ASA national tourney comes to Moline

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By Shannon Heaton | Saturday, July 26, 2008 6:19 PM CDT | () comments

ASA softball has been a part of Alli Rivera’s life, been in her blood, for the better part of eight years.

Travel to a national tournament always has been the reward for Rivera, and her teammates, for a long spring and summer season. Always, though, it’s been somewhere else.

“Everyone’s getting ready for college. There’s so much stress on us,” Rivera said, alluding to her own plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she’ll play the infield for the Phoenix.

This year, though, Rivera and many of her Xtreme Havoc teammates won’t have to simultaneously prepare for travel to a national tournament and for college.

Instead, the national tournament is (almost) in Rivera’s backyard, as the 18-and-under ASA national tournament kicks off today with opening ceremonies at the i wireless Center in Moline.

Pool play begins Monday, continues on Tuesday, with double-elimination bracket play starting Wednesday and continuing until a national champion is crowned sometime Sunday afternoon. A field of 120 teams will contend for that crown, with last year’s national champion, the Artesia Punishers, hoping to defend their title.

“They’re just starting to (Saturday),” tournament director and Moline Parks and Recreation superintendent Milt Hand said, referring to the influx of several thousand softball players and their families for the upcoming week ahead.

“The rest will be in today. We have 70 (college) coaches here, they’re still looking at recruiting players out of this group. Younger players who came here before, they were looking for entertainment. These players are here to showcase themselves and their skills.”

For her own part, Rivera is excited to wrap up her ASA career on the same set of diamonds that helped her grow up.

“It’s going to be a lot different. A couple (of her teammates) can come back and still play, but I’ll be too old. Realistically, it’s my last tournament of ASA,” Rivera said.

“(Playing here) will be amazing. Last year, we went to Texas and the only ones who went were my mom, my grandpa and my brother. It’ll be nice to have them all come and watch. We don’t have to worry about hotel rooms, we won’t have to pay for gas. And I love sleeping in my own bed.”

Two teams that were here for the 12-and-under national tournament four years ago are back for this year’s tournament — the Arizona Hotshots and Tampa Mustangs.

“We’ve got representatives from just about every state, particularly from the East Coast, and we feel pretty good about that,” Hand said. “I think (word of mouth from teams competing in prior tournaments) that’s definitely helped us.”

Rivera knows there’ll be more eyes on her, her teammates and her fellow local ASA competitors this week.

“It would be embarrassing if we lost our first game. There’s bigger pressure on us to do well,” Rivera said. “I think all of the Quad-City teams are good. I think we’ll do really good. When we play ball against better teams, I think that gets us more pumped up. I think we’ll have a pretty good shot of going far.”

Rivera isn’t the only one pumped up for the week. After waiting and preparing for the better part of 18 months for this year’s event — with some preparations happening literally on the fly due to last week’s weather — Hand is feeling anxious, too, in a good way.

“I just told my wife, ‘You know what, I’m ready for the first pitch right now,’ ” Hand said. “We’re ready to go.”

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.