The PGF Nationals began its two-week run this morning as 430 club coaches from across the country--and even as far away as Guam--showed up at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California to enjoy an introductory breakfast, receive instructions on checking in and beginning pool play later in the day and, ultimately, to learn where they would be placed in the bracket draw for next week's action in the PGF Nationals at the 18U, 12U and 10U divisions.

While an overflow crowd enjoyed a catered breakfast, PGF President and CEO Dan Hay covered the basics of the week's activities and also introduced the three tenets of what PGF is launching as its new "Loyalty Program" built for the audience he was addressing:

1. the Huntington Beach, California-based company has begun offering equipment sales for PGF-affiliated teams through a retail store and fulfillment branch the company is hosting in its new-expanded headquarters just a mile or two from the championship fields at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex.  Teams, explained Hay, have the option to go through PGF to receive discounted apparel and other products.

2. Hay also announced an exclusive recruiting service partnership with the Chicago-based National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) which includes a free profile for every softball player who registers with PGF and a $200 discount to those wishing to upgrade to a premium package that comes with a lifetime service agreement.

3. Hay also introduced legendary UCLA player and coach Sue Enquist and announced a pending partnership with her One Softball company which will come online as OneSoftball.com in October functioning as a "portal to disseminate educational content from trusted sources to build character and technical development targeting coaches through softball."

The head of PGF then covered the week's events on and off the field, noting that pool play would start later Saturday and ends Sunday with bracket games starting for some teams on Monday but ending by 2 pm PST so "all players, coaches and teams can attend the Opening Ceremonies which will include guest speakers including Jennie Finch."

Also highlighted is an event that will be the culmination of the first week of play, the PGF All-American Game, which will feature dozens of the best 2016 grads in the country.

The opposing teams will also be coached by a "Who's Who" of the biggest names in softball: the West team will be led by Jennie Finch, Crystl Bustos and Toni Mascarenas while the East staff includes Hall of Famer Suzy Brazney, Garland Cooper, and Jennie Ritter.

The All-Star Game and the 18U Premier Game will be shown live on ESPNU; the 18U Platinum, 12U and 10U title games will be streamed live on FloSoftball.com.

After about an hour after the breakfast started, the age divisions were separated--18U Premier, 18U Platinum, 12U and 10U--to witness the team bracket draws in each age division.

As always happens, the luck of the draw favored some teams and made the journey to the championship games on Friday a bit tougher for others.

One favorite in the 18U Premier division, for example, would be the So Cal A's coached by Bruce Richardson, but the winners of the first four PGF National Championships at that age level could end up going through an extremely tough gauntlet of teams that might include (based on who wins) the Tampa Mustangs-TJ squad that won PGF 16U Premier Nationals last year, the Beverly Bandits, Washington Ladyhawks, PA Chaos, Jersey Intensity, NW Bullets, Corona Angels, Georgia Impact-Lewis and/or the Birmingham Thunderbolts-Shea team--all of whom could end up making it to the title game themselves.

Then again, as Gary Haning, longtime OC Batbuster head coach, co-founder of PGF and the head of scheduling points out, it rarely goes according to how it looks on paper.

"The thing that happens so often," Haning explains, "is that a team that should win ends up losing and it throws everything up in the air. It becomes really difficult to predict how things will go, but the upper part of the B Bracket in 18U Premier is perhaps the toughest in that age group."

One headline matchup early in the 18U Premier division features two of the pre-eminent programs in Southern California: the OC Batbusters-Stith team that won the last two national titles versus the So Cal Choppers-Fausett squad that had a strong fall and spring and is also a prohibitive favorite going in.

Haning emphasizes it ultimately ends up that the champions prove themselves worthy no matter who they face.

"Tournament brackets are often deceiving," he concludes, "as everyone always hopes for an easy draw, but teams that win have to go through everyone in their path and they'll have to beat quality competition along the way."

And nowhere is that more true than at the PGF Nationals taking place in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Irvine, California over the next two weeks.

*** Check out the PGF Nationals website to see all the 18U, 12U and 10U bracket match-ups