6/19: Tournament Rating - Capital City Classic (6/11-6/12)

bngsafusion.org will rate all non BNGSA tournaments this year to give the softball community an opportunity to get an unbiased opinion on tournaments we are a part of.  Should of started this years ago but never too late.  We may catch up on the next rainy day because I have a memory like a steel trap when it comes to these things.

Captial City Classic - June 11-12 - Land of Lincoln Junior Olympic Softball Complex - Springfield, IL

How we did: Finished 4th out of 16 teams

Format:  Sixteen 18U teams -- 6 game guarantee.  Two pool play games.  Winner plays Winner, Losers play Losers to determine 1-4 seeds from every pool.  Bracket play is a guaranteed 4 games.  Medals to 4th place and better.  Final Results

Format Rating:  A

Competition:  Good mix of Illinois Teams from north, central and south.  Team Oak Stars, The Hitting Center,  Metamora,  Midwest Freedom all look pretty good early on.  Oly Fire and East Peoria will get things together.

Competition Rating: B
Tournament Facility: 
Good:  7 diamonds with adequate parking and warm up areas.  Field crews lined fields on a regular basis.  Dugouts close to home plate.  Adequate and reasonable concessions.  Had t-shirt vendor making shirts on demand.
Needs improvement:  Lack of fence height allows foul balls to go all over the place. Need more bathrooms for females! Would like the see outfield fences be a consistent distance on all fields.  Fields are nice if they are moist.  Always get too dusty when really dry.

Facility Rating: B

Tournament Administration: 
Good:  Utilized a hired, non biased tournament director.  Professional check-in.  Required rosters and ASA coaching credentials.  E-mail of pool assignments received on June 2 for June 11-12 tournament.  All teams showed up for our age division.  Complex website is adequate with directions and final standings were posted a few days after the end of the tourney.  Rainout hotline available and was updated on a timely basis when there was rain on Friday night.  Games, for the most part, were on time. 
Needs Improvement:  Need bigger pool play standings and tournament brackets.  Would like to see scorecards utilized for coaches to turn in game scores.

Tournament Administration Rating: A-

Umpires:  Always shaky ground here but umpiring is part of the entire experience. As an experienced, registered ASA umpire, there are certain core things I expect. 
Good: Umpires were in uniform and did ASA bat and helmet checks before the game.  Pre-game manager conferences did a good job covering ground rules and expectations. 
Needs Improvement:  No Umpire in Chief at facility.  Some need to work on timing. Too many out-safes and calls made before the play was over.  Much of this was due to bad positioning.  Not very approachable to have a discussion in a professional manner.

Umpire Rating:  C

Overall Rating:  B 

Liked format and the Friday rains kept the fields from becoming a dust bowl.  Springfield has really improved the last couple of years and especially since our 12U years.  Keep up the good work.  Parents, post comments if you have anything to add.