Blair Rhodes, left, and play-by-play announcer Kelly Hughes, at The Summit of Softball Complex on Wednesday, have been broadcasting the Hanover Lady Hornets’ games this week in the ASA 14U national tournament. Hughes said the live podcasts have usually gotten more than 100 listeners back home in Virginia.University of Tennessee softball co-head coach Karen Weekly couldn’t remember exactly where she was just about one year ago when it was announced the International Olympic Committee voted unanimously to include baseball and softball in the assortment of sports for the 2020 Olympic Games.
But she vows she was happy, wherever she was.
“It’s good for our sport,” said Weekly, who was checking out some potential recruits Wednesday at The Summit of Softball Complex, one of two Chattanooga-area sites hosting the Amateur Softball Association 14-under national tournament this week. “Obviously, it’s the first step for softball being back permanently. We knew when we heard Tokyo was the host city in 2020 that we had a good shot.”
The baseball/softball package was a combined bid and considered one of five sports voted in for the 2020 Games. Upcoming host cities and IOCs are not required to keep those same sports.
Karen and her husband, Ralph, the other co-head coach for the Lady Vols, were with the Olympic gold-medal-winning squads in 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney, Australia. Ralph was a member of the Team USA coaching staff in Atlanta and was national director of teams for USA Softball the next Olympic Games.