FPFanatic

WINDMILL PITCHING MACHINE FOR SALE. $250. CALL 615-415-8922. TO SEE MORE INFORMATION, GO TO THE WEBSITE BELOW: http://www.finchwindmill.com/index.html THIS SELLS FOR $325 NEW PLUS S/H. IT IS GREAT FOR ARM AND SHOULDER STRENGTHENING AND REHAB FOR ALL SPORTS, NOT JUST SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL. MY DAUGHTER USED THIS TO HELP REHAB SHOULDER AND ARM TENDONITIS, AND IT WORKED GREAT. THIS IS GREAT FOR PHYSICAL THERAPY AND FOR REGULAR WORKOUT REGIMENS. ONE LIKE THIS WAS USED AT CLUB K IN NASHVILLE.

We look forward to seeing these memorials and paying our respects. Gary was the most sincere, genuine, classiest person that we ever met through the softball world. We miss him and will never forget him. Gary, we know you are up there watching us all, you are the best. James and Heather Tucker

it's not the facilities, its the umpires (according to all the visiting teams), and thats true to a certain extent, but of course my daughter never benefitted from the "homecooking" (lol) but I've seen a lot of other pitchers ride on it!

Thanks for the nice and kind words RedBaron and Deadeye. Deadeye, 'preciate the info, we will looking forward to seeing Indian River and all those good teams, also, good luck to Savannah, she is great and will have a great career wherever she goes.

(THE FOLLOWING POST WAS SUPPOSED TO GO IN THE "PINNED" CATEGORY AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, INSTEAD OF WHERE IT IS NOW) THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE FROM MY DAUGHTER'S COLLEGE SUMS UP MY FAVORITE PLAYER, MY DAUGHTER, HEATHER TUCKER. HEATHER HAS OVERCOME A LOT OF ADVERSITY, A LOT OF NAYSAYERS, AND A LOT OF BAD SITUATIONS WHILE SHE WAS COMING UP THROUGH THE YEARS OF TRAVEL BALL AND HIGH SCHOOL BALL, NOW HER HARD WORK AND DEDICATION ARE SHOWING THEIR BENEFITS. ALL PLAYERS AND COACHES THAT HAVE WATCHED HER OVER THE YEARS CAN USE THIS AS ONE OF THOSE EXAMPLES OF PERSEVERANCE, COMMITTMENT, AND JUST PLAIN OLD HARDHEADEDNESS AND STUBBORNESS IN STICKING WITH YOUR CONVICTIONS, GOALS, AND PRIORITIES. HEATHER HAD A LOT ON HER PLATE OVER THE YEARS, BUT SHE ALWAYS KEPT SOFTBALL IN ITS PROPER PLACE AT THE SAME TIME, SOMETHING THAT I, AND A LOT OF ADULTS ALWAYS HAD A LITTLE DIFFICULTY WITH AT TIMES. SOFTBALL ASIDE, WHAT I AM MOST PROUD ABOUT IS HER PERFECT 4.0 GPA AND MEMBERSHIP IN THE PHI THETA KAPPA NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY. FROM DAD 866-350-WSCC Press Release Home Softball Home 10 May 2005 Wallace State Lady Lions ACCC Champs HANCEVILLE, AL-- ALABASTER, AL—The Wallace State (Hanceville) Lady Lions took the ACCC Championship Tuesday, defeating Wallace-Dothan 3-0 in the ACCC Tournament at Veteran’s Park in Alabaster. The Lady Lions, now 49-11 on the season, advanced unbeaten through the tournament, giving up only one run, and that one unearned, along the way. ACCC State Championship “We just played an awesome tournament,” said Wallace State Coach Jayne Clem. Wallace State defeated Alabama Southern 1-0 in their opening game, Wallace-Dothan 3-1 in extra innings on Sunday, and Bishop State 3-0 on Monday to get to the championship. “Our hitting came around this game,” said Clem. The Lady Lions got six hits against Dothan’s Blair Potter, the No. 1 pitcher in the nation (University of Alabama signee). “It took us about an inning and a half to get used to her and then we adjusted,” she said. Shannon Rozof connected for two doubles, scored a run and drove one in. Anna Parker doubled with a RBI. Tara Fair singled, scored a run and had a RBI. Ashley Elmore and Brittany Bearden had a hit each. Samantha Landman also scored. Wallace State-Hanceville pitcher Heather Tucker allowed just two hits in the game. (from Hendersonville, TN). She earlier beat Wallace Dothan 3-1 in a 10 inning thriller in the tournament also. From here the Lady Lions travel to the NJCAA National Tournament in Clermont, Fla. on Monday. They will have a couple of days to practice on site before the tournament begins on Thursday. “We are ready to go,” said Clem. This will be Wallace State’s second trip to the national tournament. Their first came two years ago. “I think we have a lot better chance this year than we had our first time there. I know what to expect this year. And the girls know the kind of competition we’ll be up against because we faced teams of that caliber at the Lead Off Classic. The Lady Lions defeated the current No. 1 team in the nation, Gulf Coast Community College, at that tournament earlier this year. “This is the most athletically talented group I’ve had, with a better pitching staff and better hitters. They’ve got confidence and desire,” said Clem. Following the ACCC Championship Game, awards were presented by ACCC Commissioner for Coach of the Year, All Division and All-Tournament. Individual Award Winners from Wallace State: Coach Jayne Clem – ACCC Coach of the Year, North Division Coach of the Year All-Division (North) – Brittany Bearden, Heather Tucker, Tara Fair, Katie Veres and Rachel Fleming All-Region – Tara Fair and Katie Veres All-Tournament – Heather Tucker (MVP), Kelly Dison, Katie Veres and Shannon Rozof ### Kristen Holmes Director, Communications and Marketing Wallace State Community College P.O. Box 2000 Hanceville, AL 35077 256/352-8118 E-mail: Kristen.Holmes@WallaceState.edu Updated Wednesday, 11 May, 2005

