This is Brentt Eads of Line Drive Softball.

Over the last two weeks, my wife Shannon and I were able to travel to Central Florida to watch in person some impressive college softball at THE Spring Games, which kicked off February 27 and runs through March 28—more than a month’s worth of college softball action!

The massive event—which features 300 teams playing 1,200-plus games—is the largest in softball as the majority of THE Spring Games feature competition between D2, D3, NAIA and Junior College teams.

Unlike most events, however, which feature teams vying to play for a championship, THE Spring Games gives each team the opportunity to play desired competition—typically, about 10 games—which helps coaches and players in preparation for conference action and, hopefully, post-season play.

Having spent nine days in Clermont and other cities in the Orlando, Fla. area, Shannon and I got to enjoy the action on the fields while seeing behind-the-scenes how efficiently the event is run.

I had a chance to interview Alison Strange, the CEO of THE Spring Games, which is being played for the 18^th year in a row after she was handed the event by her aunt, the legendary softball great Dot Richardson…

You can watch the interview here and also read the transcript of our interview below…

*****

Line Drive Softball’s Interview with Alison Strange, CEO of THE Spring Games
Brentt Eads (Line Drive Softball) Fantastic event, Alison… how many teams overall are going to be here from February 28 to the end of March?
Alison Strange (CEO of THE Spring Games): We have about 300 teams participating in THE Spring Games this year. We do get some that come kind of at the last minute, so we’ll end up around 302 teams this year.

Brentt: 302! You were telling me before that every day you have to improvise because teams will cancel due to things like blizzards. How do you handle that? How do you make everything so fluid when you have Mother Nature impacting you or something else?
Alison: Yeah, we do play an outdoor sport so whether it’s wind or rain or blizzards up North or flights getting canceled—usually, there’s something that impacts the schedule every day. Basically, the way it works for us is we have such a good relationship with the coaches that when something changes, we do our best to actually communicate with the coaches and problem-solve.

And in most cases, my goal is when I have to make a change, I try to make a team’s schedule even better than it was before. I’ve been doing this for 11 years. My aunt started this back in 2008, so we’ve been in business for 18 years here in 2025.

Brentt: That’s incredible. You mentioned earlier that THE Spring Games has a high return rate. What keeps teams coming back?
Alison: Overall, we see a 90 percent return rate every year so we do a lot to help coaches feel comfortable. A lot of them are already booking their housing for next year. Our registration is already open for 2026, and we’ve got several teams who have already signed up and are booking their housing.

We try to make that process easy for them. Over the years, we’ve made adjustments to give them a better handle on where they might be playing next year so they can plan ahead—because a lot of them are planning 12 to 14 months in advance.

Brentt: I didn’t even think about this, but these teams get a lot of good reps in before their conference season and this really makes them stronger, right?
Alison: Oh, yeah. What happens here at THE Spring Games is oftentimes very significant to what happens either during conference play or post-conference play.

We have some teams that come out here and they’re on a trip that’s a fun way to get games in. Some teams are here to be able to spend time with family, do team bonding, maybe start preparing their culture or reestablishing their team culture.

And then we have other teams who are actually here to prepare for regionals and potentially nationals.

Brentt: So teams have required conference games, but these non-conference games are up to them. How does that play into their strategy?
Alison: Teams really can’t control what happens in their conference play—they have a required number of games they must play in their conference.

But for their voluntary games, they can choose where to go and where to play. I am humbled and proud to be able to say that we schedule about a quarter of most of these teams’ entire season.

And I take great pride—and I feel a very heavy weight—to make sure that the games I’m assigning are games they are capable of playing, that they desire to play and that they’re at the level they want to play.

When you have 300 teams to choose from, you can pretty much give everybody what they want.

Brentt: Last question—you mentioned your aunt helped start this event (Brentt here—I knew exactly who started the Games and her status in softball history). Did she play softball or have a background in the sport?
Alison: Yes (laughs)! My aunt is Dot Richardson. She is a two-time Olympian for the United States of America. She wore No. 1 on her back from 1979 until 2000 and I think she was one of the greatest softball players of all time—if not the greatest softball player of all time. I’d love to debate that with someone! I think it’s a fun debate.

I grew up watching her play for UCLA and Team USA, and that impacted me greatly. She started this event back in 2008 after our coach, Marj Ricker, had sold the Rebel Games in 2006. My aunt really wanted to see that vision our coach had stay alive.

So in 2008, we hosted mostly D3, NAIA schools, and JUCOs here at Legends Way Ballfields. In fact, these backstops—well, these are new backstops—but the previous ones were actually getting put up during the 2008 event. And she would move teams around to make sure we could get the construction going on time.

So, she started it, and I followed in her footsteps.

Brentt: One correction—isn’t it Doctor Dot Richardson?
Alison: Yes (laughs)! It IS Dr. Dot Richardson, Olympian!. I think that’s how you’d write her name. She’s currently the Head Coach at Liberty University.

When she got that job, she called me and said, “Hey, want to take this over for me?” At the time, I was a practicing attorney—but I had gone to law school to become an athletic director.

So I said, “Don’t tempt me with a good time,” and accepted the offer!

Brentt: Well, congratulations on another great year and thank you, Alison!
Alison: Thank you!