rdk4257

As a Chester County grad, I'm excited that our girls got hot at the right time. Just looking at their schedule, they played a lot of good teams and lost a lot of close games. I think several of these girls were on the Belles team (13-15 year old) that won the Dixie World Series a few years ago. Not many people will give us a chance against Goodpasture, Unicoi, Gibbs, etc., but I say let Cinderella keep dancing. Good luck Eaglettes!!!

Does anyone know if Chester County and Waverly played yesterday? I haven't found a score yet, and I wasn't even sure if the game was supposed to be played in Henderson or Waverly. Thanks.

Who was the classless fool who yelled "third place" at Burchell when she was selected as the District 11-A softball season MVP? That was about as low as you can go and just a complete lack of class. There is no doubt that Cornersville has the best team in the district this season, but there is also no doubt in my mind that Burchell is the best player this season. That is why you will see her on ESPN in the College World Series in a couple of years. I don't see anybody else from 11-A going to a school like Tennessee, much less the defending national runner-up and SEC champion. Whoever did that is a sorry lowlife who took away from their team's accomplishments. I don't know who that person was a "fan" of, but that school should ban them for the rest of the season until they learn some class. I know some of the Richland fans were yelling at the umps because of the no-call on a possible interference situation, but it is totally different when you are yelling at the players themselves (and an individual, no less), especially during an awards ceremony. If I were the girls from Richland or Cornersville, I would be mortified by that. It took away from their championship game performance.

Guess my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders when I originally posted the topic. Sorry about that. rdk4257 Does anybody know if the first round games today at Richland for the 11-A Tournament are still on as scheduled? I know it is raining now in Columbia and the radar looks like the worst is coming tonight. Does Richland have a tarp and/or does the field drain well? Thanks, rdk4257

Does anybody know if the first round games today at Richland for the 11-A Tournament are still on as scheduled? I know it is raining now in Columbia and the radar looks like the worst is coming tonight. Does Richland have a tarp and/or does the field drain well? Thanks, rdk4257

I have worked full-time in a small-town daily newspaper's sports department, though I now have another full-time job and only occasionally cover games for the same newspaper. In our coverage area, there are six public high schools and two private high schools. There are six Class A schools, a large AA school and a AAA school. There is also a community college, which fields basketball, baseball and softball teams. My thoughts are probably colored by being on the production side of the sports section for so long, but I hope they will help. Each school in the county is known for its one (or more) sports that it excels in. The composition of those teams are usually consistent as well. At the larger schools, the bulk of their basketball teams and track teams are African-Americans, but so are a large portion of their student populations. Football seems to be about half and half, while the majority of baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf and bowling competitors are Caucasians. At the smaller schools (both public and private), all of the teams are predominantly Caucasian (with a few exceptions), but so are their student populations. Each of the smaller schools is known for success in a particular sport, often to the detriment (or at least reduced interest) of the others. The smaller schools also tend to have success in either boys or girls sports, but rarely both at the same time. All the attention seems to be focused on the girls at some schools and on the boys at others. Some of the schools honestly struggle with success in both the boys and girls programs. Individually I don't think the media has much affect on the perception of race and gender on our level at a small-town paper. These student-athletes are just people in the community who are under the spotlight in their sport. On a larger scale though, I am sure that the media has stereotypes to some extent. There are times when they just need the person to plug into the story they already have mostly written. When those preconceived molds are broken, the story is even bigger (example, Danica Patrick winning; Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith in Super Bowl, etc.) Hopefully, we can keep moving toward each individual and each story standing on its own.

Has anybody heard for sure if they are planning for four-team double-elimination or six-team double-elimination for the District 11-A tournament?

Thanks, We need all the help we can get. Hopefully, it will result in some wins this season.

STLBIRD, Santa Fe does not play Mt. Pleasant in softball this year. I should know because my wife is the coach. We aren't the greatest team in the world, but we are all freshmen, sophomores and an eighth-grader except for one senior and one junior who has missed all but two games with a knee injury. We let one get away against Zion (maybe that was the game you were thinking about), but we are trying to get more competitive all the time. A little mercy right now please.

I remember seeing her play in the regional tournament last Spring at Columbia Academy. So sorry to hear about the family's, school's and community's loss. You're in our prayers from Santa Fe. Kevin

Chattanooga Christian beat Grace Academy 3-0 in Region 3. On Saturday, it will be rematches in the sectionals. Grace Baptist Academy at Columbia Academy, 7 p.m. in Columbia. Richland at Chattanooga Christian, 7 p.m.? in Chattanooga. Kevin