Five Las Vegas teams set to battle for USA/ASA 18U national title
For four seasons, Jeff Kennedy prepared for long trips to take a softball team to a national tournament.
Kennedy and his Lil Rebels-Jeff players won’t have near as far to travel this time.
The team will begin play Monday in the 18U A USA/ASA National Championships tournament at Majestic Park. A field of 140 teams, including five from Las Vegas, will participate in the tournament, which concludes Sunday. Nearly every state is represented in the field.
“The last four years, we’ve been on the road,” said Kennedy, who has taken teams to national tournaments in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Texas. “Being on our home turf and playing in the heat here will be an advantage. A lot of teams will be dropping in this heat. They’re just not used to it.”
Kennedy’s squad will be joined by Las Vegas Blast, Lil Rebels-White, Las Vegas Rage-Kelly and Las Vegas Rage-Silver in a field that will showcase some of the best softball players, ages 18 and under, in the country.
“We’re getting the best of the best here,” Kennedy said. “It’s like the NCAA tournament. It’s a real step up.”
Kennedy’s team includes seven area high school graduates, most of whom are expected to play college softball.
Included in that list are Sierra Vista graduate Tayler Aleman, a UNLV signee, Durango graduate D.J. Richardson (San Diego), Silverado alum Mikayla Thielges (Cal State Northridge), Shadow Ridge grad Britney Cato (Winston Salem State), Spring Valley graduate Jasmine Wilson (Mississippi Valley State) and Arbor View alum Chelsea Venable (Feather River Community College).
Richardson missed much of her senior season at Durango after injuring her shoulder, but was recently cleared to play.
“We like our chances,” Kennedy said. “We feel like we can have some success.”
The 18U nationals in softball are akin to the recently-completed AAU basketball tournaments. Each team is an all-star squad, made up of some of the best players in their area.
“It’s the highest level of play in ASA, the highest level of nationals,” said tournament director Sally Commerford, who was the driving force in bringing the tournament to Las Vegas and hosted the 10U and 12U nationals last year.
Commerford outbid representatives from 13 other cities in 2006 to bring the tournament here.
“This is huge,” Commerford said. “You really have to campaign to get it. It’s almost like a presidential election.”
How competitive is it? Las Vegas won’t even be permitted to bid on the tournament again for seven years.
“This is probably the only chance people here will get to see softball at this level,” Commerford said. “Because we’re hosting, we get more teams in the field. Nevada normally gets only one berth. Our association is too small to get a fill-in berth. We’ll never get five teams in again. It’ll never happen.”
Each team will play two pool games Monday and Tuesday with double-elimination bracket play starting Wednesday. Games begin at 8 a.m. each day.
