What does it take to earn/get a "gold" designation?

[softball**mom]

Just out of curiosity, what does an 18U team, or any age team, have to do to be designated as a "gold" team? I see teams that have been well established using "18 gold" after their name. But I also see what appears to be brand new teams that call themselves "gold." I don't know if these teams are an old "gold" team just changing their name or not. Does a team have to qualify somewhere or can any team just call themselves "gold?"

[Fredegar]

Right. As Spazsdad said, if you wanna call yourself "Gold", you can.

A few years ago, SoCal ASA claimed to have too many teams at the June 18-Gold qualifiers. Their solution was to run a couple Gold Classification tourneys in January, where approximately the top half of each tourney officially got to call themselves "Gold". The losers would NOT be Gold and NOT be able to enter the Gold Qualifiers ... although they could still call themselves whatever they wanted. Including Gold. The system was frought with problems (the main one being that it was unnecessary) and quietly went away after a couple years.

[PDad]

A few years ago, SoCal ASA claimed to have too many teams at the June 18-Gold qualifiers. Their solution was to run a couple Gold Classification tourneys in January, where approximately the top half of each tourney officially got to call themselves "Gold". The losers would NOT be Gold and NOT be able to enter the Gold Qualifiers ... although they could still call themselves whatever they wanted. Including Gold. The system was frought with problems (the main one being that it was unnecessary) and quietly went away after a couple years.

It wasn't just a SoCal ASA thing - it was part of regionwide limits on the number of Gold teams per association that were put in place at the urging of the longtime Gold coaches that later formed PGF. SoCal ASA's allotment was 50 teams. The classifiers became unnecessary after PGF drew so many teams away from 18 Gold.

[Fredegar]

A few years ago, SoCal ASA claimed to have too many teams at the June 18-Gold qualifiers. Their solution was to run a couple Gold Classification tourneys in January, where approximately the top half of each tourney officially got to call themselves "Gold". The losers would NOT be Gold and NOT be able to enter the Gold Qualifiers ... although they could still call themselves whatever they wanted. Including Gold. The system was frought with problems (the main one being that it was unnecessary) and quietly went away after a couple years.

It wasn't just a SoCal ASA thing - it was part of regionwide limits on the number of Gold teams per association that were put in place at the urging of the longtime Gold coaches that later formed PGF. SoCal ASA's allotment was 50 teams. The classifiers became unnecessary after PGF drew so many teams away from 18 Gold.

Interesting. Unfortunately, it was somewhat unfair from the start, wasn't it? First of all, many of the "longtime Gold coaches" didn't have to worry about the Jan tourneys because National-qualifying teams out of SoCal or teams finishing well at Nats were auto-classified as Gold. And did NOT have to play in the Jan tourneys. That's fine since they would have classified easy. But these were extra tourneys that others had to pay for. Plus, at the time, ASA allowed age eligible college players to return to Gold teams. Teams in January could be at a disadvantage trying to "classify" without certain key players still in college, whereas auto-classifiers were already Gold and would have their college kids back by the June Qualifiers.

But again, it was largely unecessary, since over half the teams were classifying. Prior to this, teams would just get weeded out at the June qualifiers, where everyone was at equal strength. It just seemed arbitrary to start weeding them out in January (when some teams weren't at full-strength), when other divisions didn't do the same thing, with similar numbers of teams.

Fortunately, thanks in part to the presence of PGF, the issue went away.

[DDG]

I remember how the "Top Organizations" complained about there being too many teams at the gold level. ASA caved and started the classification games to weed out the lowest of the low. Prior to that, there were teams that tried to bill themselves as GOLD for recruiting purposes that would routinely loose to 14 and 16u teams from the better orgs.

When PGF and ASA had their National tournaments in So Cal a couple of years ago, ASA dropped the classification games in order to increase the number of eligible teams so they could fill their brackets.

Now, everyone can be a gold team again. Other than recruiting unsuspecting families, I don't know why someone would play up. They will never qualify for nationals and if they are not winning, they won't be on the main fields during showcases. It must be an ego thing.

[lovsofbal]

I remember how the "Top Organizations" complained about there being too many teams at the gold level. ASA caved and started the classification games to weed out the lowest of the low. Prior to that, there were teams that tried to bill themselves as GOLD for recruiting purposes that would routinely loose to 14 and 16u teams from the better orgs.

When PGF and ASA had their National tournaments in So Cal a couple of years ago, ASA dropped the classification games in order to increase the number of eligible teams so they could fill their brackets.

Now, everyone can be a gold team again. Other than recruiting unsuspecting families, I don't know why someone would play up. They will never qualify for nationals and if they are not winning, they won't be on the main fields during showcases. It must be an ego thing.

College coaches were complaining about too many gold teams that weren't gold teams wasting their recruiting time. That was part of the reason for the "qualifiers". This the first i've heard about the "Top Organization" complaining about it.

[PDad]

A few years ago, SoCal ASA claimed to have too many teams at the June 18-Gold qualifiers. Their solution was to run a couple Gold Classification tourneys in January, where approximately the top half of each tourney officially got to call themselves "Gold". The losers would NOT be Gold and NOT be able to enter the Gold Qualifiers ... although they could still call themselves whatever they wanted. Including Gold. The system was frought with problems (the main one being that it was unnecessary) and quietly went away after a couple years.

It wasn't just a SoCal ASA thing - it was part of regionwide limits on the number of Gold teams per association that were put in place at the urging of the longtime Gold coaches that later formed PGF. SoCal ASA's allotment was 50 teams. The classifiers became unnecessary after PGF drew so many teams away from 18 Gold.

Interesting. Unfortunately, it was somewhat unfair from the start, wasn't it? ...

I neither judged nor justified it - just gave a more accurate description of its origin and my opinion of its demise.

But again, it was largely unecessary, since over half the teams were classifying. Prior to this, teams would just get weeded out at the June qualifiers, where everyone was at equal strength. It just seemed arbitrary to start weeding them out in January (when some teams weren't at full-strength), when other divisions didn't do the same thing, with similar numbers of teams.

Okay, I'll play devil's advocate.
- A slight majority of teams classifying didn't make it unnecessary - a very high percentage would make it unnecessary.
- Teams don't get weeded out at the regional qualifier - they can still enter the territorial qualifiers.
- The PGF founders are opposed to college players participating, so maybe the January timeframe was intentional...
- The first year of the classifiers was the last year college players were allowed in 18G.
- 18G only has regional and territorial qualifiers (outside OKC's NQ) which means traveling to them. It's not really comparable to the other classifications where most teams qualify locally at their association championships.

The classifier process itself may have seemed overblown, but IMO it was from engineering it to classify the best teams - with the exception of the first year when college players were still eligible.

From what I read about the 18G qualifiers in Texas this year, they might want to do something to limit their 18G...

[ice_67]

Just out of curiosity, what does an 18U team, or any age team, have to do to be designated as a "gold" team? I see teams that have been well established using "18 gold" after their name. But I also see what appears to be brand new teams that call themselves "gold." I don't know if these teams are an old "gold" team just changing their name or not. Does a team have to qualify somewhere or can any team just call themselves "gold?"

It's not to complicated, to be an official Gold team, you must donate $100 to Heybucket.