The 12th annual Bad Girls Invitational is set for this weekend.
By: Tim Falls
John Scheese is really hoping the weatherman doesn’t curse when giving his report for this weekend.
"We do not say the ‘R’ word," said Scheese, the tournament director of the Hopewell Valley Baseball/Softball Association’s 12th annual Bad Girl Invitational Softball Tournament. "It’s a four letter word and it’s taboo."
With 88 softball teams gathering to compete in five age groups in games spread across Hopewell, Ewing and Mercer County Park this weekend, Scheese has changed one commonly used word that rhymes with ‘main’ and refers to a certain kind of weather into a curse.
Still after 12 years, not much can disrupt the tournament and Scheese says that is because of the efforts of the Hopewell parent volunteers.
"It’s the Hopewell parents that make this click," said Scheese. "All the parents volunteer. Even though their own kids are playing, they are all working."
Scheese described numerous duties, often arduous or tedious, that the parents perform while their daughters play softball.
"We always hear how this tournament is so well run," said Scheese, "and that’s because of the Hopewell parents."
The work pays off.
The Bad Girl tournament is a fundraiser for the HVBSA with a goal of $10,000 in profit.
The registration fees teams pay to play in the tournament help raise a significant part of the funds. The merchandising, specifically the tee-shirt sales, is also a money-maker for the HVBSA.
"Parents run right to the tee-shirts," said Scheese. "They are a big seller. I’ve seen them all over the softball community. The tee-shirts are the core of our merchandise."
When the tournament began 12 years ago a few players helped design the tee-shirts, but now Aztec Graphics Design developed the tee-shirts. Aztec Graphics sponsors a few HVBSA teams.
A lot has changed over the dozen years since the Bad Girls tournament began.
"It started out with two age groups of 12 teams each," said Scheese. "Now it has five age groups with 88 teams. We’re not going for more than that, it’s as much as we can handle."
Scheese, Kurt Volhebst and Art Cramp helped create the Bad Girls Tournament.
"We were the three who got it started," said Scheese. "Our daughters grew up and (Volhebst and Cramp) moved on. I just kind of hung on with it because I like softball."
The title of tournament director comes with a lot of responsibility and takes a lot of management long before the teams even arrive so that things run smoothly when they do..
"It’s 12 months a year," said Scheese. "It’s the networking going on behind the scenes."
While the tournament takes place over a weekend, preparation takes a lot more time. The invitations have to go out, fields have to be reserved and a large staff of volunteer parents must be assigned various tasks.
Scheese described the contributions of many people, like softball chairperson Alan Frank, but perhaps the contribution he is the most thankful of is that of Karen Frank, who runs the highly organized and informative league Web site (www.hvbsa.org).
"These days it’s all pretty easy," said Scheese describing the process of creating a schedule for the tournament. "Karen made a program where all you need to get is the scores from each game and you plug it all into the spreadsheet and push a button. In the old days, we had to do it all by hand. We had to do the math by hand, do the graphs by and call all the coaches. God forbid you made a mistake and had to start it all over at midnight."
The program and the Web site help keep coaches and parents informed of their games in the tournament.
After the first day of play Saturday, the standings are tallied up and the teams are divided into an ‘A’ and ‘B’ division of eight teams each. That means the top-ranked team won’t be matched up against the lowest-ranked team. This was done to create more competitive games.
"We wanted to make it fun," said Scheese, who added that winners from both divisions receive trophies.
The finals are scheduled to be played at 2:45 p.m. on Sunday at the various fields used by the tournament. The HVBSA use their own league fields, the Ewing softball fields and the fields at Mercer County Park.
Among the 88 teams from New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania, will be four local Hopewell teams. The Hopewell Renegades will be represented in every age group but 18-U.
The 10-U Hopewell teams opens its tournament with a 10:15 a.m. game against the Montgomery Mavericks on Saturday at Quarry Field.
The Renegades 10-U team also has a 1:45 p.m. game against the Warrington Blue Thunder that afternoon at Hopewell Elementary.
The 10-U’s cap their action on the opening day with a 5:15 game against the Hilltop Hurricanes back at Quarry Field.
The Hopewell Renegades 12-U team has a 10:15 a.m. game against the NJ MadDawgs at Hansen field, then a 1:45 p.m. game against the Deep Run Lady Lightning followed by a 5:15 p.m. game against the Washington Township Comets.
The Hopewell Renegades 14-U team opens with a 10:15 a.m. game against the Deep Run Lady Lightning at Ewing’s Armstrong field, then has a 1:45 p.m game against the Lionville Lightning and finish the day with a 5:15 p.m. game against the NJ MadDawgs.
The Hopewell Renegades 16-U Team opens with a 10:15 a.m. game against Lower Mac at Mercer County Park field six, then has the Deep Run Lady Lightning at 1:45 p.m. and faces off against Havertown in the third game of the day at 5:15 p.m..
After the scores are reported the divisions are assigned and the teams return for the second day of action, including the championship games.
It’s quite the large endeavor, but the HVBSA has been successful in hosting the tournament in the past and should be again this year as long as it doesn’t (CENSORED).