Story and Interview by Emma Breer

With The Alliance Super Cup right around the corner, one of the teams you can anticipate seeing is the Top Gun National 14u team. If the name sounds familiar, beyond the talented players they produce, they were recently the winners of the March “Laying the Groundwork” challenge presented by Morgan Stuart’s Defense Club.

Top Gun National Laying the Groundwork

Top Gun is an eight-year-old organization based out of Kansas City, Missouri. Stephanie Kim, the 14u team’s coach, looped back around to coach this group after her daughter’s team graduated in 2021. Here they are a couple of years later, after developing as players, for their first-ever appearance at the Super Cup Series Presented by EvoShield.

They qualified in Florida last fall. “We go to Colorado every year for IDT and the Sparkler,” Coach Kim said, but going there for the Super Cup, playing against the final eight teams in the tournament, they’re bound to face some great competition. Kim claims it’s exciting for them to be placed in an environment with numerous college coaches in the crowd. “Strong coaches and high-quality games” (Kim).

As a second-year 14u team, Top Gun National always looks for tournaments that provide them with immense competition; the Super Cup is one of them. Throughout the fall and until now, they decided to play in 16u and 18u tournaments, seeking out the best competition they could until they started traveling in the spring. Kim emphasized that having as many opportunities to be seen at the highest level is important. They don’t want to play in tournaments that “don’t push (them) to be the best.” Well, even playing teams beyond their years, they’ve placed in the top three in any tournament they’ve played. As their team frequently says, they “don’t play cupcakes.”

Expect to see Top Gun National play in the Super Cup Series final in Colorado July 2nd among the final eight teams vying for that championship title.

About the Super Cup Series

The Alliance Super Cup Series presented by Evoshield is an in-season tournament that promotes competitive and purposeful play through the year for 18U, 16U, and 14U teams. The Alliance Super Cup Series launched in 2022 with a vision of creating year-round competitive opportunities in each region and a culminating national event that is played within the TC Fireworks week in Colorado. The Super Cup Series is an Alliance National Event meaning all teams must be registered with an Alliance Member League and all athletes on the roster must be active Alliance Members. The Alliance Roster is the Official Event Roster.  there are SIX Super Cup Qualifying events hosted throughout the country.

Teams are invited to the Alliance Super Cup based on their 2023 season national finishes. The Alliance Fastpitch National Competition Committee awarded each event with Super Cup Finals berths for each age division and AFCS National Berths for each age division.

For more information on the Super Cup Series along with the full scheduled and brackets, click HERE.