that's right, she hosted you and the signee from huntsville on your visit. thats great news about your shoulder, keep working hard, run a lot also, i'm sure you know coach clem is big on that (lol). maybe we will see you at the game tomorrow.

Look forward to seeing you at Wallace next year. Hope your shoulder is ok, and good luck. My daughter is at Wallace and is having a lot of fun playing softball and going to school, its great there. James Tucker

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- try the link below, or pm to coacht http://boards.coacht.com/index.php?showtopic=38071&st=0 btw, looking forward to seeing Whitney at Wallace next year, I saw her play a tournament last summer, and she is a really fine player. James Tucker

http://www.capsports.org/hs_softball_details.aspx?ItemID=123 http://www.capsports.org/hs_softball_details.aspx?ItemID=115

First of all, like it is mentioned elsewhere and throughout this thread, when it comes to the post-secondary academia/athletics dicothomy (sp), no where in no school situation should the academic and athletic programs be termed as BIG/SMALL or SMALL/BIG at any specific school, since there is no relation to the two. Example, BIG schools may have SMALL academic programs and vice versa, there is no relation anywhere, it varies wherever you look and go. This is simple apples and oranges, black and white, day and night, etc. There is no relation to academics and athletics in any general comparisons or terms. I agree that these local colleges/universities do not get adequate institutional and administrative support in this sport and maybe other sports as well, you can see that if you have been around for a few years. I think it goes back to bad decisions made a few years ago for some of these schools to go D1, it has nothing to do with their academic programs which are outstanding. In fact, there is no doubt they all have D1 academic programs, but still lag behind with the type of support of a D2, or D3, or NAIA program, which tells me that they should never have gone up to D1 in the first place, since they can not afford it or support it, and there is nothing wrong with D2, or D3, or NAIA either in athletics. Some of the best and most talented athletes decided to play at these smaller divisions and there is nothing WRONG with that. My daughter like a lot of others decided to play JUCO, so I understand this as well as anyone, I just think it would be better for some of these local schools to play to their own level of supported competition, instead of playing out of their own levels of support. Look at Trevecca which does very well, also Sewanee which won their conference last year, also Maryville, Lee, and other schools that continue to do very well playing to their own level of competition (while having GREAT academic programs). Just my humble opinion.

like coacht says, this is not a travel ball softball board, it is a high school softball board; it is not directed to the serious softball player, fan, or coach; in other words, it is not directed to the biggest contributor to the high school game; in fact, travel softball is so insignificant that it has to share a board on this website with travel basketball. but anyway, little of this has anything to do with why the BIG colleges are not recruiting all the state's talent, or why high school ball should be played in the Fall, those are totally seperate and unrelated issues, a more relevant question is why are so many of the state colleges and universities doing so poorly in the game today? (MTSU, APSU, TSU, BELMONT, LIPSCOMB, etc,) quite a few have losing or barely breakeven records and have had revolving doors for coaches, a lot of these schools are recruiting the best state talent, but yet due to a myriad of reasons-lack of administrative support, coaching issues, etc., etc, still do not win, although we all know winning is not that important in college ball. (lol) just my humble opinion

Tonight at Muscle Shoals, AL, Heather Tucker and Wallace-Hanceville (Ala.) shutout Northwest Shoals (Ala.) by a score of 8-0 in a mercy rule shortened game. This gives Heather a record of 7-0 and Wallace-Hanceville a record of 23-4. Northwest Shoals won the first game of the doubleheader 10-8 in the 2nd extra inning tiebreaker. This game featured two Hendersonville, TN residents, as Amanda Richards of Goodpasture plays for Northwest Shoals. Heather played at Hendersonville.

bleacherbum, it seems like the mitchell girl transferred to MTSU or somewhere like that; and you are correct, most of these girls could play at any school in the SEC today, except maybe for some of the pitchers, since most SEC coaches are going after the big, tall, Amazonian types like I previously mentioned. It does not mean these pitchers still could not get the job done today though.

