Coaches, industry leaders, and former players from the softball community recently came together to form The Alliance Fastpitch with the goal of driving value to the player and player experience. 

Under the direction of former USSSA National Director Jami Lobpries, The Alliance Fastpitch has aligned recently-announced regional youth leagues - California Fastpitch League, Gulf Coast Fastpitch League, Heart of America Fastpitch League, Rocky Mountain Fastpitch League, Southeastern Fastpitch League, and the Texas Fastpitch League - bringing together the highest level of play in youth softball and creating an organized infrastructure for stats, points, and a defined road to the postseason. Aligning at this level helps unite top youth coaches and athletes, while also connecting generations of alumni from each club. 

The vision for The Alliance is to spark unity across the sport for the betterment of the athletes (youth, college, professional, retired) and the growth of fastpitch. Each regional league is in the process of creating youth-athlete advisory councils to empower the voice of the players and help them connect with current and former professional athletes. Alliance members will have access to a network that works together and builds something special for the athlete and game. 

League play begins this fall and endorsed events - which can be a combination of sanctioned and unsanctioned events - will have fixed point values. Each regional league will have an allotted amount of berths in the 12U/14U/16U/18U divisions that will be earned through league championship play. The top finishers in each league will qualify for the final event hosted by The Alliance next June, which will resemble the college softball postseason.

For more information, visit https://www.thealliancefastpitch.com/ or follow The Alliance Fastpitch on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

-- Courtesy of Jami Lobpries, The Alliance Fastpitch