Hollister Heat hosts teams from all over the state
Incomprehensible chants, dust clouds, the cracks of the metal
bat against the big yellow softball, and cheers from all around
were just some of the sights and sounds at Veterans Memorial Park
during the Memorial Day weekend.
Hollister Heat hosts teams from all over the state
Incomprehensible chants, dust clouds, the cracks of the metal bat against the big yellow softball, and cheers from all around were just some of the sights and sounds at Veterans Memorial Park during the Memorial Day weekend.
The Hollister Heat softball league hosted the 2007 Hollister Fastpitch Classic. It was the fifth year for the classic and teams from around Central California participated in the tournament.
Teams from Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz, Pajaro Valley, Los Gatos, Campbell, Cupertino, Merced, a team from the San Francisco Bay Area, and teams from Hollister rounded out the competition.
The Fastpitch Classic was the first of many tournaments for the year as it marked the beginning of the season for travel ball.
The teams compete in a tournament almost every weekend all over the Western region in order to prepare themselves for the Nationals tournament at the end of the summer.
Elyssa Vazquez, a 14 year old, who plays for the 14 and under Hollister Heat, 14U, is enjoying her first year on the travel squad.
“The travel ball teams take things more seriously,” Vazquez said. “In these tournaments you’ve got to be on it if you want to win.”
Mitch Burley is the president of the board for Little League in Hollister and has been the director of the Fastpitch Classic for two years.
“All of these travel teams are like all-star teams. There are separate try-outs that you must do to make the travel teams,” Burley said. “That makes the nature of travel ball more competitive.”
Many of the teams use the classic as a warm-up tournament before the qualifiers that take place later in the summer, but some just come because of the weather.
James Holt is one of the coaches for the Clovis East Outlaws travel 16U team. Clovis read about the tournament online a few years ago and has been out to the classic three years in a row.
“It is a lot of fun out here. It is very hospitable and there is always good competition,” Holt said.
Others such as Irene Reynolds, a parent for the Clovis team, complimented the weather and nice downtown.
“It is a lot cooler here and [Hollister] seems like a quiet, peaceful town,” Reynolds said.
Hosting a statewide tournament is a lot of work.
“A lot of volunteer hours go into the tournament,” Burley said. “We need a crew on each field to rechalk it after every game to prep it for the next game. That does not even include the snack shack and the umpires.”
The Hollister Heat hosts the tournament every year as a fund-raiser for the program as well as to pay the miscellaneous expenses to actually put on the event.
Trophies, for instance, which go out to the winner of each class in the tournament, are part of the cost.
According to most of the coaches and parents tournaments such as the Fastpitch Classic are available to teams whether it is for fun or just some friendly competition, and many of the teams use these tournaments to learn how to work together and see what they need to work on as a team.
And that is why so many of the traveling squads participate in tournaments all summer long leading up to the qualifying tournament.
“These tournaments build confidence,” Reynolds said. “Spending every weekend traveling is worth it in the end.”
Tournament results
– The Campbell Crush defeated the Hollister Heat in the 8U tournament to earn medals.
– The Campbell Crush Red beat the Morgan Hill Pride Gold in the 10U C tourney to win trophies.
– The Morgan Hill Pride Green was victorious over the Campbell Crush Blue to claim trophies in the 10U B tournament.
– The Hollister Heat took the 10U A title over the Cabrillo Crushers.
– The Hollister Heat also took the 12U B tournament over 4 other teams to win trophies.
– In the 16-year-old tournaments the Cabrillo Crushers defeated the Clovis East Outlaws to win the B division and the West Bay Nuggets beat the Cupertino Inferno to claim the A division.
