The 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic will feature top 18U and 16U organizations nationwide such as the OC Batbusters, Corona Angels, Birmingham Thunderbolts, Tennessee Mojo and dozens more, and will be held on November 15-17^th at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater.

After the Hurricane Milton scare earlier this month—in which there was concern if the deadly storm would potentially impact the softball event location at Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Fla. and its surrounding environs.

However, it was quickly announced with days that the club softball event would take place with no long-term damage to the playing facilities, airports in the proximity, hotels and other housing options or tourist sites such as Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Legoland.

As the Clearwater Fall Classic Event Director Jim Barsalona said when the storm hit about three weeks ago: “We’re good to go for the Clearwater Fall Classic tournament as well as our Orlando-North Fall tournament up at Seminole County the same weekend.”

Last week, Barsalona provided an update:

“Thankfully, the Clearwater area didn’t get quite the devastation that some areas did and everything is ready to go; in fact, the St. Petersburg and Clearwater folks in the travel business asked us to mention that they’re very happy to have all the players, families and teams coming in as they need events like ours to provide revenues to give back to the communities.”

With hotels, restaurants and business areas fully functioning, the long-time event director is excited to focus on the event itself which, quite possibly with the high caliber of teams and talent confirmed to attend, is the Fall’s top travel softball event.

What makes the Clearwater Classis so highly respected?

For one, it is bringing together top teams from both the Alliance and PGF camps—ones that win championships but usually don’t play outside their respective league tie-ins.

For example, the winners of the 2023 Alliance Nationals at 18U—the OC Batbusters led by Mike Stith—will be competing in the six-game format as will other powerhouses typically loyal to Alliance events including Aces Fastpitch, Corona Angels and Iowa Premier.

PGF stalwarts such as the Birmingham Thunderbolts coached by Rocky Thompson and Georgia Impact—including the Kip Taylor-led 18U with the 2025 Line Drive HOT 100 No. 1 overall player, Kendall Wells—will be in town as well.

*** Click HERE to see the complete list of teams playing at the 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic

Line Drive Softball’s Brentt Eads spoke with Event Director Jim Barsalona recently to get the latest… here’s what Jim had to say….

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LINE DRIVE SOFTBALL: There are a lot of selling points to the Clearwater Fall Classic, from location to the quality of talent involved. What do you think has made this event the one top teams want to compete in this time of year?
JIM BARSALONA: I have to say a lot of teams like to go for three or four days of competition, but what do they do in their downtime? In the Clearwater area, there are many things to do including water events and other things for kids to do.

Access is easy as the Tampa airport is 25 minutes from the majority of fields and for many it’s a direct flight. There are more flights to Orlando although that’s about an hour and forty-five minutes away.

LINE DRIVE: The quality of teams this year is, once again, tremendous… how do you continue to get this high level of talent?
JB: We do have an amazing number of quality teams and, each year, I’ve tried to get the best talent I can from that year’s competition. It’s great that we can continue to draw top coaches and teams, heavy hitters such as Rocky (Thompson, Birmingham Thunder), Marty (Tyson, Corona Angels), Mike Stith (OC Batbusters) and Steve Appel (Arizona Rising.”

LINE DRIVE: How about the size of the Clearwater Fall Classic… how big is it now and do you look to expand it more in the future?
JB: We like to keep with the 70-to-72 teams max in the 18U and 16U age divisions and will continue that boutique-approach, even as the as event goes on in the future, because we want to keep the event to just two locations.

College coaches love the access to such great talent and we have to cap it (number of teams) but the anticipation of teams for next year is unbelievable right now—we have club coaches calling and asking if there any spots open this year and if they can get in for next year.

LINE DRIVE: What factors to you look at when considering teams?
JB: We try to work with a diversity of locations including in key areas such as California, Texas, the Midwest and the Northeast as well as being sensitive to the college teams that follow them. For example, a Texas and Texas A&M will want to follow teams in their home state but may also look to follow teams in the area with talent like Bob Turner’s Missouri Top Gun team.

Still, I’ve always tried to represent as many states as I can and those who succeed in top format-like national events. Teams who play PGF, Alliance, Triple Crown—those levels of teams to spread around.

