NOVEMBER 28 2007 UPDATE

NFCA CONVENTION

The 24^th annual NFCA Convention opened late Wednesday at the Hilton Las Vegas with a business session, dominated by reports from the president and executive director, as well as presentations by Ron Radigonda, executive director of ASA, and by Cherie Knopf, commissioner of National Pro Fastpitch.

Radigonda hailed the accomplishments of 2007, including the KFC World Cup and the gold medal won by the USA Junior Women at Junior World in the Netherlands.  Much of his talk focuses on the 2008 Olympics and on the effort to ensure that softball is put back into the Olympic venue for 2016.  The latter decision will be made when the IOC meets in October 2009 to select a host city for 2016 and the program for that Olympiad.

NFCA reported income of $1.34 million for the year, and projected membership will reach 5,000 in 2008.

The keynote speaker was Carolyn Peck, who led Purdue to the 1999 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship with a 34-1 record.  Later the head coach at Florida, Peck now broadcasts men and women’s basketball for ESPN.  Peck is a highly regarded motivational speaker.

The real action of the Convention begins tomorrow when the delegates meet in separate caucuses.  The expectation is that the fall recruiting calendar will be  a primary topic at Division I caucus.  A list of motions to be considered at the various caucuses has not been presented.  However, RFH has submitted the following proposals for consideration:

NFCA CONVENTION PROPOSALS

Submitted by Rayburn F Hesse

ALL MEMBERS

1. That  NFCA should petition NCAA to amend the fall recruiting calendar adopted by NCAA to allow an eight-week contact and evaluation period.
2. That D1, DII, DIII, NAIA, and junior college schools will have no contact with highschool players, nor permit unofficial visits, until the player has completed her sophomore year of highschool.
3. That exposure tournament managers/owners/sponsors will agree to limit participation at their events to the first 104 teams which register.
4. That the NFCA Board of Directors will approve and publish and make available to all members a detailed income and expenditures report for each fiscal year, and a project budget for the ensuing year.
5. That the minutes of Board of Directors meetings be published on the NFCA website and in the NFCA newspaper

DIVISION I CAUCUS

1. That NFCA bylaws be amended to require that all legislative proposals developed by the Head Coaches Committee be subjected to a poll of all D1 members and that the ayes and nayes in each conference will be recorded and available for examination by all members.

TRAVEL BALL MEMBERS

1.                  Resolved, that travel ball coaches will agree, albeit informally, not to roster players who have completed a year of D1 college softball, in which they were rostered, unless that player had previously been associated with the intended travel ball team.

In addition to the business sessions, there are numerous technical presentations by coaches and outstanding plays like Cat Osterman and Monica Abbott.

COMMITMENTS

SPORTS CONNECTION / LADY WILDCATS SENIOR SIGNINGS
KELSEY KRISCH PITCHER COUNCIL ROCK NORTH HS NLI TO RIDER UNIVERSITY
NICOLE SCHNECKER PITCHER CENTRAL BUCKS WEST HS NLI TO ST PETERS
UNIVERSITY
JENN SEVITSKI CF/3B COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH HS TO ARCADIA UNIVERSITY

The Roseville Heat is proud to announce that 2008 graduate and 18Gold player Anna Feick (C, 1B) signed a National Letter of Intent with Humboldt State in Arcata, CA.

Christine Gamble of Team Vegas and Pahrump Valley High School has signed with William Penn University

Alex Pflieger 09 Catcher / Normal West High School / Midland Magic commits to Western Illinois University

Hayley Leissner (RHP) East Jackson High School in Commerce, GA has signed with Lander University.

Natalie Batson (OF) Ware Shoals High School in Ware Shoals, SC has signed with Lander University.

Brittney Brogdon (INF/OF) Southeast Whitfield High School, Dalton, GA has signed with Lander University.

Maddelyn Fraley (1B/DP) of Tulsa Elite Gold has committed to continue her softball career at

NJCAA Division 1 #3 Ranked Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami, OK. 

MIZUNO PRIDE GOLD    2008 SIGNINGS

Aimee Currier         OF/Lead-off    University of Kentucky

Jenna Berger         SS/2B             St. Johns University

Joylyn Ichiyama      3B/C               Valparaiso University

Ariel Vanhook         C/1B               Chipola College

WICHITA - Third-year head softball coach Mike Perniciaro has announced the
signing of six student-athletes to National Letters-of-Intent to play
softball at Wichita State. BreAnna Brown, Holly Eckert, Hilary Fort, Kasha
Kolb, Brittney Osborn and Kersti Rowan will all join the program for the
2009 season.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly and the University of Tennessee softball program have announced the signings of seven student-athletes to National Letters of Intent for the 2008-09 academic school year.  Signees include Adrena Anderson (Woodstock, Ga./Woodstock H.S./California Cruisers), Ashley Andrews (Tumwater, Wash./Tumwater H.S./Washington LadyHawks), Brittany Arredondo (Canyon Lake, Texas/Smithson Valley H.S./Sudden Impact Gold), Shelby Burchell (Columbia, Tenn./Columbia Academy/Haning’s Batbusters), Diondra Fryer (Sterling, Va./Dominion H.S./Virginia Shamrocks), Cat Hosfield (Murfreesboro, Tenn./Riverdale H.S./Haning’s Batbusters) and Jessica Spigner (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia H.S./Haning’s Batbusters).

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