dore83

Casey Vincent - Coffee County 2011, P/1B verballed last night to accept a softball scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Jordan Abell - 2011 Team Worth, Riverdale High School, SS, 2B, 3B verbally committed on Saturday to Lipscomb University. Sarah Beth Roberts - 2011 Team Worth, Mt Juliet High School, C, 3B verbally committed to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Monday.

Two more Team Worth players have made verbal commitments to receive collegiate softball scholarships at NCAA Division I schools. Jordan Abell to Lipscomb University - SS, 2B, 3B; Riverdale 2011 Sarah Beth Roberts to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - C, 3B; Mt Juliet 2011

Not yet. Offers from quite a few schools. Took an unofficial visit to a local DI school earlier this week and will take another to Chattanooga this weekend.

What? Riverdale romped, but that's a pretty poor (and typically inaccurate) description of the why and what. Maybe looking at a box score could make one think that "could possibly" be the case, but...

I'm pretty sure we've been through this several pages back. Siegel played a Hall of Fame game AT Liberty Tech against Westview. That loss (the HOF game) is their only loss. They were never scheduled to play Liberty Tech. It was a multi-team, multi-game format hosted by Liberty Tech. They beat Fort Payne, AL 53-36 today. Fort Payne came into the game at 14-1 and was ranked 4th in the state.

Actually the score was 78-66. It was 54 all at the end of the 3rd quarter and Siegel outscored Henderson County 24-12 in the 4th. And they've won 10 games. The "loss" was HOF which generally are not counted in overall records, although most teams which win HOF games tend to count them in the win column... so they are 10-0 or 10-1 if you count the HOF loss to open the season. As for who they played (Phargis) there is a detailed description of Henderson County (KY) in my post above.

Maybe you just wrote that wrong but Siegel won today (twice) so everyone won except Siegel is not a correct statement - they won at 2:30 and a second game at 8:30. Maybe you meant to write everybody won one game and Siegel won two. Who knows. I am almost always confused by your posts and they seem to be even more incoherent this year than in the past. Don't know about how the competition matches up to local middle TN competition, but the records of 2 of their 3 opponents this weekend were quite impressive in the early season. Henderson County (KY) was 6-1 coming into the championship game. Siegel won by 12. Henderson County has been a perennial power in Kentucky basketball of late with five consecutive Region championships and trips to the State: 2008-09: Final 4 2007-08: Elite 8 2006-07: Sweet 16 2005-06: Final 4 2004-05: Sweet 16 Current Rank: 14th They had two outstanding guards, one of which put up 28 points in their previous game and the two combined for about 50 points in the championship. For Siegel, Connell put up 23 while sitting most of the first half after picking up 2 early fouls. Chatman had 15. Cason and Naish both added 11. Donkin had 9. Connell was awarded game MVP plaque by tounament directors. Calloway County (KY) was 5-1 entering the game, losing only to a still undefeated Ballard Memorial by a 63-61 score. Siegel won by 23. Cason had 15 and an impressive number of assists and steals. Connell had 15. Chatman had 12. Cason was awarded game MVP plaque by tournament directors. Siegel was only up by 10 at the half. Contrary to previous erroneous and irresponsible reports, no managers or scorekeepers scored. 8 players, however, did. (Johnson and Naish added 7 and 6 respectively). Massac County (IL) was the weakest of the bunch in the opening game on Friday. Connell had 15 with 7 rebounds and 7 steals. Cason had 14 with 9 steals. Neither played much in the 2nd half and 10 players scored (Johnson 8, Chatman, Harrison, and Stephens with 6, Donkin and Denton with 5 each). Connell was awarded game MVP. Smart move on Coach Bush's part to provide as much rest with 2 games slated for the next day... and to get quality playing time for younger players. Connell, Cason, and Chatman were named to the All Tournament Team as Siegel took home the Heritage Bank Hardwood Tournament Championship Trophy. Who knows how the team will fare when district play starts, but criticizing the competition with no justification other than final scores isn't warranted. They are playing well, top to bottom. They've gotten the job done in November and December without a blemish and should be congratulated.

