Jack, sorry if I offended you as that was not my intent. I don't know Ray Deleon and not defending him . I wish he had stuck with his word and brought all the top teams, but I have heard that kind of talk out of baseball people before and not suprised that he didn't come through.
As far as the count I put out there it was over half from Illinois and surrounding states, of which I count 19 if you include the surrounding states, kind of reminds me of caba when it was here at the end, every team was getting in. When we used to go to a caba or some tournament like that it was not to play some of the same local teams we see all year, that was my point our point of going to these tournaments. However you have to put in who you can and who wants to play, again I am sure it is a great tournament. When we played say east cobb or jupiter we did not seem to run into the same team we saw all year, but it has been a while so maybe that has changed also.
Congratulations and thank you for running a great tournament in our area as it is no easy task and takes much planning,effort and dedication on your part. As a local person and baseball lover I really appreciate what you do for the community and especially the boys that get the experience playing in the tournament.
golfman25, I could be wrong but you might be suprised if you put together a "super" team from just Mchenry county. There are many fine players from Mchenry but you might be suprised when you see some of the teams around the United States. Again I could be all wrong, but best of luck to you and your players as they continue there baseball careers, enjoy the journey as it is a special one!!