HS & Club Softball

The National 18U Club Champions Are…. Wait there are Several

Fastpitch News

The summer softball season is coming to an end. That means we have our national champion right?

Well not exactly. There are numerous national championships ran by a variety of national organizations. For the sake of this article we will focus on the 18U division. There were championships held by ASA, USSSA, Triple Crown and PGF.

ASA has three major championships for the 18U Division; ASA A 18U, ASA 18U Gold and ASA 18U JO Cup. The top tournament would be the JO Cup. This event has now surpassed the ASA 18U Gold championship, which was once the best event in the country. The JO Cup is an invitation only event, teams are considered based on rankings and it’s limited to 32 teams.

USSSA launched a new event this year called the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championships. Not the shortest name for an event, but it drew some of the best teams in the country. It was an impressive inaugural tournament. This tournament uses a qualifying process and is limited to 64 teams.

Triple Crown holds the Triple Crown USA Nationals. The event always draws some of the top clubs and is very competitive. This event has an application process and teams are invited as well.

PGF has two divisions, Platinum and Premier. Premier is the top tier for PGF. Teams are invited, receive auto bids based on past performance and they can qualify through regional qualifying events.

These are the four main events. Are you confused yet? Well we could list about another 50 events that state “Nationals” somewhere in their title, but for now we want to keep it simple. The events we have stated are considered the top tournaments with the top teams. So which one is better? Well we are sure each event would make the case as to why theirs is, but all in all they seem to be on a rather even playing field as it relates to the level of competition.

Having one true national championship would be ideal, but softball is no different than any other sport. Multiple championships by multiple competing organizations are more the norm than the exception these days. Later this year we plan on taking an in-depth look at the landscape of youth softball in this country in attempt to help parents and fans better understand the current system.

This is just a sample of how confusing it can be.

2016 18U National Champions

  • USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Champion: OC Batbusters – Stith (Full Results)
  • Triple Crown USA National Champion: Texas Blaze Gold – Slimp (Full Results)
  • ASA JO Cup Champion: EC Bullets Gold – Schnute (Full Results)
  • PGF 18U Premier Champion: Firecrackers – Rico (Full Results)

Although it would be cost prohibitive, a four team round robin series would be great to settle a single national champion.

Congratulations to the champions and all those who competed across the country.

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