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Online now: 1 member: dillydilly; 80 anonymousDiscussion: Bull Head City Tournament
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| March 14, 2013 KenKoch 3 posts | Bull Head City Tournament Just returned from the Bull Head Tournament and it was the worst tournament experience in my career. Even after the city had received enough entries to fill all available playing fields, they continued to honor additional entries. The solution.... They decided to have their oldest group of 10 teams play most of their games on their Little League Field.... 220 ft fences! And then they violated their own preprinted home run rule (4 per game, then outs) by calling ALL out of park hits AN OUT!!! Even at our advanced age, it was very difficult to purposely swing soft as to not hit home runs. We played 2 games on a regulation field (went 1 & 1)and scored 44 runs, an average of 22 per game, and we played 4 games on the LL field and could only average 10 runs per game and still won 2 of the 4. So unless your team would enjoy taking half swings, I would advise any team over 70 to avoid this imitation of a (softball) tournament. Although I have heard that a city official has agreed to loan out his large back yard for a wiffle ball diamond if needed. PS 10 of our team members came from MN just for this farce of a tournament. KK of MN |
| March 14, 2013 SSUSA Staff 3483 posts | We're reasonably sure that event was run by the Bullhead City Parks & Rec. Dept., and not affiliated with any Sr. Softball Association or independent Tourney Director. It may be more productive for you to address your concerns directly with the Bullhead City folks rather than here. Their publicly disclosed contact information is: Contact: Ryan Fruhwirth • Email: rfruhwirth@bullheadcity.com • Phone: (928) 763-9400 x306 |
| March 14, 2013 KenKoch 3 posts | I didn't mean to infer that SSUSA had anything to do with this tournament. I just know that many players that participated in the tournament are also members of ssusa and I wanted to make them aware of a potential problem they could encounter in the future if they enter this event. Ken |
| March 14, 2013 SSUSA Staff 3483 posts | That's fine, we took no offense. However, if you have an interest in seeing improvement in the tournament's future, it would make some sense that you let them know where you believe they may have been deficient. It's unlikely they read this Message Board with any great frequency! |
| March 14, 2013 KenKoch 3 posts | Believe me, we made it very clear to them as to how unhappy we were. They basically said that the decisions were already made and would not be changed! So my message is intended to make potential SSUSA teams aware of the situation so they don't find out importanmt changes 2 days before the tournament next year. If these messages find their way back to BH City, then that is just a bonus. |
| March 14, 2013 Omar Khayyam 1357 posts | KenKoch, why not write a formal complaint letter to the city (the head of Parks and Rec would be a good start, not just the TD) with the conditions you state above, and then circulate it by email or postal mail, and get many of the other team managers to sign on. Would be more effective. SSUSA is right—very unlikely a parks and rec guy reads this Message Board. |
| March 14, 2013 d45 160 posts | Ken, our team has gone to Bullhead/Laughlin for the last five years in a row and find the tournament to be a time of getting in reps and a sort of "spring training," if you will. I live in an area where you can't get out to practice because of the inclimate weather. The weather was absolutely beautiful this year in Bullhead/Laughlin. Our team did not play on the little league fields, so I definitely would understand your frustration. I think what has happened is the tournament is growing so rapidly every year that they are having to utiize every possible facility in Bullhead City. In my opinion, they could get all the teams on the two complexes if they would play back to back games, and later into the day, however, a better solution would be to play in Kingman like we did several years back, but I think Bullhead City is trying to keep the revenue pretty much right there in their city and the rec department. Our team goes there for one reason, to get ready for the Spring Worlds in Mesquite two weeks later. We also like the atmosphere of the area, and the beautiful warm weather that the area has. We accomplished the goal of why we went, and feel we are ready for Mesquite. I agree with SSUSA, write Ryan, tell him your frustrations and knowing Ryan like I do, he will discuss this with the City of Bullhead City rec dept. and take your complaints seriously. I have found him to be very professional to deal with. Lastly, it is a non-sanctioned tournament, so it really doesn't count for anything other than getting in "softball shape" and being ready for all of the SSUSA sanctioned tournaments. Everyone, win or lose, gets the same nice t-shirt, nothing more, nothing less. DuWayne Pillard |
