ASA rules in high school?

[greymule]

Stopped by Tuesday to watch a girls' FP game in the little town of Morris, Alabama. Two good teams playing on as fine a field as I ever saw, including college. Perfectly level, beautifully groomed infield, immaculate grass. (The home team is top ranked in the state in the second-highest size level; the other team was quite competitive.)

Got to talking to one of the spectators, who it turned out is the father of the coach of one of the teams. Since the umpires' caps showed a 5-letter abbreviation (AHSAA?), I asked whether they played by Fed rules or some other code. He immediately responded "ASA," which surprised me since there was no safety base. I pursued this a little, but he was certain.

He also told me that as recently as the 1990s, the girls played slow pitch, but went to FP as the result of some lawsuits. That also seemed a little odd to me, since I thought that by the 1990s FP had already been well established pretty much everywhere.

The umps were good but missed one call: on a swinging strike 3 scooped by the catcher, the runner walked a few steps toward the dugout (1B side) and then ran to 1B. The umps conferred and called her out (apparently neither saw the scoop.)

Anyway, is it possible that Alabama uses ASA rules for school?

[CajunNewBlue]

more likely possible... another parent that didnt know what the h3ll was going.
Just guessing.

[Skahtboi]

There are some states that are not part of the National Federation of High Schools, and I believe that they usually use ASA as their rule set of choice.

[Dukat]

Alabama uses NFHS

Mississippi does too and Mississippi still has Slowpitch as well as Fastpitch in High School just different seasons.

[strike4]

I am an Alabama high school softball umpire, I can assure you that Alabama uses NFHS rules for both public and private schools.

Most high schools in Alabama went to fastpitch in the mid to late 1990s. We are very proud of the progress that the GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) have made in such a short time frame.

[greymule]

Interesting to know. The two schools (Hayden and Jordan) obviously had strong programs and a solid fan following.

A tournament was scheduled at that field today through Saturday, so I went by this afternoon, but they told me that all high schools sports had been canceled because of the swine flu threat.

Where are you in Alabama, strike4?