Dottie

Okay.. my husband just came in and said sell it for $80 so you get a really GREAT deal .. grab it while he's feeling generous  :D 409-659-4595

Congratulations girls! Exceptional job!!

Anderson techzilla 29/19 fastpitch softball bat for sale. In great shape, hit a lot of home runs with this bat but has out grown it. Selling for $120 call 409-659-4595.

Good luck! Wish we were going to see you there ;) Make us proud!

Hornfrog.. The entire Shockers organization is full of great players and has always encouraged open tryouts and practices for all positions... since you remembered the numbers I'm sure you remembered seeing they were outfielders ;) Centerfield for #6 to be exact. I'm sure you'd enjoy seeing them and their team mates playing if you like good softball.  ;D But don't ever NOT tryout for a team based on positions other girls on the team play.. anything can happen ... positions can change, be shared and injuries happen.. you just never know what can happen in a season. Hope to see you when we tryout in spring regardless of what positions your girls play.

Bugler you have every right to be proud of your girls.. they did great! As they always do! Both are great kids and wonderful ball players. But you're also right, the teams could win with or without them just as they could win with or without any of our girls. None of our girls make or break that team. That's why it's a TEAM. They are all required to do their parts to make it work and man, when they are working as a team they are unstoppable! It's a thing of beauty. And amazing to watch.. can't wait to see what they do next weekend!

Yes, Congratulations to both Shockers teams and to the '99 TEAM... YOU ALL had some great plays and some amazing hits. A team does not win a game or a tournament with one or two girls you win it as a team and yesterday you did just that. It took everyone of you coming together having some great plays, and smacking that ball the way you all can in order to do well. You did that as a TEAM! Congratulations! Proud of you ALL!

Way to go Shannon! Raven misses working 3rd base with you ;)

Yes, it appears hottestbats did in fact change their name to bullwinkle and at the same time went back and removed all of their posts.

Craig hasn't even posted to this thread. This thread was a congratulatory post started by a parent and YOU chose to make a jab about something said MONTHS ago. Put on your big boy or big girl pants (I don't know which since you're anonymous) and move forward. Don't take it out on kids busting their butts to be great.

Way to go girls!

It's pretty petty that you felt the need hottestbats to a.hide and b. Belittle what these girls did all because you have an issue with our organization and one of our coaches. This is the second time recently I've seen a petty dig made at our girls ...one of the digs was on another post made by a former coach of a lot of our girls...it was a childish petty comment much like the one you made.  Makes you wonder who is teaching these girls about sportsmanship when coaches and grandparents behave in this manner. Our girls had a great weekend when Troy posted this. He was proud of them and chose to share like so many others have done. Funny...ill see shockers parents/coaches congratulate other teams but never see it the other way around... We will continue to push our girls toward perfection, not accepting mediocrity. If that ruffles feathers so be it...we must be doing something right....there have been a lot of ruffles lately.

Congrats Laura! You just might change Raven's idea on where to go lol

[quote]3.  There haven't been any Shocker self-promotion posts in at least a week.[/quote] All teams to some degree do and should self promote.. there is nothing wrong with that. What do you think high school and college teams are doing when they sell logo items? Those of us on Shockers are proud of our team and our coaches otherwise we'd be on other teams. Likewise, those on other teams are just as proud of theirs. That's the way it should be. To get into a pissing contest over that just looks petty and ridiculous. I'd be more upset with teams in the "B" tournament if this were an ASA tournament. I do understand that this is primarily a select tournament and that a lot of these teams are working on seeding for the World Series. It makes sense they would work on their points. I'm glad our coach pushes the girls to be better and put them in the "A" tournament. Of course, we're not going to Florida either. Though I bet if we were he'd still put them in the "A" tournament and that is why we have chosen to be with him. I'm sure everyone else is just as proud of their team/coach. Good luck to everyone in the tournament this weekend!

Thanks!

Just wanting to know how it all finished up  ;D

Way to go girls! Congratulations girls  ;D

We are in a down time at the moment and won't get started back until March. In the meantime Raven Britt is more than willing to play as a pick up if anyone needs a girl. She's number 13 on GT Shockers 12U. Plays pitcher, SS, 3rd and left field but can pretty much play anywhere on the field. Power hitter and LOVES the game. Give us a call if you need an extra player 409-659-4595.