Haley Fagan, a junior pitcher at Cornersville High School verballed last night to accept a full ride at the University of Tennessee. She had narrowed her choices to Tennessee and Mississippi State before making the final decision. Congrats Haley.

Two of the best for several years now... Kendall Hooper, DCA 2010 - will sign a scholarship with Tennessee Tech next Wednesday. Could have gone virtually anywhere, strong, fast, great arm, huge bat, calls a great game. I just got off the phone with yet another out of state school who is interested in her, after being recommended to him by a SEC coach who watched her play at a Showcase in Athens, GA last weekend. Sarah Beth Roberts, Mt Juliet 2011 - super quick release, great glove, etc... taking an unofficial to UT this Saturday, Alabama coming up to watch her play on Sunday, lots of interest from virtually everybody in the state (i.e. UT Martin, Belmont, TSU, etc) among other out of state schools.

How can you say that? The situation with her dad has nothing to do with Nina and should not be brought up when you talk about her. Nina is a great ball player and should not be remembered by what her dad did which she had no control over. Seriously dude? Read the post... note the smiley, laughing face and the LOL Escape17 used. Her dad and Escape17 are close friends and talk almost daily. LOL - laugh out loud/on line.

DEVERS A VERY GOOD PLAYER . I WATCHED HER DURING HER SOPH YEAR AND KNEW SHE COULD PLAY. I HOPE SHE PLAYS THIS YEAR. I ENJOY WATCHING HER PLAY AGAINST WHITE HOUSE. SHE PLAYS A GOOD ALL AROUND GAME BUT SHE DOES NEED WORK ON HER JUMPER. SHE MUST BE A GOOD ALL AROUND ATHLETE IF SHE PLAYS VOLLEYBALL AND IS GOING TO PLAY AT MTSU IN SOFTBALL. Why do people ever start rumors? Makes them feel special or smart or important I guess. Perhaps we'd all be better off if everybody just kept their noses in their own business. It's Dever, btw, and you are right. She can play. All State Volleyball Team in 2008. Starter in BB and softball since her freshman year. Too many All District, All MTSCA, All Tournament, and academic awards to list. It's been difficult for me to fit all her accomplishments onto the one page Player Profile format I use for every player (I have to use smaller font sizes to cram it all in). Trevecca wanted her badly to come in as a two sport athlete. DI schools have continued to show interest in her even after she verballed to MTSU. Hard nosed, aggressive, full blast type player. Even at 6'3" and 240 lbs. I don't want to be the defensive player trying to cut her off when she drives to the hole because if I could keep her from blowing past me, she'd just run over me and knock me on my butt - and flash me a big ole smile when she put the ball in the hole and went to the line for the "And One". You might think she needs some work on her jumper, but she's doing something pretty well since she has scored some 910 points through her junior year and should pass the 1000 point milestone well before Christmas. Nina has played travel softball for me the past two years. I can guarantee you that if I were to take a college team, I'd take her with me in a heartbeat. She can play for any team in the country. MTSU and Sue Never have found a gem, and she'll sign her National Letter of Intent scholarship papers on November 11th. She'll likely be a 3 or 4 year starter at the collegiate level. And if I was ever in a position to need a partner to cover my rear in a fox hole on the front lines of combat, I wouldn't hesitate to pick Ms. Dever.

Thanks. Hope the recruiting process is enjoyable for her and she lands at a great school.

