Rockford, IL-   The American Fastpitch Association (AFA) cordially invited an impressive seven Oklahoma 16 and Under, Class A Fastpitch Softball teams to participate in this years AFA 16U Class A National Tournament, which was held this past weekend at Sportscore One in beautiful Rockford, IL.  The Teams representing Oklahoma included the Tulsa Lightning, the Tulsa Tuff Stuff, the Oklahoma Classics of Tulsa/Broken Arrow, the Oklahoma Dynamite Badside of Edmond, the Oklahoma Select of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Sensations of Choctaw and the Oklahoma Titans of Tulsa.  All of these teams qualified by their performance in AFA Qualifier tournaments held throughout the season throughout the Country and they all came prepared to play on a National level as it showed with several overall impressive finishes including the Badside’s 5^th Place, Sensations 9^th Place, Tuff Stuff’s 9^th Place tie and Titans 13^th Place finishes overall out of 48 of the Nations Top 16 and Under teams..

Rockford is located along the beautiful Rock River in northern Illinois. An All-American City and an Illinois Arts Friendly Community, Rockford is home to more than 150,000 people, making it the third largest city in Illinois.  Rockford’s fascination with sports, and particularly baseball began shortly after the Civil War, with the success of the Forest City Baseball Club. Some of baseball’s earliest icons began their careers in the Forest City, including Albert Spaulding, Ross Barnes and Adrian Anson. Then from 1945 to 1954, Rockford again gained national recognition with the All American Girls Professional Baseball League team, the Rockford Peaches as many of you may remember from the movie “A League of Their Own”, which is incidentally many of the young ladies, participating in fastpitch softball’s, all-time favorite movie and a motivating factor in their pursue of the dream of one day playing professional sports.

Sportscore One, built in 1983 on 105 acres adjacent to the Rock River in northwest Rockford, this is the original Sportscore complex.  Sportscore One has 8 lighted softball diamonds local play plus regional and national tournaments attract over a million visitors to this location a year, and it’s consistently rated as the area’s top tourist destination.   This has been the site of four previous AFA National Championships.  The park was beautiful and I don’t believe that I have ever seen the grass in better condition then it was here.  The only real downside was that the infields were pretty rough containing tiny gritty sand similar to kitten litter and was a dangerous place for the ultra competitive player, who lays out, dives and slides a lot.

The OK Dynamite Badside is a Team based in Edmond, OK. The Oklahoma Dynamites BadSide are coached by former USA National Team member, former NPF all-star and current PFX Tour player Jaime Foutch. Jaime's resume is unsurpassed in Oklahoma softball holding 19 offensive records at OSU along with her achievements during 9 years of service to the USA National Team she was also an All-Star during her tenure with the National Pro Fastpitch league. Jaime is currently touring with the PFX Tour. Jaime along with her Assistant Coach and sister Lisa Foutch who has spent over 30 years now in competitive softball either as a player, coach or umpire, leads a team comprised of some of the Top Amateur female Athletes from throughout Oklahoma including #00 Kaylee Hicks "Gumby", # 1Tela Lovingshimer "Jose", #2Whitney Wiltfong "Scooby", #4 Haley Broyles "Ree", #10 Claire Gilchrist "POK", #12 Chelsea Jones "MLP", # 15 Heather Terry "Juice", #20 Delayna Gary "D-Ray", #21 Kaci Quintero "Q", #22 Aaron Adams "Sea Biscuit", #26 Kimberly Cusher "Cush", #27Ashley Brokeshoulder "Neak", #34 Maddie Stein "Mad Dawg" and #45 Destinee Foust "Peaches".  This team has had an extremely successful year so far including winning the Canada Cup Championship earlier this month going 15-2-1 in Canada overall and went undefeated in bracket play to win their first international championship.  The Team finished the AFA National tournament with a 3-and-0 Undefeated Pool Record, winning their Pool Championship and followed up their earlier performance with a 3-and-2 Bracket Record finishing in an impressive 5^th place overall, only losing 2-out-of-3 and forcing the IF Game to the Defending AFA 16 “A” National Champion Stone City Marlins who went on to win Runner-Up.

The Oklahoma Sensations of Choctaw, OK Coached by Gene Templeton had a very successful year including going undefeated in two consecutive tournaments with one being an AFA Qualifier.  The team also placed second in the PFX Tour Pro-Am Slam in OKC.  The Team includes some amazing Athletes including #00 Brooke Farmer of Bethany, #1 Maria Hilterbran of Moore, #2 Shelby Meadows of Choctaw, #3 Ashlie Fauchier of Choctaw, #4 Kelsie Armstrong of Bethel, #5 Karis Neasbitt of Choctaw, #12 Katrina Brewer of Bethel, #14 Jordan Battige of Bethel, #20 Bobbie Wesley of Bethel, #21 Kourtney Jenkins of Cashion, #22 Jessica Orr of Choctaw, #23 Amanda Karth of Choctaw and #24 Marissa Jennings of Choctaw.  The Team finished the tournament with a 3-and-0 Undefeated Pool Record, winning their Pool Championship and a 4-and-2 Bracket Record finishing in an impressive 9^th place overall; which is an amazing feat considering the team is young enough to qualify as a 14 and Under team, but chose to play up at the 16 U division all season.  They should be one of the hottest 16U teams next season.

