Our late State Commissioner, ET Colvin, envied what we have on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He would always say we could 20 teams at the drop of a hat. I had started doing a District Tournament.. but he said it need a more significant name. That’s when the Gulf Coast Championships were created and first held in 2011. This represents the crowning of the best teams on the coast.
This year has been one for the record books. Every tournament has been busting at the seems. More leagues and teams participating in interleague play. More collaboration on umpiring. And more thoughtfulness on the success of softball as a community and not so much our own interests. It’s been an amazing year on so many levels.
We have 53 teams participating in this year’s Gulf Coast Championships. Due to the number of teams in 8U and 10U, we are going to do something different. Those two age groups are split into a Gold and Silver brackets. This will give more teams a chance to compete for a Championship. It also keeps these endless loser’s brackets that Rec teams aren’t built to endure. Classification and Seeding used the All-Star Points Tracker in 8U and 10U. It’s not as clean as separating the top and bottom halves of points. I had to add a Power Rating which calculates the points/event. It was used to classify teams into Gold and Silver. Seeding in all age divisions used the Points Ranking. So the teams that played more tournaments are rewarded with seeding.
The attached Tournament Information packet should have every thing you need.. brackets, rules, roster form. Field letters beginning with S are on the softball side.. Field letters beginning with B are on the baseball side. I’ll get the Live Bracket up this afternoon or tomorrow. Here’s the link where it will be: https://usasoftballsouthms.com/?page_id=6327
Tournament location is the Ocean Springs Sportsplex. The address is Ocean Spring Sportsplex.. 4515 MS-57, Ocean Springs, MS 39564.
Here’s some key information:
1. Entry Fee: The entry fee for Tee Ball and Coach Pitch is $250 and Fast Pitch is $325.
2. Check-In: Someone from each team will need to check-in with me before they play. Entry Fee needs to be paid and the Roster Form turned in. It can be paid with check, cash, CashApp ($tstanley2128) or Venmo (@tstanley2128). If you using Venmo, please add $10 to cover the credit card fees.
3. Rosters: Attached is a Roster Form. For this weekend, I do not need it signed. We just need a list of players that will be participating. First and last names with the birthdate for each player.
4. Birth Certificates & Pictures: You’ll need to have a birth certificate and recent picture for each player. I recommend put each player in a sheet protector where it can be easily retrieved.
5. Playing Rules: Rules for All-Stars are attached. Please familiarize your age division. It will cut down on a lot of arguments. Fast Pitch games will be no new inning after 65 mins. With so many teams and an extremely full schedule, it’s going to be important to keep the games moving. Otherwise, it will be an early morning Sunday finish. Each team needs to leave the dugout as soon as possible. Teams meetings must occur off the field. The next team needs to be ready immediately following the prior game. That means lineups ready when you hit the dugout. There is no warmup on the field either. You never know when a blow out or a forfeit may happen and we get ahead of schedule.
6. ACE Training: The national website for the ACE training crashed earlier this year. The plan is to add it to the new RegisterPlay platform. That hasn’t been complete yet. So for the State Tournament in two weeks.. just enter the head coach’s name. We will have to forego it this season.
This has been one of the most difficult years for weather that I’ve ever experienced. I don’t ever remember two tournaments getting rained out. Well finally.. the forecast looks like a good softball weekend. You never say never on the coast. It should be hot and dry.. have your player hydrate. Watch out for grandparents. Come prepared for anything. And let’s have a great weekend of softball.
Thank you for Playing USA Softball!