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The Germantown Red Devils 18U Gold team will be having their annual open try-outs on Sept. 9, 2006 at Riverdale Park in Germantown, Tennessee. The Fall will include College Showcase events. The Summer will feature an extensive ASA Gold Schedule including expos in Birmingham and Colorado. The 2006 summer team included girls from Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The team is the defending AFA National Champions and ASA Gold Regional Champions. Anyone needing additional information should contact head coach Rose Kalisak at 901-367-2058 or by email at CoachK16@midsouth.rr.com.

Good Luck to the Nighthawks and Germantown as they travel to Oklahoma City this weekend to compete with the top 64 teams in the nation. Way to go girls!

Nighthawks or Falcons, are ya'll having as much trouble as we are finding out when we play this weekend?

The Germantown 18U Gold team won the Patriot Tournament in Baton Rouge over the weekend. Great job, girls - what a way to start off the summer!

Several Memphis area girls (from SBA, Houston, FACS in TN) will be playing with Germantown 18U Gold. They start off play this weekend in Baton Rouge.

Congratulations to Father Ryan! It has been a pleasure watching ya'll play the last 4 years. Class program - I'm going to miss the rivalry!

Knox Central Science Hill Riverdale Ooltewah Mt. Juliet Brentwood Brighton Houston

If I'm not mistaken, we are split........... we've played Riverdale 4 times this year, twice in preseason and twice in the regular season. We were 1 and 1 in each: SBA lost 1-2 at Franklin playday won 2-0 at Beech playday lost 0-2 in Hendersonville pool play won 3-1 Hendersonville championship game I'd say it's been a pretty good series this year. Each game was very good.

How long does it take to get from Nashville to Manchester? How long does it take to get from Lincoln County to Manchester?

She pitched the quarterfinal game and the whole game with SBA. We spoke with her mother afterward and she said that her coach wouldn't pitch her against Vestavia until playoffs - so my guess would be no.

Thanks, believe it or not, they teach us to read on this side of the state, also ; it's just that 5 hours is a long way to go for a couple of games. I thought our crazy (tongue in cheek ) coach was the only one that would do it! I'll pass the word along..............

Would ya'll drive to Memphis?

That's a little harsh don't you think. If that is true, there sure are a lot of egomaniacs running around!

Congratulations Riverdale! Ya'll are a quality outfit all the way around - it's been a pleasure playing you guys this year - great, friendly competition. We'll be cheering for you guys at State!

Any other Tennessee teams going to Alabama this weekend?

Is this something new? Several of these teams are in our region.

I know that, silly.............I meant they are the only ones you hear about, who else is in that region?

This says a lot for Division II this year. Who will GPS and Baylor play in the regions to get to state?

Thanks, that's what I thought. St. Benedict hasn't been in this tournament since our seniors were freshmen - we're looking forward to coming back!

Wow! Tough Pools - ought to be fun! What city is this played in?

The All-Tournament team members were announced immediately following the championship game. They did not ponder anything.

Both Amanda Lindsey and Ashley Dowdy from St. Benedict have 4 homeruns in regular season.

It's absolutely wonderful that UCLA is showing interest in a girl from Tennessee. She must be a great talent! However, a lot of what Bleacherbum says is true. Putting all your eggs in one basket as a junior is taking a big chance. My daughter went through the recruiting process last summer along with several of her summer teammates and acquaintances. I can tell you it's dog eat dog. Case and point, a kid we know had been being hounded by many of the top SEC schools (LSU, Georgia, Miss. St., Auburn). She was one of the belles of the ball at their winter clinics getting all kinds of attention (as a junior). Beginning of her recruiting summer, still the letters and emails. Once that July 1st date hit - nothing - until she got her Dear John letters telling her that they had completed their recruiting class for 2006.(By the way this kid did sign D1, just not at an SEC school) These coaches aren't recruiting 3-4 players for 3-4 positions. They have a database of hundreds of players for 3-4 scholarships. If I could give advice to anyone going through this process it would be keep your options open! Take all your official visits and have fun with it.

Amanda Lindsey from St. Benedict is having a great year, again. She went 32-5 last year and is something like 8-1 or 2 this year. The best pitchers we have faced: Cat from Riverdale The Waters girl from Soddy Julie from Brentwood

At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses, we did have some set backs at the end of last season. An injury to one of our pitchers at the end of the year and our catcher breaking her hand at state. Our defense was all switched around in our loss to GPS. We lost a heartbreaker to Baylor in the bottom of the 7th in our second game and the wind came out of our sails after that. We gave up 13 runs against GPS which is over twice as many as we have ever given up in any D2 game in the previous 4 years. Simply put, we didn't play well. We had our worst game of the year at state - kind of the equivalent of what University of Memphis did against UCLA in basketball last weekend. We have strong leadership this season with 6 seniors, 3 of which have started since they were freshmen. By the way, Keller, TX was very, very good. Very impressive all around program. Their pitcher is one of the top recruits in the nation this year and has signed with Baylor. We broke a 38 game winning streak for her. Our girls set out to do something special this year and so far have done pretty well.