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FASTPITCH HEADQUARTERS NEWS
Prestigious JUCO Kickoff Classic & Showcase Has Tremendous Weekend
January 29, 2013
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Clearwater, FL - The prestigious JUCO Kickoff Classic and Showcase was held this past weekend in Clearwater Florida at the Eddie C Moore Sports Complex and started the Junior College season off in style. The weather was spectacular with highs in the mid-70s and the lows in the upper 50s. Blue, sunny skies filled the days, and a beautiful full moon shone over the fields at night.
Twenty-seven teams participated this year, the 4th year of this annual competition, with teams from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Illinois. Sixty-five games were played over the 3-day event, and the competition was extremely strong to start off the season. And to make the stakes even higher for the players, over 70 four-year college recruiters were on hand to scout them for their next step in their college careers.
TOURNAMENT RESULTS
FRIDAY
1200pm
State College of Florida 1, Tallahassee 3; St Petersburg 6, Brevard 7; Aiken Technical (SC) 12, Pasco-Hernando 2; St Johns River 4, Pensacola 7.
200pm
State College of Florida 1, Miami Dade 3; St Petersburg 6, Tallahassee 2; Aiken Technical (SC) 8, St Johns River 5 (8 inn); Illinois Central 3, Pensacola 0; Hillsborough 5, NW Florida 4 (9 inn).
420pm
Indian River 7, Florida State College Jax 4; Abraham Baldwin (GA) 3, Palm Beach 1; Broward 2, Gulf Coast 8; Illinois Central 7, Hillsborough 3; Brevard 5, NW Florida 11; Pasco-Hernando 8, Daytona 13.
620pm
Gulf Coast 4, Florida State College Jax 0; Abraham Baldwin (GA) 3, Indian River 4; Palm Beach 3, Tallahassee 13; Broward 4, St Johns River 8; Miami Dade 5, Chattanooga St (TN) 1; Aiken Technical (SC) 6, Daytona 5 (8 inn).
SATURDAY
900am
Daytona 2, NW Florida 6; Polk 4, St Johns River 3; Chattanooga St (TN) 8, Broward 0 (5 inn); Gulf Coast 6, Santa Fe 7 (9 inn); Tallahassee 9, So Georgia 7; Pensacola 0, Central Florida 8; Illinois Central 1, Indian River 2.
1100am
So Florida 5, St Johns River 2; Polk 3, Lake-Sumter 4; Chattanooga St (TN) 7, Santa Fe 9; Gulf Coast 3, Seminole 4; Tallahassee 2, Illinois Central 3; State College of Florida 2, Florida State College Jax 0; Pensacola 3, Indian River 4.
120pm
So Florida 4, Lake-Sumter 7; Hillsborough 2, Aiken Technical (SC) 8 (8 inn); So Georgia 6, Brevard 3; Broward 1, St Petersburg 2; Pasco-Hernando 4, Abraham Baldwin (GA) 1; State College of Florida 6, Daytona 1; Palm Beach 3, NW Florida 7.
320pm
St Johns River 5, Chattanooga St (TN) 14; Florida State College Jax 5, Aiken Technical (SC) 3; Hillsborough 13, Brevard 1 (5 inn); Central Florida 0, Gulf Coast 4; Seminole 9, Abraham Baldwin (GA) 0 (5 inn); Miami Dade 8, Daytona 0 (6 inn); Santa Fe 1, NW Florida 3.
540pm
Lake-Sumter 2, St Petersburg 6; Florida State College Jax 3, Chattanooga St (TN) 6; So Florida 2, Indian River 11 (6 inn); Central Florida 9, Palm Beach 1; Miami Dade 7, Seminole 1; Santa Fe 10, Pasco-Hernando 2 (5 inn).
SUNDAY
900am
Gulf Coast 3, Illinois Central 4; Miami Dade 5, Florida State College Jax 10; Palm Beach 2, St Petersburg 4; So Georgia 10, Lake-Sumter 6; Pensacola 5, Chattanooga St (TN) 7; NW Florida 6, Polk 1.
