07/14/2025
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" - Helen Keller
The beauty of team sports is building a relationship with teammates, when it works exceptionally well that relationship turns into family.
This last post to celebrate the accomplishments of this outstanding group of ladies is bittersweet as looking back at the accomplishments is awe inspiring but it also serves as the close of the chapter with this core group playing together.
Throughout the fall and spring, this team entered 22 tournaments and finished as champions in 11! No silver bracket titles either as they were all GOLD BRACKET, best of the best at that tournament.
In another 6 tournys, the Riptides came up just short and finished in second place. Thus, in 77% of tournaments entered this group left with hardware. Pretty dang impressive!
Total games: 104 (77W-24L-3T)
Runs scored: 848
Runs allowed: 327
TEAM On-Base: 0.544
Pitching Strikeouts: 663
While the stats are fun to list it's the memories that will live on forever:
- Battling the heatwave to come home with the FL Panhandle State title against all our rivals.
- Winning SIX win-or-go-home games in a row at the USFA Easter tournament in Daphne.
- Finding our bats in the rain at Daphne in the fall and battling back from losers bracket to the championship game only to have mother nature prevent us from playing.
- 17 game win streak to close out fall season and start the spring!
- Getting a huge triple to tie a game with our last out.
- Learning tough lessons at USSSA World Series, PGF Super Select, and USFA World Series. We might have not come out on the winning side in some of the games but we competed against the best of the best and grew in these moments as we were never afraid of playing in these top tournaments.
- Watching Florida State softball play multiple games so we could gain some new aspirations.
- Many hotel pool nights as those out of town tournaments always provide a lot of memories.
- Getting down and dirty with Ashley Troutman at a special practice.
Everything about this group was super and that's why they will always live on in this coach's memory as super heroes!