As a pitching instructor and the parent of a pitcher... The change is only as big of a deal as you make it to your pitcher. If you adopt the view that it is too difficult, it probably will be for your pitcher. If you shrug it off as no big deal (and my view is that it isn't a big deal), then it probably won't be for your pitcher either. My students already train occasionally from 45-50 feet as a part of their speed and strength building workouts. When my daughter's team was 10U there were only 3 other teams playing A ball in the state, and all 3 were in Chattanooga. It didn't do us much good play locally, and more times than not, as soon as the brackets were sent out, once our name popped up, teams would start pulling out to go to another tournament where there were weaker teams they had a chance of beating and we were left without a place to play. We got tired of going to Chattanooga every week just to have a chance to play and to chase the same 2-3 teams. We had been hesitant to move up to 12U because of the bigger 12" ball and extra 5 feet, but eventually were so frustrated that we decided to try it. None of our pitchers had any problem making the adjustment, and played 13 tournaments at the 12U & 14U level before dropping back for the 10U ASA Nationals. Our hitters couldn't drive the bigger ball like they did the 11" ball but it didn't pose any problems for our pitchers. In the end, it actually made them better. If 10 year olds can throw a 12" ball from 40', 12-14 year olds can move back 3 feet. When my daughter was a 13 year old 8th grader, she was moved up to the high school team. Every year they traveled to Florida during spring break to play a number of games against teams in the area. Florida had already been playing at 43' for a couple of years, but our coach had apparently not noticed the pitching distance difference in previous trips. She threw the first game in Florida without any advance knowledge that she was throwing at 43 feet. She even warmed up at 40' and started out throwing everything low, made an adjustment, which for 43 was an over adjustment and moved too high, and had to keep making adjustments. She ended up walking a batter and going to 3 balls on a couple of hitters (which is rare for her), but she got out of the inning without allowing a run. After the inning her coach called me over to ask why she was riding overly low and high, which was of course, the extra 3 feet. Not only did she get a complete game win, but she threw 3 other games that week, two of which were back to back 9 inning extra inning games, and she fared just fine. If a 13 year old 8th grader can throw effectively from 43' without any advance knowledge of the distance, much less practice at that distance, and even warmed up at 40'... especially considering that the first pitch she had ever thrown at 43' was after taking the field for a high school game - no disrespect to my daughter as she is a fine pitcher, but she was just 13 in the first game of her high school career and it couldn't be that difficult. These pitchers have 6 months to become used to the change. When the rule passed for high school, I immediately moved my middle school students back as well, just in case. They really aren't having much difficulty making the change. The only ones who struggle are the beginners, but they struggle at 40' anyway because they are still inexperienced beginners. Their speed doesn't drop. Speed from 3 feet further isn't any slower, it just takes slightly (small fraction of a second) longer for the ball to arrive to the catcher. For many of the younger players, they are already throwing the equivalent of 43 feet or longer because their catchers set up so far behind the batter in the first place. It will be a little tougher on the smaller middle school girls who haven't hit puberty and/or growth spurts already. But in most cases, it's fairly tough for them at 40' already. There aren't many small pre-pubescent players who throw with great velocity. Their fastball already has a "hump" in it from 40' (and would have one at 35' as well). Little 16 year olds can often bring it, but that is completely different. I've got a tiny (74 pound) middle school pitcher who just turned 13 two weeks ago. She's smaller than many 10U players I see at Fly Park on a given weekend. She throws in the mid to upper 40s, and uses every ounce of her body to achieve that speed. We moved her back to 43'. She didn't lose any speed and within 20 minutes of throwing and making adjustments, she was throwing strikes with the fastball, change, and screw. We focused on the curve the next week and she got it down quickly. It's taken a couple of weeks to adjust the length of her drop ball, but she threw 10 nice strikes in a row on Monday. Her screw ball is actually better. At 40' it was basically an inside fastball with screwball spin. At 43' it is actually breaking. Anyway, young pitchers who struggle at 40' will also struggle at 43'. It doesn't really matter if the pitching distance is 40' or 52'. Those who are serious about pitching and train properly would find a way to adjust to 52'. 43' is the rule and it's only 3 feet further. Those with proper form will adjust quickly, those with poor form will find it much more difficult. Pitching in fastpitch is difficult. But adding or subtracting 3 feet doesn't make it significantly more or less difficult. If you approach it as the rule and not a big deal, those who really want to pitch will adjust just fine.

