You won’t find too many summer travel ball tourneys that have a “better bang for the buck” aspect than the Patriot Games and, in simpler terms, there are no gimme games in this talent-laden tournament that will take place at the Future Legends Complex in Windsor, Colo.

A week from today—Wednesday, June 26—a coaches’ social will begin the second year of this prestigious event and then the on-field competitions will kick off on Thursday, June 27 and run through Saturday, June 29, 2024.

In Year 1 (2023), 16 elite organizations from around the nation sent their top 14U, 16U and 18U teams and the winners at each age division were Texas Glory (14U), Athletics Mercado/Hovermale (16U) and Hotshots National – Nelson (18U).

The 2024 Patriot Games sees its outstanding lineup of programs increased to 20… here they are listed in alphabetical order:

• Aces Fastpitch 
• Arizona Storm 
• Athletics – Mercado 
• Athletics – Tambora
• Birmingham Thunderbolts 
• Bombers Academy
• Bombers Fastpitch 
• Central Cal Dirt Dogs  
• Corona Angels 
• East Cobb Bullets
• Firecrackers – Brashear 
• Firecrackers Select FC 
• Hotshots 
• Iowa Premier 
• Impact Gold 
• OC Batbusters 
• Rouge Fastpitch 
• Texas Glory 
• Top Gun Fastpitch 
• Virginia Unity 

The attending teams will compete over the weekend and then have a few days to catch their breathes before jumping into competition at the Boulder IDT or the Colorado Sparkler 4^th of July events the first week of next month.

*** CLICK HERE to access the team schedules for the 2024 Patriot Games ***

The Patriot Games are spearheaded by leads of the Bombers organization based in Texas: Scott Smith, David McCorkle and Kristi Malpass.

Smith, who runs the Bombers program and coaches the premier 18U team, remembers that last year—the initial year of the Patriot Games—the attendance of the college coaches was better than they could have imagined.

“We had over 200 college coaches from across the nation attend,” he says, “and they loved being able to watch and scout the 700-plus players who competed. This year’s collective talent looks to be even more impressive.”

McCorkle, who helps Smith with the 18U Gold team and is the Bomber Academy Director (overseeing all the organization’s Academy teams), expects Year 2 to be even bigger and better.

“The quality of teams that will play brings a nice balance of quality and quantity of top college coaches,” he states. “We saw a void in the sport leading up to Colorado and this competitive tournament seemed to be a great fit and fill a need. You have to give Scott (Smith) the credit—he called up top organizational leads and they thought it was a great idea.”

Another attractive aspect to the Patriot Games is the facilities where the action takes place. Coach McCorkle remembers how the two sides got together.

“Future Legends contacted us, we toured the facility and were impressed in how they have an indoor dome, turf and dirt fields,” he recalls. “It’s a good complex and many other club orgs across the nation were equally interested in the low volume, high quality concept.”

The three days of competition will begin Thursday with all uncommitted players participating in an on-field in the morning. There will be a data capture center for all interested young athletes with the results to be put online along with leaderboards of all the information that is collected.

By 1 pm on Thursday, the games will begin, and all Patriot Games teams will compete in pool games the second half of that day as well as all day Friday.

The top trio in each pool will make it to the Saturday championship bracket and the winner of each pool gets a bye.

Malpass, who oversees the talented Bombers Gold 14U team, is bullish on the concept of high talent, low volume of teams and how this will benefit everyone.

“It’s great for the college coaches,” she explains, “because they have these outstanding teams from many of the biggest club organizations in softball all in one event. Every team is top caliber and there are no easy games all weekend.”

“Plus, you have practices that the college coaches can come watch and see plenty of reps from these talented players in different environments—all in one event.”

“This is one of the best invite-only events in the country!”

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball