EVENT DETAILs

July 1st: Opening Ceremonies

July 2nd: Pool play begins

July 3rd: Pool play concludes

July 4th: Bracket play begins

July 5th: Bracket play continues

July 6th: Bracket play / Championship Day

July 7th: Will only be used for a rain day.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT & SCHEDULE INFORMATION
This event will feature a 5 game format, three pool games followed by double elimination. The teams will play a combination of 3 pool games on Tues & Wed. Example: 1 pool game on Tues & 2 on Wed or 2 pool games on Tues & 1 on Wed. Teams will not play 3 pool games in one day, even if requested to do so. The pool play schedule will try and be released two weeks prior to the event. Pool play results will seed teams in bracket play. **No special requests for pool game times will be granted.

VENUES
Games will be played at Drakes Creek and Veterans Park in Hendersonville, TN.

TOURNAMENT THEME                                                                                                                                                         Country Music & USA

GIFT EXCHANGE INFORMATION
Teams are permitted to participate in the gift exchange, but are not obligated to do so. It’s each teams responsibility to reach out to another team and see if they would like to exchange. This is not mandatory.

TOURNAMENT RULES INFORMATION
All playing rules shall be governed by the official USSSA Fastpitch Softball Rule Book and national by-laws. Note that the rulebook online at www.usssa.com will always supersede the latest printed version if a discrepancy exists.

*Teams will be seeded into bracket play based on pool play results.
*Game balls will be furnished by the tournament
*Teams will flip for home team in pool play and the higher seed will be home team in bracket play. In the championship game if the higher seed is in the losers bracket, then there will be a flip to determine home team.
*Protest fee is $200 cash and is refundable if upheld by the tournament director or UIC. All protests must be made prior to the next pitch.

ROSTER/GUEST PLAYERS
All teams must have their rosters completed online by logging into your USSSA account, clicking your team name and then clicking on “Manage My Players”. Teams can pick up Guest Players and this needs to be done online by logging into your USSSA account and clicking on “Manage Guest Players”. If you are not sure how to do this and are an out of state team, you will need to contact your state director. Teams are allowed to pick up guest players.

QUALIFYING INFORMATION
Teams must qualify for this event. Click HERE to view the qualifying process.

ENTRY INFORMATION
To guarantee your team a spot in this event, your team must complete the online registration process and pay the entry fee. Simply registering for the event does not guarantee you a spot in the event.

INSURANCE/BIRTH CERTIFICATES
A copy of your insurance will need to be emailed to us. Your birth certificates need to be in your possession at all times in case another team protests the age of one of your players.

HOTEL INFORMATION
This is NOT a stay to play event. However, we have partnered with Expedia and they have a wide range of hotels already listed at very low rates. We ask that teams stay at one of the hotels listed on Expedia as these are the preferred tournament hotels and they help us out by giving us comp rooms for our umpires who are traveling from out of town to work at this event. The more teams that stay at the preferred hotels the more comp rooms we receive. If teams reach out to the hotels themselves and try to get comp rooms for their teams, there will be a $200 fee put in place.

T-SHIRTS
Will be presold and will be sold at opening ceremonies and at the event each day. We encourage teams to order them when we do the presale as we have sold out in the last few National Championships we have hosted.

NO TOLERANCE POLICY
Music City Sports and USSSA have in place a no tolerance policy for any coach, parent, player or fan that physically or verbally abuses a staff member, director, umpire or park official. Anyone abusing this policy will be asked to leave the park for the day and possibly the week depending on the severity of their actions.

REFUND POLICY
*NO entry fee refunds will be issued if a team drops once a division becomes full or if a team drops out one month prior to the event or if a team drops out once the schedule has been posted (For any reason).
*A 90% entry fee & 100% gate fee will be issued to teams that don’t play any games because of weather related issues.
*A 25% entry fee refund will be given to teams starting less than ½ of its scheduled games.
*No entry fee refund will be given to teams starting ½ or more of its scheduled games.
*No gate fee refund will be given if one game or more is played.

The park will open at 9:30AM CST for the opening day festivities. There will be skills competition games, music, food trucks, merchandise, vendors and more. Pin trading can be done anytime during the day

SKILLS COMPETITION / START TIME: 9:30AM-1:30PM
LOCATION: Drakes Creek Park
Home Run hitting, running and around the horn contest will be offered.
**NOTE: Winners of the skills competitions will be announced after the parade of teams has concluded.

HOMERUN FINAL / START TIME: 2:00PM.
LOCATION: Drakes Creek Park
The top players from each age division will compete in the homerun hitting finals.

COACHES MEETING / START TIME: 3:30PM.
This is a mandatory coaches meeting. We will go over rules and coaches will sign their rosters.

PARADE OF TEAMS
Teams start lining up at 4:30PM
Parade of teams begins at 5:00PM
LOCATION: Hendersonville HS Football Field
This is where the parade of teams will take place. Teams will walk around the track of the football field and have their team names called out and posted across video boards. Teams can also pin trade during this time as well. Teams can wear costumes, uniforms, hats. This is just a fun time for the teams and for them to get recognized. The parade of teams generally takes about 90 minutes to complete.