After opening the year at the Tournament of Champions in February, the Joseph team in June competed in the Akron/Barberton Qualifier Tournament. Three other AAA rated teams competed and the Joseph team prevailed against all three, winning the tournament.
Then in July, the Joseph team competed in another qualifier tournament in Columbus, OH. Once again, no major or major+ teams attended, so we competed against several AAA teams. Many of the AAA teams refused to play against Joseph or any major+ team. Therefore, the Joseph team was excluded from the elimination bracket on the 2nd and 3rd days of the tournament. The team played four "round robin" games and went 3-1. Joseph Chevrolet Major+ Team was awarded the "Major+" championship trophy by default.
Because of the team rating (major+), we appealed to the director of International Sr. Softball Assn. He granted our request to be "de-rated" to major status for the ISSA tournaments this year. Therefore, the team decided to attend two ISSA tournaments, one in Manassas, one in Virginia Beach later this year. The Manassas tournament is Aug. 15-17 and it's a World Championship Tournament with all the best teams in the USA, or at least eastern USA.
The Joseph team will continue the appeal process, asking to be de-rated from major+ back to "major" status where the team belongs. In the meantime, we will not be attending SS-USA sanctioned tournaments as a protest against the team rating process, essentially sponsored by SS-USA. The only exception to this will be the Winter National Tournament in Ft. Myers, FL in November, where the current Joseph team played and won its first national championship in 2005. This has become a traditional, season ending tournament for Joseph and we'll be there.
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