LINE DRIVE: Speaking of teams “crossing over,” to play competition they might not normally see… how do you pull that off?
JB: It’s based on competitive play. I go down the list of top PGF and Alliance teams that are not normally playing each year over the course of a year and work hard to make it so teams that don’t normally play certain teams get that opportunity; in other words, trying to mix it up so they’re playing different teams they haven’t played in their nationals… I spend a lot of time on that.

The key is to have talented teams play each other in competitive games that will draw in college coaches as they play similarly talented competition.

LINE DRIVE: You’ve previously mentioned that you “scout” teams to see who would be competitive… how does that work exactly?
JB: I’m one of those 4:30 am guys who go to websites and social media to see how teams are doing. It gets heavy after Colorado’s tournaments to see who came in at the top in places like Boulder IDT, Triple Crown, Show Me The Money, and, of course, the nationals (Alliance and PGF,). We look at teams who’ve finished 1-through-4 and it’s been good in that 85 percent of the teams I reach out to say they’re interested in coming.

LINE DRIVE: How much turnover is there from year to year, i.e. new teams?
JB: We changed out 18 teams this year, but the 2025 Fall event may have only 8-to-10 spots open at 18U and 16U. In the last three years, we’ve had 70 teams each year but only have had three or four that didn’t come back. Basically, everybody in wants to come back the following year.

LINE DRIVE: Do the coaches, players and their families say why they enjoy the Clearwater event so much?
JB: This is Year 6 of the Clearwater Fall Showcase and the first three years were about setting up the event, creating and continuing strong building blocks. The last two years, though, have been amazing: it’s been absolutely crazy with so many families choosing to come—the parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts all come—to watch outside players and teams compete

LINE DRIVE: In terms of college coaches, you must have a huge number coming to the event, yes?
JB: Last year, we had between 250 to 265 college coaches and there still was a Veteran’s Tournament going on so that split us the participation between Clearwater and that one but this year it’s a week earlier.

As for attendance of college coaches, most programs bring in two—sometimes three—coaches. This year, there aren’t any big events going up against us so it should be even bigger.

Typically, a college will plan coaches at different fields, like LSU having a coach at Fields 1-4 and another at Fields 5-7. One top club coach last year said he passed out his club team fliers to almost 250 coaches and another team’s coaches said they had to go to Staples to get more fliers printed out!

LINE DRIVE: Do committed kids come and get played or do teams try mostly to showcase their uncommitted kids?
JB: Last The big teams don’t hold back, they have their star players participate and colleges want to see how their committed players will do against other top committed kids.

Committed kids are coming in because club coaches want to show off the strength of their team, so, yes, they’re coming in with their pitchers, their bangers and other stud players who want to play in front of their future college head coaches. It’s like having a Fall nationals in that the big teams are there with their main players.

LINE DRIVE: Are there any plans to change, modify or grow the event, which has become one of the top club events of the year?
JB: Our goal is to make it better, not bigger!

I have to find ways to do things such as improving catering for the umpires and college coaches. At every field, we have professional trainers and teams love it so we now have them at all our events. We have all that right there for them and, because the athletes are in hotels, they typically just can’t go to local doctor so we have to provide safety mechanism.

The expenses we pay for our trainers is five figures and we’re proud to say that most fields have D1 umpires and some fields even have a College World Series umpire.

We’re also looking to move to more 3-man pro crews, and want to do more of that next year on the Clearwater fields. We have 46 rooms for umpires, but the teams, players and families deserve it.

LINE DRIVE: During the event, where will you be found and what are your primary responsibilities once the games kick off?
JB: I’ll be at the main complex for the most part as I go back and forth doing a variety of things—from handing umpires their waters to bringing balls and ice to the fields. Dur those days, it’s non-stop: we’ll be starting at 6:30 in the morning and go until the lights go out in the evening!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

NOTE: Look for more coverage of the Clearwater Fall Classic including our on-site coverage as I (Brentt) will be there with my wife, Shannon, to see in-person the great teams and players… be sure to say “hello!”