Former Lady Cajun to play in San Antonio
Former All-American Kathy Morton to play for SA's professional softball team. I'd hope we have others playing too.
Shof
************************
Armadillos latest team to play in Alamo City
Web Posted: 03/15/2004 12:00 AM CST
David King
Express-News Staff Writer
Suzi Stauffer, owner of San Antonio's entry in the latest incarnation of women's professional softball, has been a busy woman the last few months.
San Antonio's newest team
League: National Pro Fastpitch, women's softball
The teams: San Antonio Armadillos, Arizona Heat (based in Tucson), Sacramento (Calif.) Sunbirds and Colorado Altitude (based in Denver) in the West division; New York/New Jersey Juggernaut (based in Upper Montclair, N.J.), Houston Thunder, Akron (Ohio) Racers, New England Riptide (based in Lowell, Mass.) in the East division.
Season: Regular season runs June 1-Aug. 18. The top two teams in each division play in the first round of the playoffs Aug. 20-23, then the winners meet for the championship Aug. 25-31.
Home: San Antonio School District's Spring Sports Complex.
San Antonio exhibition games: The Armadillos will play a doubleheader against Houston in New Braunfels at 1 p.m May 22.
David King
In addition to finding a home for the Armadillos — at the San Antonio School District's Spring Sports Complex — and holding a weekend tryout camp, she has had to line up sponsors, market tickets and line up a game against the U.S. national team, which is touring the country before heading to Greece for the Olympics.
"It's been hectic," she said.
San Antonio is among eight cities in the National Pro Fastpitch league, which opens its first season June 1.
The Armadillos' home opener is June 4 against Arizona. The 56-game regular season and playoffs will run through Aug. 31.
San Antonio will play in the league's West division, which also will include Arizona (based in Tucson), Colorado (based in Denver) and Sacramento, Calif.
The East division will have Houston, Massachusetts (based in Boston), New York/New Jersey and Akron, Ohio.
"The idea for this league has been around a long time," league spokesman Aaron Moore said. "They've been having tours and traveling all-star teams for three years, looking for the right owners in the right markets."
The league is in its third incarnation. The first season was in 1995, with four teams.
There then was a league based mostly in the Southeast that played from 1999-2001.
"They didn't want to get it going again until they had eight teams," Moore said.
Veteran Austin-area softball coach Phil Koehler will be the Armadillos' coach, assisted by Charles Dismuke of the San Antonio Fastpitch Academy and former Texas A&M softball player Gina Perez.
The Armadillos' most-notable player is pitcher Tarrah Beyster, a four-time All-Pac 10 player at Oregon State from 1997-2000. Last year, as part of a traveling all-star team sponsored by National Pro Fastpitch, she was 7-2 with an 0.36 earned-run average and hit .308.
San Antonio had the first pick in the league's draft and chose former Michigan State shortstop Stacey Phillips, who played for Tampa in the professional league's previous incarnation in 2000.
The Armadillos also will have right fielder Kathy Morton, who played for the Colorado Silver Bullets baseball team in 1996. She was a two-time All-American at Southwestern Louisiana.
"The rosters of these teams will read like a who's who of college softball," Stauffer said.
Corporate sponsorship and ticket sales will begin soon, she said.
"We have a program in place that will allow high schools, ASA (American Softball Association), college teams and the like to compete to see who sells the most tickets, with the winning organization getting a clinic with the Armadillos," Stauffer said.
The team got a boost when it was able to schedule a game against Team USA on May 17 at Kennedy High School.
It also has the support of at least one baseball/softball backer in town.
"They've talked to me a little bit, and I'd love to see it be successful," said County Judge Nelson Wolff.
Quote