1100am
Florida State College Jax 9, Palm Beach. 2; Miami Dade 11, Gulf Coast 4; Illinois Central 1, St Petersburg 2; So Georgia 5, Polk 8; Lake-Sumter 1, Chattanooga St (TN) 3.
The 2014 JUCO Kickoff Classic will be held on January 31-February 2 in Clearwater Florida. For more information, go to www.signatureshowcases.com.
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Florida Fury and Team FLA Programs Merge
August 8, 2012
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA
AUGUST 8, 2012
Team FLA Softball, Inc. and the Florida Fury are proud and excited to announce that they will be partnering for the upcoming season and years to come!
Linda Derk and Joe Cotrone of the Florida Fury will be coaching the Team FLA 18U Gold team, as well as working with the entire Team FLA Softball family to lead the way and bring the organization to national notoriety.
Our 16U Team FLA will be coached by former college players and will be led by Susan Jallo of University of Tampa and her coaching staff that includes Richelle Mirabal of Newberry College and GiOnna DiSalvatore of UCLA.
"This is a terrific opportunity for everyone involved", stated Linda Derk. "We are extremely excited about partnering with Team FLA and developing the organization to the next level."
This transition will be effective immediately and all teams will be under the TEAM FLA name.
Please check out the websites below for more information!
www.ldisports.com and www.teamflasoftball.com
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Recaps of all FPHQ Events Can be Found under "Past Events"
November 5, 2011
To find news, scores, photos, recaps and other information about any of Fastpitch Headquarters' completed events, please be sure to go to Past Events or click on it in the left navigation menu.
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Signature Showcases will Benefit Multiple Charities
August 5, 2010
Fastpitch Headquarters and LDI Sports Consulting have announced that ALL Signature Showcases will benefit 2 great charities: The Susan G Komen for the Cure breast cancer research foundation and the Michele Smith's Softball for Hearts/Athletes for Hearts foundation.
Both of these charities will benefit from raffles and collections during the signature events. Plus, any $20 donation made to Breast Cancer Research will receive a softball-themed "Bring Home a Cure" t-shirt with the logo that is displayed on the top right.
Also, events held in Florida will also collect good condition, used equipment for the Aruba Little League Softball Program.
FPHQ and LDI Sports are committed to helping charities and grassroots softball groups.
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Fall Ball Friendlies Discontinued
July 8, 2010
Due to a tripling of the cost of team insurance for the 2010 fall season and other cost increases, FPHQ is no longer able to offer the Fall Ball Friendlies. The increase in pricing has made it impossible for us to offer a registration fee and game fees that will be economical for the teams. We are sorry that we will no longer offer this league/games for the high school teams. We appreciate all the teams that have supported this program in the past, and we wish you "good luck" in your 2011 season.
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USSSA to Sanction Florida Cup & Florida Fall Signature Showcase Tournaments
October 15, 2009
Fastpitch Headquarters is pleased to announce that our 2010 Florida Cup and the 2010 Florida Fall Signature Showcase will be sanctioned by the USSSA, the United States Specialty Sports Association.
The USSSA is a national sanctioning organization that was founded in 1968. The USSSA organiztion is the world's largest multi-sport athletic association. With almost 80,000 softball teams registered each year, over 8,000 weekend tournaments, 100 National and World tournaments and 6,600 registered umpires, the USSSA program provides quality and opportunity to our program.
We look forward to many successful events with USSSA.
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Fall Ball Friendlies Move to McArthur HS
July 30, 2009
The 2009 Fall Ball Friendlies will be held at McArthur High School this year. McArthur HS is located right off the Florida Turnpike at the Hollywood Boulevard exit. This location is ideal for teams from all over the county and from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. Games will again be held at 9am, 11am, and 1pm each Sunday in the Fall. Teams can select the dates they want to play. This is perfect for high school non-school teams.