The Tulsa Tuff Stuff, based in Tulsa, is a strong Team that has stepped up this year in a huge way.   The Tuff Stuff qualified to participate in AFA Nationals by going Undefeated and capturing the Championship in the AFA Qualifier held at Boomtown Ballfields in Oklahoma City, OK in May of this year.  The Tuff Stuff is coached by Dick Willibey Head Coach, Milton Whitmarsh Assistant Coach and Terri McClure Manager/Pitching Coach and comprised of a Top group of Amateur Athletes including #1 Chelsea Daly P/OF/Utility of Broken Arrow, #2 Kayla Snyder C/3B of Broken Arrow, #5 Jordan Ford OF of Claremore, #6 Tiffany Bennett P of Owasso, #7 Christa Johnson 1B of Morris,  #8 Susan Mathews OF of Inola, #9 Clarisa Thornton OF of Owasso, #11 D.J. Simpson SS of Claremore, #12 Tara McClure P/Utility of Owasso, #15 Natalie Rose P of Henryetta, #17 Ashley Bennett 1B of Owasso, #21 Kaylee Moody 3B/C of Sequoyah Claremore, #22 Brittany Tull OF of Claremore and #26 Cassidy Wildermuth 2B of Pryor.  The Team finished the tournament with a 3-and-0 Undefeated Pool Record, winning their Pool Championship and a 3-and-2 Bracket Record finishing in an impressive 9^th place.

The Oklahoma Titans of Tulsa, OK are a tuff uprising group of Athletes.  The Titans are led by the All-Star coaching duo of Angela Foster along side April Humphreys.  Angela pitched and played 1st and outfield at the University of Tulsa for two seasons and then transferred to the University of Oklahoma for her final two seasons.  Angela is beginning her 3rd season as the pitching coach at her alma mater, Owasso High School.  April Humphreys started her college career at Oklahoma State University as a utility player and then transferred to Northeastern State University where she finished a successful career.  April has recently graduated from the TU College of Law and is now preparing to pass her Bar Exam the week of Nationals.   The Titans have an All-Star group of Amateur Athletes including #2 Brooke Lewis SS/2^nd of Cleveland, #3 Chelsea Kennedy 2nd/3rd of Owasso, #6 Kacie Ryal  2nd/Utility of Henryetta, #7 Casey Moyer OF/3rd of Broken Arrow, #8 Katrina Loy  OF  of Sequoyah (Clrmre),  #10 Jocey Leedom  P/1B of Red Oak, #11 Brittany Powers P/OF of Catoosa, #12 Sara Wilkerson 1B/OF of  Broken Arrow, #13  Shana Westover C/3rd  of Skiatook, #15 Carly Westover  3rd/U  of Skiatook,  #16 Tiffany Treat SS/Utility of Beggs and #20 Casey Elliott P/Utility of Skiatook.  The Team finished the tournament with a 2-and-1Record, for a second place Pool seeding and a 3-and-2 Bracket Record finishing strong for the week in a tie for 13^th place.

The Oklahoma Select of Oklahoma City is a great team of Athletes led by former Major League Baseball player Jeff Bronkey, who pitched three seasons for the Texas Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers after a successful college career at Oklahoma State University.  The Team faced some of the toughest competition right off and finished the tournament with a 1-and-2 Pool Record for fourth and a 1-and-2 Bracket Record, but had a great overall week finishing tied for 17^th place.

The Tulsa Lightning is a Team based in Tulsa, OK, which has been an organized team now since 1998 and has an extremely successful past including winning the 2003 NASI National Championship. The team is coached by Head Coach and Manager Rick Adams of Tulsa along with Assistant Coaches Mark Graham of Hominy, Billy Allen of Miami and Nathan Proffitt of Tulsa and is comprised of Top Amateur female Athletes from throughout Northeastern Oklahoma including Broken Arrow, Tulsa, Dewey, Glenpool, Hominy, Miami and Sand Springs.  The Team finished the tournament with a 1-and-2 Pool Record for third and a 1-and-2 Bracket Record.

The Oklahoma Classics of Tulsa/Broken Arrow are one of the hottest teams in the Green Country area.  They qualified to play in Nationals by finishing up runner-up to the Tuff Stuff in Boomtown AFA Qualifier in May of this year.  They also won the Championship in the Claremore Open.  The Team faced some of the toughest competition right off and finished the tournament with a 0-and-3 Pool Record for fourth and a 0-and-2 Bracket Record, but had a great week.

Congratulations to all the Oklahoma Teams, Coaches, Parents and Fans for your hard work and dedication.  Please, everyone congratulate these young Ladies when you see them and let them know how proud we are of their hard work and dedication on and off the field.  What a proud representation of Oklahoma.