BACK ROW STANDING Coach Rickert - White Cloud, Jaylinn Wiles- Newaygo, Audrina Ball - Newaygo, Violet Borkowski - Newaygo, Coach Boynton - Newaygo, Ali Kurtz - Hesperia, Addison Bates - Newaygo, Coach Bates - Newaygo, Camdyn DeGarmo Hesperia, Gwyn McGahn Hesperia, KNEELING Taytum Rickert White Cloud, Braelynn Patterson - Newaygo, Sam Osborne - Newaygo, Demi Castillo - Hesperia, Elena Rice- Newaygo, Elaine Good - Hesperia 3 teams combine into one for 8-10 year olds
They are the Tri City North Girls Softball team and they are headed down to Mattawan on Thursday July 20th to compete in the Little League State Tournament for 8-10 year old players. The team is made up of players from the Hesperia, White Cloud and Newaygo teams. We got a hold of the three Coaches Matthew Boynton (Newaygo), Cassie Rickert (White Cloud) and Michele Bates (Hesperia) who will be guiding the team in their hunt for hardware to pose a few questions What’s the format for the State Tourney? Coach Boynton: The State Tournament is round robin pool play initially. There are sixteen districts. Each district is represented by one team at the tournament, aka District champs. Those sixteen are divided into four pools of four teams. First three days of the tourney are playing one game each against the other three teams in your pool. Day four is the start of bracket play and the top two teams in each pool play to advance the following day. This is essentially the quarterfinals of the tournament. Day five is the semifinals where the four winners of each pool play. Winning two will advance to day 6 and play in the State Championship game for all the marbles. What are your greatest strengths as a team? Coach Boynton: Our greatest strength as a team has gotta be our pitching. We have 5/6 girls I can trot out comfortably if they're on. Following close behind is hitting. We have several girls on the team that hit over .700 for the entire year. Several hume runs, bunch of triples, and overall a good balance of speed and power. We also have at least 7 to 9 girls who can literally play anywhere on the field without significant drop off. What has the experience been like as coaches? Coach Bates: This year of coaching has been an excellent experience. I have enjoyed teaching our girls this season and loved being the positive reinforcement. It has been a pleasure to encourage and watch the girls improve in skill and to see their love for the sport grow. They have all shown tremendous sportsmanship throughout the season. Look forward to seeing what these girls can do at States. Coach Rickert: The experience has been an honor as it’s not everyday you get the opportunity to compete at this level, let alone get to coach young athletes that have a passion for the game. As coaches we've had to have these girls practice 4 days a week in hot, humid weather to prepare them. They were combined together from 3 small towns and expected to develop camaraderie and teamwork in about a month's time. As a coach I am proud of what they have developed into. Coach Boynton: The experience as coach has been a whirlwind honestly. I would do it again in a heartbeat and probably will every year. I've coached youth sports, specifically Little league, for 4 years now. This was my first year with Softball and probably my most favorite so far. Hopefully they just enjoy the experience and if all goes well we will shock some folks who see us as the underdogs from the rural communities.
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