Wednesday, June 26, 2013–One of the top fastpitch tournaments of the summer – the Team New Jersey Summer Classic — kicks off today and runs through Saturday in Edison and Bridgewater, N.J.

There will be 68 teams competing from 18 states and span the nation from California to Rhode Island (see Roster of Teams below).

The event is a five game minimum on Wednesday and Thursday with single elimination starting Friday and the championship game taking place Saturday at 2:30 pm EST.

We recently caught up with Tournament Director Jim Barsalona to get his spin on this year’s event, the 12^th year of the Classic.

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StudentSportsSoftball.com: The first thing you notice when looking at the roster of teams is you have a lot of states represented.  How do you go about picking who’ll make the event?
Jim Barsalona: We do our homework in looking at the strength of the teams as well as try to bring teams from a broad geographical representation.  We think we did that with teams from the West, Midwest, Southwest, Southeast and East. It makes for a more diverse tournament and brings in college coaches from all areas.

 

SS.com: Your tournament has always been popular to the point of turning away teams…
JB: True, in the earlier years when we had 33 teams we once turned away 170 teams.  This year I think it was about 92.

 

SS.com: How many college coaches do you expect this year?
JB: Typically we’ll have 145-170 schools… they represent the areas the club teams are from so it’s pretty diverse.

 

SS.com: It’s also interesting that you have a mix of teams from different organizations…
JB: Yes, we have strong ASA teams and strong PGF teams.  I’m happy that we’re shooting for the best programs no matter what organization they play for.

 

SS.com: This is also a different format than before, correct?
JB: We’ve gotten away from the showcase and are going for championship ball this year.  It’s good for the girls who love playing to win. It’s a different element, a championship versus showcase, and the intensity goes up when you’re part of nine athletes playing to win.

The college coaches have told me they’re extremely excited as well as they love to see how girls compete and react when there’s a win or loss on the line.

ROSTER OF TEAMS

CA Team Mizuno Stith
CA Team Mizuno 16U
CA Corona Angels Tyson
CA So Cal Strikkers
CA Team Bownet
CO Colorado Stars Gold Burns
AZ Hotshots Gatti
AZ Lil Saints
AZ Killer Bees
AL Birmingham Thunderbolts Shea
AL Birmingham Thunderbolts 16U
GA Atlanta Vipers Gold
GA Impact Gold Pauly
GA Impact Medlam
FL Gainesville Gold Dunn
FL Lady Gators Gold Flannery
FL Central Florida Stingrays
NC Carolina Cardinals McHone
NC Lady Lightning Team Miken Corn
NC Lady Lightning 16U
NC Challengers Renzi
OK Tulsa Shootout
SC Carolina Elite Fusetti Genovese
SC Carolina Elite Norton Genovese
NJ Jersey Inferno Gold Meister
NJ Jersey Inferno Elite
NJ Intensity Premier KOD
NJ Jersey Nightmare Gold Wheeler
RI Rhode Island Thunder Lotti
RI Rhode Island Thunder Elite
NM New Mexico Sundancers Gold
NM New Mexico Sundancers 16U
NY Conklin Raiders Gold Cook
NY Team Long Island Galati
NY Frozen Ropes Force Gold
NY Team Long Island Angel
NY Hudson Valley Hurricanes
VA Vienna Stars Gold Rollins
VA Legends Gold Paul
VA Shamrocks Gold Metcalf
CA California Bears Morley
PA Chaos Gold Spina
PA Pennsbury Gems Gold
PA Newtown Rock Gold Garvey
PA Lower South Liberty Gold
PA Krunch Gold Mumma
PA Pittsburg Power Gold
PA Chaos Showcase Dudley
MD Severna Park Hornets
MD Magic/Wagner’s
VA Shamrocks Giaquinto
VA Vienna Stars Hannigan
VA Glory Gold Suzy
CT Charmers Gold
CT The Wicked
NJ Jersey Nightmare Black
NJ Morris County Belles Gold
NJ Morris County Belles Elite
NJ East Coast Elite
NJ Cheetahs Gold
NJ West Jersey Witches Elite
NJ Jersey Flames Gold
NJ Venom
NJ Jersey Outlaws Gold Scott
NJ Witches Gold
NJ Jersey Intensity Rodriguez
NJ Mystics Gold Jackson
NJ New Jersey Gators