Nina Dever OF/SS (Greenbrier 2010) verbally committed to Middle Tennessee State University Kendall Hooper C/OF (Donelson Christian Academy 2010) verbally committed to Tennessee Tech University

Not in the real world. It's the state championship. 8 run lead isn't 20. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Not that baseball or softball are any easier to play than the other sports, but there is far less physical beating and fatigue than experienced in football, basketball, and soccer. I've never played tennis, and know very little about the sport or about the ability to play multiple matches in a day. Baseball has long been a double header sport from rec ball through the Major Leagues. Softball is the same. It's not uncommon for travel teams to play upwards of 4 games in a day on a weekly basis during tournament play. It takes a week for football players to recover from the beating they receive on Friday nights. Basketball teams only play on back to back nights a few times during the season. Three games in three days is already a very difficult task. There is so much running that no amount of conditioning could prepare them for that. Doing double elimination would turn the 16 week football season into a 30 week season (probably hyperbole - I didn't actually do the math, but it would stretch it out significantly). A double elimination tournament is one of the best ways to determine a true champion - and the region and sectional should be double elimination or best 2 of 3 series instead of one game do or die as it is. But, it is less that baseball and softball do it differently than they do it in the best way, but it really isn't feasible in some other sports.

Exactly how doubtful is Very Doubtful? Congrats to Siegel and Riverdale for making it to State.

Okay... my daughter's team is still in it, so the others can't say I only hold the opinion because we got beat in one. I'm one who thinks the softball playoff format is whacked. Double elimination District One game do-or-die single elimination (Region) Non-elimination game that counts only for home field (Region Final) One game do-or-die single elimination (Sectional) Double elimination State Double, Single, Nothing, Single, Double. It's always seemed goofy to me - especially in a sport like softball. A single game in softball often doesn't always result in the best team winning that particular game. When a team wins a one game playoff, they won it and deserve the win, but that isn't necessarily the same as being the "best" team in a lot of cases. That's part of what is most enjoyable about softball. (Even though this is the Soddy/Riverdale thread, that comment has nothing to do with either team - I haven't seen Soddy play this year and have seen enough of Riverdale to know that they are a good team which should do well next week.) A best 2 of 3 series or double elimination tournament is much more indicative. If not, why isn't the State single elimination? There is a reason why WCWS and regionals, travel tournaments, qualifiers, Nationals, etc. are double elimination tournaments and the super regionals are 2 of 3 as is the WCWS Finals.

District 7 AAA - Siegel and Riverdale advance to Region

SenorFly - you hit that one out of the park. Sounds like you've been there and done that. One of my biggest concerns is the effort to force kids to choose one sport as a freshman or even in middle school as happens far too often. Kids can develop as athletes by leaps and bounds during these years. I've seen a lot of kids who I couldn't begin to determine their best sport at 13-14 years old much less determine what their best sport would/could be by the time they are a senior. I've seen lots of players cajoled/bullied into quitting a sport they love and possess solid potential in favor of another sport, but in the end, didn't really develop to the highest levels in the sport to which they were shoved. If they don't want to play second or third sports, then great, there certainly isn't anything wrong with playing just one sport - but as you said, they need to be the ones making that decision.

I think it is the exact opposite of your point. Incidentally, up until last year, I did coach AAU basketball as well. We played basketball during the school softball season and switched over to softball as soon as the high school season ended. They couldn't play a full season of AAU basketball because it goes into summer softball season, and while they are great basketball players, softball is what they will play in college. But, we didn't want them to fall behind when their teammates and competition was playing AAU. For example, my daughter does fine in basketball and most people believe that she is a better basketball player than a softball player, but for most of her career she has been playing post in high school ball at 5'8". There aren't a lot of colleges lining up to sign a 5'8" center, and there certainly aren't any major colleges doing so, no matter how good they might be - nor are they willing to burn a scholarship on a kid that they have to teach to move to the 1 or 2 positions. There are enough talented 1s and 2s out there who have been excelling in those positions for years. Take a look at the resumes of the Olympic softball player and any number of current collegiate softball players. The majority of them played multiple sports in high school. Every noteworthy youth sports expert in the country strongly promotes multiple sports and cross-training. All warn about problems including repetitive use injury risks for players who work year round on one sport exclusively. Sure kids have to make choices, but being forced to quit sports because a high school coach can't work around or cope with a kid missing one June scrimmage or practice in order to attend an in season college exposure game with several college coaches standing behind the backstop makes me raise my eyebrows. Multi-sports can be done. They are done all the time. Strange how I've got girls from 10 different schools and the coaches from 8 of them can find a way to benefit their players by working with them in multiple sports but 2 don't seem to be able to do so.

