"It's the highest level of fast pitch softball an amateur can play prior to college," Miller said. "By reputation, it is the most difficult tournament in the country for a team to qualify."
Miller should know how high its quality of play is since his Georgia Impact traveling teams have competed six times in the tournament. He said one of his teams won the southern regional and he'd like for this team to add to those accomplishments through the years.
Beginning August 1, his Georgia Impact team will be among the 64 from across the United States who will be competing in the tournament, having played its way in several weeks ago.
Miller's 14-member team has a distinct Bartow County flavor, including four local residents, all of whom either attend or have attended Excel Christian Academy.
The coach sees those ties as one of the strengths of his team.
"The elite softball players are not necessarily the ones who win these tournaments," he said. "I totally, wholeheartedly believe it's the teams that have the best chemistry that win."
He was quick to add, however, that the teams with chemistry also must work hard to acquire the level of skills needed to make a run in the tournament.
That hard work ethic is especially present in his four Bartow County players, Miller added.
"They are as good as anybody in the state," he said. "They also work hard to get better."
Miller said the selection of the Bartow players just happened.
"Taylor Brown was the first to make the team after tryouts," he said. "She contacted the other Excel players and they came to tryouts and made the team."
Brown, a catcher, is the only one of the four who will not attend Excel this year, having graduated in the spring.
Others carrying the banner for Bartow in the playoffs will be pitcher Janna Scheff; first baseman Abby Hibbard; and center fielder Sydney Howell.
Miller said the team has been playing together almost a year, having been selected after tryouts last August.
The travel team played a light schedule last fall, he said, then resumed play in February following a three-month winter hiatus.
It played its way into the Gold tournament recently, battling 13 teams for the two slots.
"There are only 640 ladies across the nation who qualify to play, so you can see how special this is," Miller said.
The team may have a heavy Bartow County presence, but the 10 other players are from all corners of the state with players from Jones, Cobb and Cherokee counties as well as Athens.
"It's a collection of some of the best ballplayers around the state," Miller said.
The Georgia Impact will play at the Lost Mountain Softball Complex in Marietta for the title of 2010 Amateur Softball Association of America's Girls' 18U Gold National Championships August 1-7.
Games will be played from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. with a gate fee charged.
ASA officials said the group has decided to play this year's tournament in Georgia, then will pick a West Coast site in 2011 and return to the ASA Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City in 2012.
Miller said having the tournament played in Georgia is a big deal for local parents.
"We just have to play the tournament," he said. "We won't have to book flights, get places to stay and go back and forth to games in Oklahoma."