As we've already said, you've still got to win every game on Sunday to win a tournament, and some teams are going to play harder in every game on Saturday than others will, even if there's a Gold/Silver split for Sunday.

Even if the draws were totally random for every single tournament Gary organizes, there would still be instances where teams with the same banner wouldn't face one another until the latest possible moment. I guess I'm not sure what there is to fear at 10u.

[cccomet5]

I have read many great topics and some VERY interesting ones on the bucket the last few years.....I have decided never to comment on a topic although I have been tempted many times especially since I love the strategy of fastpitch softball and enjoy reading people's different opinions on many subjects.

In my opinion....... each of us need to worry about our own teams weather we play, coach or sit in the stands. Who cares who plays each other or not play each other on Saturday's. The cream will rise to the top on Championship Sunday as it always does. I have been involved with Gary since 2003.....he has always helped EVERY team if they had a fundraiser conflict, winterball dances, etc etc. I am not saying anyone is accusing him of doing something shady but it could be read as such. In my experience....he has always been a stand up guy and will give you an honest answer when you ask him.

Good Luck to everyone this weekend and this season.

Sincerely,

Andy Smith

[2muchparents]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with separating teams in the same org on Saturday. As a matter of fact there was a huge discussion in the SoCal forum in the fall about teams from up here going down there and having to play each other. The key is to be a random draw for Sunday. Ex. 3rd in C plays 3rd in E. The Sunday brackets and division should be totally blind. If 2 teams from the same org play in the first game, then so be it. Have no idea if that happened this coming weekend, I have to agree with the person who said their website is outdated!!!

[99NorCal]

[quote="onlooker"]ok, that makes sense....championship play would be 100% random pools, non championship can be accepted as simply "courteous" pool selection...I can live with that.
------

Not all championship play is random. At both local ASA association championships and ASA nationals, draws occur to ensure that the same organization doesn't have a team play each other in the opening rounds, even when it's straight up bracket play.

At the national level, it's even to avoid a team playing a team from the same state, let alone the same organization.

It helps to let teams see different competition than they otherwise would have. But the top teams will come out on top at the end.

[lvtwft]

For championship play, at the local and national level I was under the understanding that they put teams in certain pools and draw them random from there. But I could be wrong