Pretty funny/pathetic to see how easy it is to get panties in a wad.. there doesn't need to be any ONE team.. there are enough talented girls from this area to form several teams and yes... every year ONE of them will come out the most outstanding. That's just life. And luck of the draw on try outs/commitments. I think the WHOLE POINT of this thread from the very start was simply how cool it is that so many girls are now getting signed from this area due to softball.. I think we can ALL agree that's a wonderful thing.... pissing contests aside  ::)

And my point is that I have never spoken to a dad about any of this. I am completely in the dark. And from what I understand, the bulk of this new team was not even in Lufkin so my guess is that the bulk of this team also is in the dark about any of this. But to suggest a girl got on the team simply because of a dad is not fair to that girl. It's the very thing I was upset about the person saying about Blast. Did a girl get seen ahead of tryouts and therefore have an advantage? Sure. Did he (Craig) already know about girls before tryouts that gave them an advantage.. sure. Neither of those things have anything to do with a dad. And again, to my understanding about the dad that made phone calls.. he has not even been involved like we thought it was going to be. He hasn't even been at all the practices. And he had nothing to do with tryouts. We almost didn't go to this tryout. We had been told about all the phone calls and that it was a dad's team etc. We figured if they wanted our daughter on the team they would have called us to go to Lufkin and since they didn't they must not have wanted us. It's a good thing we decided to check it out for ourselves. Because it was so different from that. Again, if there are a few girls who went to Lufkin on the team that was put together that ended up on this team that's fine. But this is not the team that went to Lufkin and the number of girls on this team from that team is minimal compared to the entire team.   I'm in this for the girls. It's all about them learning the most they can. Doing the best that they can and having the most fun that they can while accomplishing that. Our daughter is moving into a time when it is crucial for her to learn as much as possible. We shopped teams this go around for that very purpose. And we ended up accepting the offer from this team.  We didn't then nor now really know anymore than hints at the "controversy". What we do know is what we've seen. We have seen Craig and the Gold team girls running tryouts and practices. No daddy has been involved. We have seen our daughter be pushed harder than she has ever been pushed. We've seen her learning in a short time things no one has ever shown her. She was a good solid player before. I have no doubt she is going to be pushed into being exceptional by the end of the season. As will every girl on the team. That to me is what it is all about. There will be controversy and rumors always.. it's the nature of the game. But at some point we have to rise above it and just move forward with our girls. To me, a time when a girl gets on a team just because of a daddy would be a girl who really doesn't have what it takes and yet she gets put on the team anyway.. that did not happen on this team. Every girl on this team earned her place and everyone of them has strengths that will help her team. Everyone of them is working on their weaknesses for their team. But not one is there simply because of a daddy which is what I believe the point was.

And so again it resorts to criticism of girls... I was not a part of the team that went to Lufkin so I don't know exactly who was or wasn't on the team or how it came about. I do know what happened at our try out and what has happened since. My understanding of the team that went to Lufkin is that it was primarily the 10U GT Shockers girls, 3 of the OOC girls and a couple of others. The new GT Shockers team is made up of only one 10U shocker girl, the bulk are old OOC girls and then a few others. My daughter wasn't even known by Craig until she showed up for tryouts. Those girls worked their butts off at tryouts. It was not run by daddies. It was run by Craig and the Gold group. If there were a few girls that went to Lufkin that made this team they did so because of their ability and not because their daddy is a coach. To say any different is both uninformed and really inconsiderate to those girls. Trust me.. they worked hard at try outs and have worked even harder at practices. There is not a girl on the team that didn't earn her place on the team and not a girl who isn't working her butt off both literally and figuratively to keep it. NO.. these girls didn't just get on the team because of their daddy. I'm so sick of this entire discussion.. let go of whatever happened with Lufkin and move forward. QUIT knocking girls who are working hard. Has everyone forgotten what we all preach... that it's all about the GIRLS? If that is true.. make it about them and let it go. We almost didn't go to the tryouts for the new shockers due to all the rumors.. I'm so glad we decided to go ahead and check it out for ourselves. I think it will be one of the best choices we've ever made for our daughter with regards to softball. She and every other girl on the team EARNED their place on the team.. to suggest any differently is just sad.

I'm not sure what happened or what all is going on.. all I know is that this is supposed to be about the girls and the parents are all supposed to be adults. It's not just coaches and parents who read this board... a lot of the players do as well. And to speak of their team in the way I've seen some of the "adults" do is just shameful.

