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Fastpitch’s Pride helping sport grow on, off field
- Updated: August 23, 2016
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Walking around the University of Alabama’s beautiful John and Ann Rhoads Stadium, you know that softball figures prominently in the school’s athletic landscape. And that is saying something in the land of football, national championships and legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.
As the students return to campus this week, it is hard not to notice that this state-of-the-art facility has taken on a new identity as host of the 2016 National Pro Fastpitch Championship. Gone temporarily is much of the Crimson and White, replaced with the red, white and blue of the NPF. While many of the 7,000 fans who have attended over the weekend still wear Alabama gear, it is obvious that fans of the Akron Racers, Chicago Bandits, Scrap Yards Dawgs (Houston) and the USSSA Pride (Kissimmee, Fla.) have shown up to not only support their teams, but professional softball and what it means to women’s sports.
Looking out over the stands each night this past weekend, it also was obvious to see that the USSSA Pride had the largest fan base in attendance. They came to Tuscaloosa to in numbers and are making themselves at home.
If you listen closely, you will hear that they even borrowed the famed words of Alabama fans worldwide, with one minor change. Instead of “Roll Tide,” for these few days it has been “Roll Pride.”
The Pride came into NPF for the 2009 season and have won three league championships, taking home the Cowles Cup in 2010, ’13 and ’14, and five regular-season championships (2011, ’12, ’14, ’15 and ’16). Only the Bandits have won as many Cowles Cups, and the two teams are meeting again this season in the championship round in the third and deciding game on Tuesday night.
“When the opportunity came to get a professional team, we felt that might be the only way to get in and get the best players,” said Pride general manager Don DeDonatis. “By doing that, we would emulate baseball in having our youth and all of our younger girls want to be pros. We’ve all been there, we wanted to play Major League Baseball, and we all have our favorite players. We want our girls to have the same.”
The Pride roster has been filled with players with Olympic and international experience. Players like Kelly Kretschman (Alabama), Cat Osterman (Texas) and Natasha Watley (UCLA), who won gold in the 2004 Olympics (Athens) and silver in 2008 (Beijing). While Osterman and Watley have retired from the pro game, Kretschman, the oldest player in the league at 37, is coming off her best season and is signed for three …
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