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Show k --." ;.i x t ' ' ' i ... V f 1 ?' ' ' i ' ' 1 -.v.,, '' x , V- . I 1 li 4 J.' P ; .r ' . v ' ' x .A . ,t', r: : :' .. . ' -r s, j t k V r V K"A ),( r. ;- ' . f , ) V v ; T. A , ; tU I . , ' ' Bob Hackmeister, Rick Thompson, Daryn Thompson, Troy Cullimore, John Thomas and Danny Hansen are six local players whose bat swinging has gotten the Utah team into the national finals. They Came Out Of Nowhere, They're Off To Tike Nationals Dave Wigham Clipper Sports BOUNTIFUL The chance to compete in a national tournament doesn"t come to everyone, but to six local athletes their opportunity starts this Thursday night in Salt Lake City. THE VALLEY Sports Association is sponsoring sponsor-ing the annual boy's fast pitch tournament which begins at the Cottonwood Complex on 4500 South. Page Brake of Salt Lake is the sponsoring team and as such will receive an automatic berth into the tournament. On the Page team are five Woods' Cross High School athletes and a Viewmont High athlete. The coach, Ken Hackmeister, is also a longtime Bountiful resident who has been involved in-volved with fast pitch softball since the beginning of time. IT WAS through Ken's efforts that the Page team got going this season. His son Bobby is the pitcher for the side. Bobby has traveled throughout through-out the nation watching his dad handle the catch- "softball bra"in that he has been around the sport all his life with the influence of his father. "Being a catcher he had the knowledge to help develop me as a pitcher and we'd throw to each other for hours," he noted. TROY CULLIMORE could also fall into this area since it was through relatives he got involved. in-volved. His father, Brent, played several years for Page Brake and his uncle, Val, is still playing the sport for Page Brake's adult team. "Those two guys and my friends talked me into it. It really took some persuasion on their part. For some reason I didn't really want to play at first, but they said it was fun so I tried." John Thomas is another Woods Cross athlete who is doing his thing for the Page squad. It was Val Cullimore, the baseball coach at the school who got him going. "Coach told me it would be fun so I went to a couple, of practices and got hooked in a hurry," John added. a It really helps in baseball... Plus it gives you a sport you can play after high school. 55 ing chores for perenial power Miller Toyota for many years, and on the side, the two started Bobby pitching to his father as a warm up before the games. It soon became evident that Bobby could become be-come a good pitcher, given the time and opportunity. oppor-tunity. "This area is great for adult softball in the fast pitch league, but we never had a youth program prog-ram to bring these potential players around," , noted Ken. So the youth league was formed. FOR THE most part this season the boys, all under the age of 1 8, have been competing against the men's class B teams in their two leagues. "I honestly don't know how they'll do in this tournament tourna-ment because they haven't played teams their own age that much," added Coach Hackmeister. All six of the players started to play fast pitch softball in a different way. Bobby is known as a THE OTHER two Wildcats are the Thompson brothers, Daryn and Rick. Like Bobby and Troy they point to relatives as the main reason for taking up the sport. "Dad played for the Rebels all his life and we've watched a lot of his games and it looked fun to me," noted Rick. "I went to one game a couple of years ago and they needed an outfielder so I played and it was fun," added Daryn. Danny Hansen, the lone Viewmont player on the team, is very honest about his reason for playing. "They came and asked me to play with them and I liked it so I stuck with it," he noted. ALL SIX are involved in baseball for their school and none see fast pitch softball as a problem. prob-lem. "It helps in hitting. You have to watch the ball closer in fast pitch," Hansen mentioned. "The pitcher is closer to the hitter in softball, so your reflexes get sharper," added Thomas. '., ' "r I ' 1 i in f k ) J 1 , ' I , Mti .l r - - - i ! - i . : f r i ' ' ' ' - . 3 f ' " ' Y v;: "iv fi f" :' ' "V J r , ' . ' i , Bobby Hackmeister does the fastpitch hurling. NO ONE can predict how this team will do this weekend in the national event, but all are optimistic optimis-tic about it. "I played on the state team last year," Bobby said, "and this year we have a team that is ten times better. A year ago we were thrown together in a week, this year we've been playing together all year and that helps a lot." Bobby went on to add that he watched the nationals nation-als last year and feels his club can compete. Hackmeister feels the draw is all important. "It's a blind draw and that will play a big factor in the outcome. We could draw the two top teams in the first two games and top both of them. Then again we may get a good draw, no one knows," he lamented. ALL THE athletes are extremely excited about their new game and the chance to compete in the nationals. Teams from Iowa, Montana, California, Califor-nia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Louisiana will join the Utah team and defending national champions from Prescott, Ariz, in the double elimination affair. The Utah side will open the tournament with their first game on Thursday night at 9 p.m. at the Cottonwood Complex. THESE ATHLETES urge all high school baseball base-ball players to take a look at this sport. "It really helps in baseball as well" they all echoed. "Plus it gives yru a sport you can play after high school," they all chimed. |