Congratulations to Kamehameha!

Congratulations to the Kamehameha-Kapalama Varsity Softball team for winning this years DI Hawaii High School State Championship! I would post a link to the news story, but the game just ended so it's not up yet. But Kamehameha defeated Mililani 3-0 in tonight's State Championship game. Kamehameha allowed no runs throughout the tournament which reminds me of a phrase I like to tell a defense, "They (meaning the other team) can't win if they don't score."

Anyway - congratulations again to this year's State Champions. A link to the story and pictures will be posted at http://hhsaa.org/sports/softball.

Also - congratulations to Pac-Five for winning the DII championship tonight as well. It's an ILH sweep of the State Championship titles this year - wow!

Is That Too Much Pitching?

Wow I just read an article about a high school softball league who's state tournament is only 2 days long. Not only that, it's double elimination with 16 teams! So a team can play as many as 6 games in two days (up to 4 on the second day). Now, I've done this before (play 4 games in one day) and I have to admit that, by that last game, you do feel tired. And I'm not even a pitcher. I can only imagine what a pitcher feels like after having to pitch multiple games in a row. Now, in college, it's not so bad, most teams are equipped to have some kind of back up so that one pitcher does not have to pitch all the games. But in high school, it's different.

This article also talks about the mechanics of pitching and the stress or lack thereof on the shoulder. That's fine, but what about the rest of the body? The shoulder isn't the only part involved in pitching.

I'm just a bit surprised at the format of the tournament they talk about in the article because our state tournament here in Hawaii is only 12 teams, single elimination and it runs over the course of 4 days (and does include teams from outer islands who travel away from school to come and play). Now I'm not saying the girls are not capable of it. I'm sure lots of the girls LOVE playing that many games in a short period of time. I would have, but that doesn't mean it's the best way to do things.

In high school, the team I was on entered lots of pre-season tournaments where we played a number of games in a short period of time, but pre-season is very different from post-season. In pre-season, you're usually carrying extra players (those trying to make the team), you're doing lots of subsitutions (to give everyone a chance to see what they can do), and the "Big W" isn't all that important. In post season, it's a completely different story.

I just can't imagine why a state would run a 16 team double elimination state tournament in just two days. There's probably a logistical issue I'm not considering? But I would hope that, for the sake of the girls, they'd come up with a better way to run the tournament. What do you think? Read the article here, then leave me a comment below with your thoughts.

Hawaii Softball Live Online Tonight

Hawaii High School games will be available for you to watch live via streaming video at http://www.oc16.tv/ - If you've never seen Hawaii High School softball...go check it out if. You'll see what I mean when I say that Hawaii High School softball is different from a lot of "high school" softball in most parts of the mainland US. Check it out tonight at http://www.oc16.tv/ - first game is at 5pm Hawaii Time (8pm West Coast).

These games are OIA semi-final games and the first game of the night features the #1 team in the West (Miliani) and the #2 team in the East (Kailua) who managed to take advantage of the opportunities they got yesterday and put the points they needed on the board to beat us 2-1. Congratulations to both teams for making it to this semi-final game.

The second game of the evening is the other semi-final which has the #1 team in the East (Moanalua) facing the #2 team in the West (Campbell). Congratulations to these two teams as well for making it to this semi-final game.

Both games should be pretty good, but my prediction is that the West team in each match up will come out ahead. But with sports, you never know, so we'll see what happens.

If you're in Hawaii and have OC16 - the games will be broadcast live on local tv. The first game begins at 5pm Hawaii Standard Time (8pm on the west coast).

After the broadcast at http://www.oc16.tv/, post a comment here and let me know what you think of the games.

Homerun or Not?

Hey - look what I found on YouTube! It's a clip from this past Hawaii High School Season. This is from a Kailua/Castle game. These two teams have always played each other tough and Kailua is one of the well known "powerhouse" teams in the state year in and year out. In this clip, Castle is on defense and Kailua's B. Tokunaga is up to bat. Take a look at this clip.....



If I'm not mistaken...the homerun stood in this game and Kailua went on to win the game even though they were down in the late innings of the game.

Learned Something New About High School Softball

Wow - while scanning the fastpitch softball news online, I learned something new today. According to the National Federation of State High School Association Website, Softball is the fourth-most popular sport among girls at the high school level with 369,094 participants during the 2005-06 season, according to the High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the NFHS. It also ranks third in school sponsorship for girls across the nation with 14,710 schools.

Another thing I learned is that the NFHS rules have been amended to permit metal cleats in 2008. I would have LOVED to play in metal cleats in high school. I always wondered why the baseball boys could wear them and we could not.

One rule change I don't really like is the one that says a batter shall take her position in the batter's box within 10 seconds of the ball being returned to the pitcher in the circle. I mean, I can understand the reasoning for it because sometimes batters take way too long. Shucks, I suppose it can be done, but between taking a signal, taking a deep breath to reset, and scanning the defense for cues, that's not all that much time, especially if the coach is talks to baserunners between pitches and you have to wait to take a signal OR if the coach gives a long set of signals OR if you get confused with the signal and have to ask to see it again.

Anyway - to read more about these issues and other changes, visit
http://www.nfhs.org/web/2007/07/high_school_softball_rules_amend.aspx

Congratulations to the Baldwin Bears!

Congratulations to the Baldwin Bears of Maui for winning this years Hawaii High School State Championship! Baldwin had a perfect record this season and defeated the Mililani Trojans 2-0 in the championship game on Saturday. Not only did the Baldwin pitcher, Nicole Alconcel, shut out the Trojans, but she also drove in her team's only runs with a 2 run home run. She also did the same thing in the semi-final game (held the opponent to 1 hit, no runs and hit a 2 run homer for the only score of the game).

Great job to all the high school teams this season! I'm already looking forward to next year.