Western New York Sting 12-under girls' softball coach Mark Jentsch wants to visit Lookout Mountain. His family wants to see the Tennessee Aquarium.
After traveling nearly 800 miles to get to Chattanooga from Buffalo, N.Y., the Sting's traveling party of 50 or so, including 11 players, hope to do all they want this week. The Sting are competing in the National Softball Association Class B East World Series youth fastpitch tournament.
"We've got a great group of parents. We planned this from a year ago. Chattanooga was our first choice," Jentsch said of the national-tournament destination the Sting chose to pursue. "It was a lot of fun planning. We've got 10 families that drove down and one that flew."
Jentsch said most of the Sting contingent arrived Saturday, but because the playing schedule has been loaded with games at the front part of the week, many haven't had the chance to do much sightseeing yet. Assistant coach George Weimer has been downtown and seen the riverwalk and a few other attractions.
"I was impressed with how clean everything is," he said. "Everybody was friendly, too."
Jentsch said most of the group plan on staying until Friday, which will give them some time to be tourists before returning. The Sting are the team that traveled the longest distance.
"I'm waiting for my award," Jentsch said.
18-under starting
The NSA 18-under A and B World Series at the Summit of Softball Complex is scheduled to begin today at 9 a.m.
Teams will play two pool-play games before bracket play begins. Each team is guaranteed five games.
Finals for both divisions are slated for Saturday on fields 5 and 6 at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free to both tournaments this week.
Summit the jewel
If not for the Summit facility, which opened last July, this week's big NSA events would not be taking place in the Chattanooga area.
The 14-under age group had its games assigned at the Summit on Monday and Tuesday. It will be moving to Warner Park today and Thursday to finish play in its double-elimination bracket because the 18-under tournament is about to begin there.
"Like everybody else, 'Wow,'" 18-under tournament director Sonja Ritchie said of her first reaction upon seeing the facility for the first time. "You can tell they take a lot of pride in this place. Having games on the Internet on fields 5 and 6 is huge. What a big plus for the girls."
The 14-under Lady Hawks '95, based in Ocoee, Fla., near Orlando, were unbeaten through their first four games Tuesday afternoon. Brashella Keys, who broke a tie with a bases-loaded single late in a 4-1 victory over the Georgia Lady Sting in their first of the day, actually found a slight flaw with the place.
"It's hot, but the fields are awesome," Keys said. "The fields here are very good. I don't like where the sun is most of the time, but you can see, and it's a lot of drying up it takes, so I love it."
Twisters 'best pin'
It was announced Tuesday at the pin swap at Camp Jordan that the 12-under Indiana Twisters were the winner of the best pin contest. Through the NSA's website, teams submitted pictures of their pins before the tournament and entries were judged by a selection committee.
Details on the Twisters' pin included a softball rising out of a twister, wearing a visor over a ponytail tied with a breast cancer ribbon with two crossed bats in the background. Parenthetically around the logo are six circles on each side with a player's jersey number inside each.
"It's good, especially with the team name being the Twisters," NSA official Faye Cantrell said. "Someone put some good thought into that."
Red Bank High School student Kalyn Helton contributed to this story.