For more information, check out the tournament web page under Our Tournaments. |
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Mid-West Fall Classic Becomes an ASA Qualifier
June 20, 2009
The Mid-West Fall Classic that will be held in Columbus Ohio on October 17-18, 2009 has been awarded ASA Eastern National Qualifier status for 12u and 14u age groups.. This event will be held at Lou Berliner Sports Complex, which has 16 lighted fields and 15 unlighted fields all at one location.
For more information, check out the tournament web page under Our Tournaments.
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FPHQ Announces Mid-West Signature Showcase in Columbus Ohio
March 23, 2009
Fastpitch Headquarters is excited to announce the new Mid-West Signature Showcase that will be held in Columbus Ohio on October 16-18, 2009. This event will be held at Lou Berliner Sports Complex, which has 16 lighted fields and 15 unlighted fields all at one location.
This new college recruiting showcase tournament will be a joint venture between Fastpitch Headquarters, LDI Sports Consulting & Instruction, and the Miami Valley Sports Foundation. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Miami Valley Express and the Florida Fury programs, as well as other FPHQ programs.
For more information, check out the tournament web page under Our Tournaments.
View the most recent Press Release.
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Winter Signature Showcase Huge Success
January 5, 2009
The Inaugural Winter Signature Showcase was held on January 2 - 4 at the Mills Pond Park Softball Complex in Fort Lauderdale Florida. This tournament was hosted by Fastpitch Headquarters, LDI Sports Consulting & Instruction, and the Florida Fury Fastpitch Program. The proud sponsors were Ringor, Wilson, and Softball Magazine. This winter event was the first in a series of college showcase recruiting tournaments that are also held in the summer and in the fall.
It was a wonderful weekend. The weather was beautiful, and the park was a great venue. Mills Pond Park is a lighted 5 field facility with 200 foot fencing on all fields, batting cages, large dugouts, covered bleachers, lots of parking, no gate fees, and a large concession stand with a covered patio with television. The players, coaches, and fans really enjoyed the park.
The attending teams played all their games at this one park...no moving around to multiple venues. The tournament games were a full 7 innings, with optional extended play if time remained so that the teams could play in front of the coaches as long as they possibly could. The Tournament Director, Patti Shotwell, introduced situation play scenarios into the games that provided the teams with extra challenges during the games, opened up the scoring quite a bit, and made it more exciting to the fans, and a more valuable recruiting opportunity for the college coaches. Everyone loved it. Situation play will be a signature feature of all Signature Showcase events.
With the high-tech expertise of Softball Magazine, FPHQ sponsored live internet webcast broadcasts of 2 games on Sunday that featured play by play and color commentary by Linda Derk of LDI and college coach Jaci Davis from the University of Tampa. The 2 games are available in the Softball Central archives of Softball Magazine online. If you are interested in listening to the games, go to www.softballmag.com and link to Softball Central.
At showcase tournaments, winning is not the primary motivation because the teams are there to show their recruitable players to the attending college coaches. But recognizing the teams' performances and determining a Champion is another feature of the Signature Showcases. In order to keep the focus on showcase performance and not necessarily on playing to win, Champions are determined by least runs allowed, not by won/loss records. If the defensive performance is inconclusive, then offensive production is used with most runs scored.
Here are the scores from the games at the Winter Signature Showcase.
