NCSSA Picture

Recent News Turlock schedule posted.

Oakdale results posted.

Flyer for new October tournament in Merced posted.

A new Critique Form is available.

Upcoming Tournaments The July 25, 26 tournament in Carson City has not been cancelled. Repeat, NOT BEEN CANCELLED. Some confusion was created when the June tournament was moved from Carson City to Oakdale.

The annual NCSSA tournament in August still has openings. The 50 and 55 year olds will be playing only on Saturday and Sunday the 22nd and 23rd -- no Friday play. The more mature teams will be playing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Lincoln Hills Results Marsh An invitational tournament was held last weekend in Lincoln Hills. The initial results are in. On Saturday, the snack bar sold 50 more hot dogs than had ever been sold in a single day at any of their previously held tournaments.

A great deal of that can be attributed to Jerry Marsh of the California Olden Bears. As pictured here, Jerry had spent the weekend before warming up for Lincoln Hills at the tournament in Redwood City.

Something must be said for hot dogs as energy food as "da Bears" went 3-2 with Jerry pitching the three games that they won!

This message will self destruct in 71,079 seconds.
Message from Gary Tryhorn Message from the President
Regarding Parity

There has been some confusion relating to the spotting of runs within a bracket in our NCSSA softball tournaments. The reason for spotting runs is simple. It is to balance a bracket to ensure all teams a better chance to compete on an equal basis.

From week to week we do not know which teams will be entering a given tournament. With the help of the voting membership at our General meeting in December, we developed a set of rules that will help to equalize a bracket. Some of these rules are: the one-up homerun, the 5 run per inning, our roster rules, and the spotting of runs. When a tournament director accumulates the teams that will be competing in his tournament, he will then contact the Primary Rep for his district, and discuss which teams have entered. They will then determine how best to break them up into equal brackets. We have a ranking system that helps determine which teams are better than others, but not how much better. They will also review tournaments held since the last rankings. Once the brackets are decided they will check for disparity in ability within a bracket. If there is disparity teams will either give up runs or receive runs to further equalize the bracket. This is not a slipshod effort. The Board of Directors and the Tournament Directors are keenly aware of the problems that develop when this equalizer is used inappropriately. It should be used only when there is no other way to equalize a bracket.

The Board has researched the idea of having a set standards of when to use this equalizer, but up to now prefer to leave it in the hands of the Tournament Director and Primary Rep. Input from the membership is welcome and all ideas are presented at our Board meetings. Many of the rules and standards we use in NCSSA are a direct result of our membership’s ideas and suggestions.

Gary Tryhorn
President, NCSSA
2009 NCSSA Rules The NCSSA rules are based on the Senior Softball USA rules which are available on their website or here

The major points in the new rules are:
  • No more run thru at 2nd & 3rd bases.
  • Players can only be on ONE roster.(75+only exception)
  • Continuation games in 5 team bracket eliminated
  • We did not adopt the SS-USA pitcher protection rule
  • The home run equalizer rule is no longer an equalizer in the bottom of the last inning. The home team is now allowed to go one up in the bottom of the last inning even though the visitors may not have a chance to equalize.