“This tournament is important for a player to be seen and evaluated so they have a chance of making the identified athlete pool,” Tournament Director and Men’s National Team Head Coach Denny Bruckert said. “If a player is selected to be part of the pool, that player has the chance to be invited to January’s Men’s National Team Selection Camp, where the roster for the USA Softball Men’s National Team will be chosen.”
The weekend tournament will officially start Friday, June 10 with a technical meeting, where managers and sponsors will meet at the local Elks Club to decide the format of the tournament. Team representatives will be given time to provide their input and preferences for the weekend. However, all teams should prepare and be ready to take the field the morning of June 11 with the expected championship games to start Sunday afternoon. Games will be held at Brookside Park, 123 Parkside Dr. in Ashland.
“We want to get back on that medal stand and it’s our job as a coaching staff to develop our players,” Bruckert added. “Nobody wants to see softball in the United States take a backseat to anybody. At one time, we didn’t. Veterans of the program are very anxious to help the program and get us back to where we belong.”
“It’s going to be a great tournament,” ASA/USA Softball President and Ohio ASA/USA Softball Commissioner Warren Jones said. “It’s very exciting that we have nine teams competing at this tournament in its first year. This will bring in the best USA male talent in the country and will help build the future of ASA/USA Softball Men’s Fast Pitch.”
If teams or individual players wish to participate, they can visit the tournament website at TournamentASA.com.
About ASA/USA Softball
Founded in 1933, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA)/USA Softball is the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, ASA/USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 165,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2.2 million. ASA/USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won nine World Championship titles as well as claimed eight World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about ASA/USA Softball, please visit http://www.asausasoftball.com/.
Katie Willis I Communications Coordinator
Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball
2801 NE 50th Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73111
405-425-3425 (O)
Visit Us Online: ASAUSASoftball.com
It’s really encouraging to see an improved effort to find talent. However it is still an unfortunate reality that I personally know ballplayers who can hit top pitching well enough to get a solid look but may never play in this tournament.
SATitans- the staff is always eager to hear about and track talented players. Drop anyone on the staff a line about players to look at anytime.
Gregg Leather
Assistant Coach US Men’s Team
NYSoftball@aol.com