Friday Games
South Florida Alleycats 2, 18u Florida Fury 8
South Florida Alleycats 13, 16u Florida Fury 6
18u Florida Fury 7, Tampa Mustangs 3
Perrine Stingers 2, Tampa Mustangs 11
Ft Lauderdale Lightning 3, Perrine Stingers 7
Ft Lauderdale Lightning 7, Florida Vipers 5
16u Florida Fury 3, Florida Vipers 7
Saturday Games
18u Florida Fury 3, Perrine Stingers 0
South Florida Alleycats 8, Perrine Stingers 7
South Florida Alleycats 3, Tampa Mustangs 10
16u Florida Fury 3, Tampa Mustangs 14
16u Florida Fury 4, Florida Vipers 9
18u Florida Fury 10, Florida Vipers 5
Perrine Stingers 6, Florida Vipers 17
Tampa Mustangs 9, Ft Lauderdale Lightning 5
16u Florida Fury 10, Ft Lauderdale Lightning 13
18u Florida Fury 14, Ft Lauderdale Lightning 3
Sunday Games
South Florida Alleycats 7, Florida Vipers 6
South Florida Alleycats 11, Ft Lauderdale Lightning 8
16u Florida Fury 5, Perrine Stingers 15
16u Florida Fury 0, 18u Florida Fury 15
18u Florida Fury 5, Tampa Mustangs 3 (after 7 innings)
Tampa Mustangs 7, Florida Vipers 6 (1pm Internet Game)
Ft Lauderdale Lightning 3, Perrine Stingers 7 (3pm Internet Game)
After winning all of their games and having the least runs allowed, the 18u Florida Fury were crowned the Inaugural Winter Signature Showcase Champions!
The next event in the Signature Showcase Series is on June 5 - 7 at Palmetto Bay Park in South Miami-Dade County. The number of teams to be accepted is limited, as ALL games are at just one park. Any teams interested in this event should go to our website at www.fastpitchheadquarters.com and enter early.
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Fall Ball Friendlies Complete Season
December 15, 2008
The 2008 Fall Ball Friendlies season is now over. It was a great experience for all of the high school based travel teams that participated. The list of teams included Pompano Lady Tornadoes, Felix Varela Vipers, McArthur Mustangs, Douglas Eagles, Nova Titans, Jupiter Warriors, Cypress Bay Lightning, Deerfield Lady Bucks, and South Plantation Paladins.
Fall Ball Friendlies is hosted by Douglas Eagles Softball Booster Club, and proceeds from concession sales benefit the Booster Club.
This year, Fall Ball was expanded to 12 Sundays in the Fall. This was the largest fall ball event in the State. The teams that participated were able to chose the dates that they wanted to play, and they played 2 games on each date. It was the perfect Fall Ball play opportunity for the high school based teams.
To ensure that the teams were in compliance with the FHSAA rules on Off-Season Participation, the attending teams were sanctioned with the ASA as travel teams and they were insured for the Fall season to protect the players and coaches. Their high school district was also listed as an additional insured.
Fastpitch Headquarters made sure that Fall Ball Friendlies was the perfect fall ball event for the high school based fall teams, and they all said they would participate again next year.
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AFA to Sanction Signature Showcase Tournaments
October 15, 2008
Fastpitch Headquarters is pleased to announce that our 2009 Winter and Summer Signature Showcases of college recruiting showcase tournaments in Florida will be sanctioned by the AFA, the American Fastpitch Association.
The American Fastpitch Association is a nonprofit corporation, under the direction of Terry Fullmer and Ron Gossmer. It was founded in Anaheim, CA in 1980 for the promotion of girls fast pitch softball. The AFA is operated by a group of grassroots volunteers across the country and has no paid staff.
The AFA has held National Championships and International Tournaments for over 20 years. Teams from 40 different States, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan have participated.
Of the multitudes of girls who have played AFA softball, over 10,000 have received college scholarships. Many have gone on to become college coaches, or to play on the U.S. Olympic Softball team or in the Women's Professional Leagues.
The AFA is committed to working hard to provide an environment that produces positive experiences for players, coaches, parents, tournament directors and anyone else involved in the sport of softball.
AFA has primarily focused its attention to the States west of the Mississippi River, but this year they are making in-roads to the east and south. In Florida, Dick Oyer is the new State Director, and he is eager to promote our Signature Showcase Series in the State and around the country.
With their excellent track record and their philosophy of letting the Tournament Directors run their own events, AFA is a perfect fit for a partnership with Fastpitch Headquarters. We look forward to a successful year.
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For more information about AFA, contact:
FLORIDA STATE DIRECTOR
Dick Oyer
Cell: 561-704-2398
Email: oyerr@bellsouth.net
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