[quote name="LU Cards Fan" post="824135" timestamp="1281388610"] Well it seems that this team already has controversy surrounding it. I was told that the Blast was coming back, but I thought it would be a brand new team. But from the looks of things it just another team going under a new name. I really was hoping this was something like they had when I was at LU. My DD will continue to play in the metro area. Kind of disappointed that it is starting out with controversy. So correct me if I am wrong several dads have come under the umbrella of the blast, with girls that have been playing for them. If this is true the coaches should have posted this in the tryout info. Letting people think that this was a brand new team is completely wrong. LU football is back   [/quote] This IS a new team (And no.. I'm not associated with them but know who they are) Coach Don who was a Blast coach from way back when.. has come back into coaching. Other coaches are from the 10U GT Shockers of last season and one of the coaches from OOC's 10U team last season.  I do not know who all made the team but I do know there were a few girls from the shockers team and one of the girls from OOC that most likely made this team. There really isn't any controversy other than ridiculous stuff that needs to go away. They are bringing back "blast" but it stands to reason some of the girls will be girls who were on other teams from here as the original blast girls are all grown up. They had a pretty good turn out at tryouts and hopefully ended up with a really strong team of girls. This IS a new team. There are simply some girls who had been team mates last season. But that happens with every team. It's really not a big deal. It's kind of like the new 12U GT Shockers.. out of the 10 girls who made the team only 3 were not OOC girls.. the bulk of the team are girls who played at some point in 10U together on the same team. And yet, not one of the OOC coaches picked girls. Not one OOC parent was a coach on the team making decisions during tryouts. It just turned out that these are the girls the NON DAD coaches picked. It does not make it the same team under a different name.. changing out even just a few girls makes it a new team.. the whole dynamic will change. Same thing with Blast.. the decision was made by a non dad coach. And I'm sure they will be a great team who will carry on the Blast pride!

Clearly you think your daughter should have been picked over other girls. Which is fine. But the tryout is not a sham. Even if a team basically keeps it's core players they will still need to "fill out" the team with other girls. As to whether one or another girl was better or worse than one another.. you can't really tell that with a tryout. My daughter is a clean up batter.. she is practically knocking the ball over the fence.. has had several grand slams this past season and almost always gets herself on base. And yet, at the Blast tryout she couldn't hit a ball to save her soul. For whatever reason she couldn't hit off the machine for anything. It was frustrating to her and it was not a true example of her ability. Yet, if you're a coach who has never seen her hit a grand slam you'd think she couldn't hit at all. You just can't always tell from a tryout. I'm assuming a lot of girls that made the team were shockers girls from last season. To be honest, they earned their place on the team while working on the team all last season. Again, it goes back to the need to "fill out" a team. I'm sure your daughter is an exceptional player who will find a team that she will go on to do great with. But please don't feel the need to basically tell other girls they didn't earn the right to be on a team. That's just wrong on so many levels. The advantage for a coach during a tryout with girls he's coached before is that if the girl has a bad day he knows it. He is already aware of her strengths and weaknesses. And yes, it's an advantage those girls have over girls who weren't on the team. It's an advantage your daughter will have on the team she ends up on over girls who come next summer to try out for that team. I don't think you'll feel your daughter is less talented because she gets a spot another person felt their daughter should have gotten. Good luck to you and your daughter.. fortunately there are still many teams holding tryouts.. I'm sure she will end up on one of them :-)

[quote name="hotty28" post="823846" timestamp="1281304096"] I believe that the team was not picked on talent, it was picked by who you know. The Coach from the old GT SHOCKER is one of the coaches for this new 12u team, and his girls that he formly coached came out to try out so yes he did picked all of his former players. Lets not forget about the out of control select team..one of the other coaches daughter played on that team so yes his daughter was picked was he is one of the new coaches but not only his daughter all of the other girls who played on that team with his daughter. because to say that those girls have played select ball before was not as good as the other girls who have never played on a select team but have played softball for many years >:( >:( >:( >:( [/quote] Wow.. so you're saying the girls chosen were not chosen on their merits? I know all the girls from both teams mentioned and they are all strong players who could have been chosen on any select team they tried out for. As to the OOC girl and "others from her team" this goes to show how little you truly know because almost EVERY girl from OOC with exception to the ONE who is now on The Blast.. the rest are either on the New GT Shockers, staying with the OOC organization or not playing here at all. I know this because my daughter played for OOC and I know where all the girls are. There is only one on The Blast... the rest are in other places. There are still teams trying out and just because a girl doesn't make a team doesn't mean she isn't good... it simply means there are only so many slots to fill. Rather than knocking the merits of girls who work their butts off take your child to another tryout with another team. OOC for one is having tryouts this week and looking for strong players. That would be the more positive, constructive way to handle the situation. Good luck.. and by the way.. my daughter is not on Blast, she's on the new GT Shockers.. but I know the girls who made the Blast team and am here to tell you they are all strong players and made the team on their merit. Which again, doesn't mean that anyone who didn't make the team isn't good. Call OOC  or young guns or orange crush.. they are all still looking. good luck.