Well the problem with this point of view is clearly illustrated in the specific case of the person you were responding to, and to a larger degree, illustrative of the problem a lot of better athletes have with high school sports in general. 5 sport dad's daughter is a multi-sport player and a multi-sport star. My guess is that her collegiate sport will end up being softball, but there is still another year to determine that. She was 1st team All-State in volleyball this year. She is All-District in basketball and her team's leading scorer among other stats. She has started and hit lead off on the softball team since the day she walked on campus as a freshman and is a perennial All-District player. She was named to the MTSCA All Academic team. She's being recruited by DI schools in softball and will end up with a very nice offer, BUT she has also already received at least one offer from a NAIA school (who can legally recruit juniors) to play BOTH volleyball and softball at the school - THAT IS TWO SPORTS IN COLLEGE. Are you going to tell me that she can do it successfully in college but not high school? She plays for me in travel ball. I can assure you that she gives 100% every time she steps foot on a field or in a gym, and I can guarantee you that she has NEVER shortchanged any team or program in which she has ever participated. Of my 10 travel team players, 6 also started for their school basketball teams, and 5 made All District. Not a lot of short changing going on there either. One of those players has already decided to give up basketball next year. She averaged 32 points a game as a freshman on the freshman team in 07-08 and was named the MVP for the Freshman District. One of the biggest problems she's faced over the years is that her coach works to insure that his basketball players only play one sport. In the past, she has had to miss college exposure tournaments and exposure games in June because he called a "freshman only" practice that wasn't on the summer schedule and was a day after their last regularly scheduled summer practice - and informed them on Thursday afternoon for a 10:00 Friday morning practice when he had been given our Music City Hits schedule by her well in advance showing our games at 9:00 and 12:00. She had already missed our two games on Wednesday and one on Thursday. The same type of situations happened again last summer. Bottom line... this is supposed to be about the kids and off-season is off-season.

Just to clarify the implication in this response... I am the parent of the pitcher named... and I am not RBImom, and RBImom is not my wife. I don't know who she is. From previous posts, it doesn't appear that RBImom has any connection to Siegel. I do appreciate her comments about my daughter. They were very kind. However, it certainly isn't a case of a "pitchers parent making it all about DD and not the team" as Mr knowitall suggests. While I didn't think she meant any disrespect to any of my daughter's teammates, I cringed a bit when I read the post simply because we value her teammates and are proud of the job they have done this year, and would never want them to think otherwise - and I think RBImom has been very clear about explaining that she had no intention of disrespecting any players. My daughter is very appreciative of those on the field with her and fully understands that softball is a team sport. If they aren't there to play defense and score runs, it doesn't matter how good a pitcher may or may not be. But I read RBImom's comments for what they were obviously meant to mean, and again, appreciate the compliment.

Cornersville over Coffee County 2-0. Cole (RH) pitched against Vincent Cornersville over Hume-Fogg 6-0. Cole (LH) pitched vs. Rucker Coffee County over Greenbrier 4-2 (I think that score is accurate - showed up right after it ended) Greenbrier beat Hume-Fogg. Siegel over Brentwood 6-4. Williams pitched vs. Harmon Siegel over Dobyns-Bennett 3-1, Connell pitched (2 H, 13K, 6 IP) vs Lilley Player note: Danielle Rucker of Hume-Fogg has committed to play softball for Birmingham Southern after graduation this May.