Event Recap: Ray Seymour Invitational… Strong Year 1 for the Showcase Honoring the Florida Coaching Legend
By
@BruntjensElla
October 20, 2021
More than 60 club teams competed at the inaugural Ray Seymour Invitational held in Newberry, Florida, the weekend of October 16-17, 2021.
The inaugural Ray Seymour Invitational was held this past weekend in Newberry, Florida (25 minutes west of Gainesville) and, by all accounts, it was a successful event that would have made its namesake very proud.
The invite-only showcase event featured 21 top club programs from across Florida and the Eastern half of the country—from the Iowa Premier and Wichita Mustangs to the Virginia Unity and Tennessee Mojo and Fury.
The event was the brainchild of coaches David Handler and T.J. Goelz, two longtime members of the Tampa Mustangs organization, who wanted to establish a high-level collegiate showcase in Florida to honor their organization’s founder and patriarch, Ray Seymour.
Seymour brought success and contributions to softball across all levels—rec, travel and college—and, after a stellar 25-year career at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, was inducted into the Florida Softball College Coaches Hall of Fame posthumously after he passed away in 2016.
Handler and Goelz established TD Event Management with the goal in mind to launch the inaugural Ray Seymour Invitational in tandem with softball tourney veterans Connect Sports and the coaches’ good friend, Jeremy Higdon.
Coach Ray Seymour, who coached softball for 25 years at Hillsborough Community College and started the Tampa Mustangs organization.
The Ray Seymour Invitational—along with its three sister events of Scenic City (in Chattanooga, Tennessee), Thunderbolt 5 Star (Birmingham, Alabama) and the Atlanta Legacy—created “The Grand Slam of Recruiting” in the Southeast.
“TJ and I had been looking for a way to honor Ray Seymour and recognize all of his accomplishments and contributions to the game of softball in Florida and nationally,” Coach Handler explains.
“We had often discussed bringing a high-level college exposure showcase to Florida and with the relationships that we have with Jeremy at Connect Sports, it was an easy decision for us to turn to Connect to help us make these ideas happen and create the Ray Seymour Invitational.”
Last weekend, RSI was played at Champions Park with its 16 turf fields and featured the 14s through 18s all played at one park to making recruiting easy for college coaches.
The variety of scouts that came was impressive, especially for a first-year event, as coaches from Washington, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Central Florida, South Florida, Virginia Tech and many more were in attendance (see the complete list below).
College coaches watch two of the 60-plus teams at the Ray Seymour Invitational.
The recruiters and scouts came to see over 60 travel ball teams including nationally respected club programs such as Fury Platinum, Tampa Mustangs, Georgia Impact, Birmingham T-Bolts, Iowa Premier, Wichita Mustangs, LA VooDoo, Tenn Mojo, Atlanta Vipers and the Virginia Unity to name a few.
T.J. Goelz says, “It was truly special to honor him and his legacy,” via the Ray Seymour Invitational.
“The post-event feedback has been extremely positive focusing on the level of competition, college coach attendance, venue and structure,” continues Handler.
“Our goal for the event is to attract the best organizations and teams to join us each Fall in Newberry as well as to offer our local Florida softball organizations and friends a chance to compete in front of college coaches.
“We feel that if we offer the highest-level competition and cover all ages at one 16-field facility to help facilitate college coach attendance, we feel our event will has a bright future.”
Coach Goelz feels the Mustangs’ founder would be happy with how the event in his name turned out.
“Establishing a high quality, well run, competitive event in the name of Coach Ray was the goal because that’s what he always preached: high quality, competitive and do it the right way with everything you do,” the current Mustangs 18U head coach explains.
“It was truly special to honor him and his legacy. The event was an overall success, we learned from our first year hiccups, and will only get better. We hope this will become a staple event, in the first part of the Fall recruiting season), that teams will plan on attending every year.”
Handler added that the event has already established when it will take place in Year 2.
“TD Event Management is excited to announce that the 2022 Ray Seymour Invitational has been set for October 21-23, 2022.”
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Event founder David Handler of the Tampa Mustangs (right) talks with Central Florida coach Tyler Heil.
Club Teams That Competed
VA Unity
Iowa Premier
EC Bullets
Fury Platinum X
Birmingham Thunderbolts
Tampa Mustangs
Florida Impact
Sante Fe Inferno
Lady Lightning Gold – Corn
Wichita Mustangs
Lady Gators – Jackson
Atlanta Vipers
Florida Gold
Lightspeed Gold
TN Fury National
TN Mojo
Fl Firecrackers
Florida Power Black
Lady Dukes
Pro Impact
Sarasota Heat
Florida Gulf Coast coaches Mollie Hanson (left) and Natalie Lopez.
Attending College Programs
University of Tennessee
University of Washington
University of Florida
University of Georgia
Arizona State University
Ole Miss
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Virginia Tech
Lipscomb University
Mercer University
Tallahassee Community College
University of Central Florida
Florida International University
Florida Gulf Coast University
Jacksonville University
University of North Florida
University of South Florida
Eastern Florida State College
Florida Tech
Gardner-Webb University
Dartmouth College
Santa Fe College
Eckerd College
Indian River State College
Eastern Illinois University
Florida Southern College
Rollins College
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The invite-only showcase event featured 21 top club programs from across Florida and the Eastern half of the country—from the Iowa Premier and Wichita Mustangs to the Virginia Unity and Tennessee Mojo and Fury.