yes and yes

This has turned out to be a good post with interesting stuff. To the original point taken by bleacherbum, I think the overall level of talent is better now than 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, why the talent is not going to the "big schools" is probably because these schools are recruiting all over the country as another post mentioned. These schools will get the talent wherever they can because there are only a few exceptional local athletes like a Camille Harris or a Megan Rhodes from time to time. These are the kind of student athletes that can compete against the top big schools such as from the PAC 10 and SEC and BIG 12. Speaking of the PAC 10 which sets the standards, look at their pitchers, they are big, tall, Amazonian girls, these are the kinds of pitchers that these schools recruit. UT went out and got one of this type of pitcher a couple of years ago to turn their program around. This is the same trend as in baseball years ago when everybody wanted a big pitcher like Johnson, Clemens, Smoltz, and Schilling. The smaller D1 schools will still get the small to average size pitcher, but you can bet if they could get one of those big girls, they would. Also, it was pointed out about Georgia producing more talent these days, Alabama can also be included in that as well. Murphy has always had a lot of Alabama girls on the team, which is remarkable since the state has only played fastpitch for just a few years. In fact, an Alabama team won the 18-U NSA "A" in Columbus, OH last year by beating a local Tennessee team, the Xtreme Edge, if I'm not mistaken. Alabama high school and travel teams have more than held their own against the surrounding states over the last few years. Also, just a couple weeks ago, against the top 24 JUCO teams in the country, Wallace-Hanceville (Ala.) won the Gold Bracket JrNCAA Leadoff Classic in Lagrange, Georgia. (Chattanooga State was something like 2nd or 3rd in the Silver Bracket, as I recall). Also as someone else pointed out earlier, who cares if someone goes D1 or D2 or D3 or NAIA or JUCO, its a great accomplishment to the student athlete wherever they are given a scholarship, and a great reward for their hard work, dedication, and sacrifices over the years (not to mention those by us parents also, lol) Just my humble opinion.

great article about PJP in today's local paper, good job in scrimmages so far beating Brentwood and Franklin, lot's of help from young freshman talent, now with lots of depth, there may be a new sheriff in town. Way to go Ariel!

Just saw on the hs softball board about Gary dying in the accident. Not being a plusmember, I could not post this on that board, but Gary taught many travel ball pitchers who also were high school pitchers. Gary was truly a gentleman and a class act, he was always cool, composed, and in control. He never, ever raised his voice, he never had to. He always knew the right thing to say at the right time, and he knew that sometimes, nothing said was the right thing to do. My daughter had many pitching instructors over the years, Gary taught her the most about pitching, he taught her pitches that others later helped her to refine. Gary, we will miss you, but not forget you, you are the epitome (sp) of class, and an example of what a coach should be. Thanks.

AAA-Soddy AA-Lipscomb A-Goodpasture II-Baylor

wilson central got a homerun in the 5th off casey to tie it, then in the 9th after an intentional walk, got a hit off heather, to win it 2-1. that's about it. george worked the mound for wilson, did a great job, commandos could not string any hits together after the 1st inning.

on another thread, coachd said it was too late in the season to have scrimmages, it would have to be a game at this point in the season. anyone like to clarify this?

iconu2, sorry to see that our dialogue has resulted in so much misunderstanding on your part (lol); not trying to be hard on you, I just get a little peeved when it looks like people try to butt in without knowing all the facts and circumstances. Let's just leave it at this and agree to disagree, I am looking at the root causes and it looks like you were looking at the results ending in lack of focus and fickleness, hey, that's what it is all about on here, being able to pontificate the issues, express opinions, state your ideas; all without worrying about winning a debate or argument about such trivial pursuits as these; anyway, it sounds like you are a real old timer, when did you have kids at Beech or Hendersonville?

watching as a spectator, that is what you would see and think, from that viewpoint's perspective; but your misperceived lack of focus reason comes from what I said. that is what causes this lack of focus; but you can't see that from your spectators point of view, that is a very narrow perspective, you might need to stick to just analyzing your own team instead (lol).

"Hendersonville is the most fickle team I have seen this year. I watched them play great teams and win, yet lose to weaker teams. " (quote from icon2u) "getting focused, and play the way they know how" (quote from redbaron) Guys, this is just the way it is when different lineups are used against different teams and also, it's not just a matter of "focus" and "fickleness", but the girls are going thru a lot this year and have done pretty good in the face of injuries, position changes, lineup changes, etc., etc., and a lot more things that won't be mentioned, so in the light of all that, this year has not been much different from any other year at HHS, they can play with the best and the worst! (lol)

hendersonville just got put out by greenbrier 2-0; earlier they beat Knoxville-Halls 4-1; beat Maryville 4-3; and beat Lawrence Co. 6-0, all games in elimination play.