The 2025 Clearwater Fall Classic will take place this year from Friday, November 14^th through Sunday, November 16^th in Clearwater, Fla. and will feature the top cub teams in the 18U, 16U and 14U age divisions.

To be held at the nine field-Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex, the invitational has so many advantages to it:

• Playing in Florida in November
• An elite lineup of teams top to bottom (it’s an invitational, remember)
• All fields will have D1 college umpires
• Certified trainers at all fields
• Event site just 20-30 minutes from the Tampa airport, 1:40 from Orlando airport
• Clearwater & St. Pete beaches rated No. 1 in the country
• The “stay to play” hotels are only 10-15 minutes from the fields
• Did we mention playing elite fastpitch softball in Florida two weeks before Thanksgiving?

The Clearwater Fall Classic—an invitational, remember—is full, meaning all the openings were grabbed by July… four months before the three-day event.

That’s how popular this event has become its 7th year.

The Clearwater Fall Classic has teams attending from Florida to Washington, Rhode Island to Cali and everywhere in between.

Jim Barsalona, the owner of Team NJ, recalls last year’s event had 270 college coaches attend and some high-level games had as many as 65 to 70 coaches in attendance.

At one field.

Overall, the head man sees the event as a great connection between college coaches and potential recruits.

“It’s exciting for what we’ve tried to build it to, small 68-70 teams, it’s a plus for the college coaches as they don’t have to run all over the place and the teams involved like having so many college scouts there.”

Organizations want to be at the event, not surprisingly, and that keeps the level of competition very high.

“We generally have only eight to 11 openings per year at the Tier 1 level and we have a flow of top teams that come in based on competition and head-to-head success.”

The numbers speak for themselves with close to 70 states representing 27 states. Read that as the best of the best attending, both teams and player-wise.

Every team will get six games in 18U and 16U (14U will have elimination) with two games each on Friday and Saturday of 1 hour 25 minutes (note: there will be “finish the inning” 1 hour 45 minutes time slots). Games start at 8 am on each day.

Sunday action will conclude with the championship games to be played at approximately 2 pm EST.

Brentt Eads of Line Drive here… my wife Shannon and I went last year, loved it and will be returning this year to once again watch this elite field of teams from all over the nation.

Here’s some of the coverage we did last year:

• Event News: The Clearwater Fall Classic 18U All-Tournament Team (Nov. 26, 2024)
• Event News: The Clearwater Fall Classic 16U All-Tournament Team (Nov. 24, 2024)
• Event News: The Clearwater Fall Classic 14U All-Tournament Team (Nov. 23, 2024)
• Event Report: Day 3 Of Action Closes Out the 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic Including Champion Crowned at 14U (Nov. 19, 2024)
• Event Report: Day 2 Of Action At the 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic Includes Over 200 College Coaches! (Nov. 16, 2024)
• Event Report: Day 1 Of Action At the 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic (Nov. 15, 2024)
• Event Spotlight: We’re Here! Day 1 of the 2024 Clearwater Fall Classic (Nov. 15, 2024)

Here’s the roster of all those attending… and be sure to scroll to the bottom of this article to see other top events TeamNJ will be producing in 2025-26…

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18U TEAMS       

• AL Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier
• AZ Arizona Rising Appel
• CA OC Batbusters Stith
• CA Corona Angels Tyson
• CA Corona Angels Slye
• CA FC Select Rico-Brashear
• CO Colorado Batbusters Smith
• FL Tampa Mustangs Rene
• GA Georgia Impact Taylor
• GA Impact Premier Caymol
• GA Athletics Gold Tamborra
• GA Georgia EC Bullets Schnute-Bilz
• IN Indiana Magic Gold Bennett-Goddard
• KY Louisville Lady Sluggers Huecker-Norwood
• KY Louisville Lady Sluggers-Wathen
• MO Top Gun National Turner
• MO Select Fastpitch Jones
• NC Lady Dukes Lamar
• NJ Pride Gold Stern
• OH Ohio Outlaws National Wolff 2027
• OK Oklahoma Athletics Madden
• PA Team Pennsylvania Hall
• RI Rhode Island Thunder Lotti
• SC Carolina Elite Genovese
• TN Tennessee Mojo Ramsey-Fisher
• TX Texas Bombers Gold
• TX Texas Glory Gold Shelton
• TX Texas Impact Gold KC  
• TX Texas Blaze United Robertson
• VA Virginia Glory National Willemssen
• VA Virginia  Glory National Mertz
• VA Virginia Unity Johnson-Ricks
• WA Washington ai Bandits Breer

16U TEAMS

• AL Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier
• AL Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier Buzzell-Parker
• AZ Arizona Rising Appel-Kobasew
• CA Corona Angels Slye
• CA Warrior Academy McDonald
• CA LTG Henderson
• CA Firecrackers Select Brashear
• CA Power Surge National
• FL Tampa Mustangs Rene
• GA Impact Premier Caymol
• GA Georgia Impact Premier O’Neal
• GA Athletics Gold Tamborra
• IA Iowa Premier National Dickel-Shannon
• IL Beverly Bandits Conroy
• IL Beverly Bandits Conroy-Glass
• LA D1Vision National Vermeulen
• MI Turin2 Softball Pezz-King
• MO Top Gun National Turner
• MO Select Fastpitch Jones
• NC Team North Carolina Bowman
• NY Empire State Huskies Nt’l Porcelli
• NY Team Long Island Select Angel
• OH Ohio Outlaws Wolff-Accord
• TN Tennessee Mojo 2027 Pardue
• RI Rhode Island Thunder National Lotti
• TX Texas Bombers Gold
• TX Texas Hotshots Falterman
• TX Texas Glory Gold Shelton
• TX Texas Impact Gold Jazz
• TX Texas Impact Gold Vaughn-Jazz
• TX Texas Blaze United Robertson
• VA Virginia Unity Amsler-Johnson
• VA Williamsburg Starz Nat’l Bunn
• WA Washington ai Bandits Breer
• Washington Ladyhawks Miller

14U TEAMS

• AL Birmingham Thunderbolts 2029 Whittaker
• AZ Arizona Rising Appel
• CA Warrior Academy McDonald
• GA Athletics Tamborra-Olson
• GA Georgia Impact Cleghorn
• IA Iowa Premier National Dickel-Paz
• IL Beverly Bandits Perry
• IN Indiana Magic Gold Rudd-Coffel
• MO Select Fastpitch Jones-Carr
• MO Top Gun National
• OH Ohio Outlaws Wolff-Shepherd
• PA Team Pennsylvania Madison
• RI Rhode Island Thunder Lotti
• TX Texas Impact Gold Jazz
• TX Glory Gold
• VA Virginia Unity Johnson

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More Team NJ Events This Year (2025-26):

• Southeast Showdown (Fla.) – Oct 17-19, 2025 (18U, 16U)
• TNJ Fall College Showcase (N.J.) – Oct. 17-19, 2025 (18U, 16U)
• Arizona Fall Invitational (Ariz.) – Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2025 (18U, 16U)
• Orlando North Fall Invitational (Fla.) – Nov. 14-16, 2025 (18U, 16U)
• 2026 Team NJ Summer Classic (N.J.) – June 24-27, 2026 (18U, 16U)