Alexander-Dynasty to Dungeon

As long time fan of AC fastpitch I am upset that this thread was even started to fuel the trashing of a program that some teams would indeed love to have. We have all heard all the problems with the start of this program and it is time to stop pointing fingers and calling out where they think the blame for any losses were. I guess everybody knows now that AC does not lose with class. And by the way *BLUE33 - I am the dad of the pitcher, and the tournament you said caused problems for this game sure didn't cause problems Tues. when she threw a 1 hitter with a tremendous defense behind her but it is her fault when we can't get hits, or catch the ball, WOW you sure seem to know alot about pitching and evidently you know Emily better than I do. Let's get together so you can enlighten me a little more about how to train a pitcher! In the past years AC pitchers pitched around 200 pitches a day and played 30 plus games Emily pitched 19 or 20 games so she had to pitch when she could to gain her experience she needed for now and in the future. You will have to admit and I humbly admit she had a great season for a 14 year old pitcher facing much older batters. You all seem to forget the difference between making a statement and actually calling names or positions on this board. Calling out the latter causes hard feelings between friends and programs. I sure hope AC rises above this and holds there head high. Fastpitch is a passionate game but it is still just a game!

Good luck to the NW4A in the playoffs trying to bring the title back to the hills. Look forward to seeing you next year. Good luck to all the seniors in the future!!!

 

acfan

I have to agree with your statement about AC and the finger-pointing that some feel is necessary when its all said and done. The situation that the Cougars were in from the beginning of the year, young and talented pitcher and the young team in general; I as an outsider saw a good young team..Period!

For those who want to come into our softball forum bashing players....you risk it being Deleted. As my great friend so glaciously says.....ITs someones daughter you are talking about!

AC contiune to work hard and you will preserve when others fail!
And we enjoyed playing against Emily and hope to get more time against her in the upcoming summer/fall season! Good luck to her and the team!

 

Blue33 and SCFan

1st, SCFan - I would commend a coach too that I could beat everytime. Blue33 , Your child had a great year. I am sure the stats show this. I watched her hit a ball back to the pitcher against Watauga with bases loaded, the Pitcher throws it against the backstop for 2 runs and your special little one is awarded a double and 2 RBI's. The program was a joke this season from the top to the bottom. Face the facts. Pierce is a fine pitcher and will grow into one of the best. Her little skin abrasion had no effect on her pitching. She is quality.

 

I have to agree with scfan. Regarding AC. So much finger pointing has gone on this season and the vast majority of it has been pointed in the wrong direction. The previous coach, although coaching many exceptional athletes, and having many winning seasons abandoned the girls at the last minute. Whether he achieved the point was he was trying to make or not, one thing is for sure, he made his decision with little regard for the players. It is by the grace of God that AC even fielded a team this year, and interestingly, most of the people approached to coach, declined as no one wanted to be in the sacrificial lamb position. The coaching staff did an outstanding job, given the circumstances and tremendous personal sacrifices were made to get that team on the field this year. I have been following AC softball for some time, and sadly, the reputation has not always been a great one. Yes, winning teams, but teams and fans with little class, athletes who at other levels have not been as succesful as one might expect because, as one college coach shared with me, "they are not coachable." Perhaps change will be a good thing for this program and perhaps the players will learn that you can win and lose with dignity and there is no shame in second place it you gave it your all. I believe that there are players at AC that had more fun, and felt less stress this year than ever before. There certainly was stress but not the same kind of stress as in years past. So, for all those folks out there that think there is shame in losing a few ballgames and who think that coaching is glamorous and the 12 cent an hour you make to do it will pay your rent, get out there and do it yourself. It is easy to coach and second guess from the sidelines. Like I said weeks ago, this is a game. Let the girls play. If you cannot support the coaches, the athletes and the program, stay at home. The negativity, nastiness and all out desire to be hurtful to the players and coaches needs to end. Most people posting here should be adults or young adults, grow up, get out of the middle school mentality. Believe it or not, the kids at AC and the coaches have feelings. To those of you posting hateful comments, how would you like to be on the receiving end? Is that how you want to be treated, or your children to be treated? C'mon people, let the program grow. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

 

My Final Words on This

Regardless of what else is posted on this particular subject, this will do it for me. AC fans do have class, but I'm afraid this little discussion has brought out the worst, not the best, in us.

Emily Pierce is dearly loved by my little one. She thinks Emily is funny, lovable, and has a great personality. She enjoys her time with Emily immensely, and I know Emily's teammates feel the same. She had an outstanding season for a 14 year old freshman, and if she continues to improve, she will be one of the best to ever come through ACHS. I was not going about the business of talking personally about another player. I was, however, questioning Emily's having played in a weekend tournament during the high school season, and the weekend before the conference tournament. I still question that. Those 200 pitches and 30 games of past seasons were all for the high school team, not for any traveling teams. I simply hope, as I said before, that this is a lesson learned. You're right, Dad, it should still be just a game, and it should still be fun.

I guess the double and 2 RBI's comment was more personal than anything I said about Emily. Anyone who has ever been around baseball or softball is well aware that that would not, and did not, go in the books as a double and two RBI's. As a matter of fact, we joked about that among friends and family the rest of that evening, knowing full well that was an error with no credit for RBI's. Her true stats stand on their own, to be sure, but let us never forget that's not the point at all. Softball is a team sport, and team success is the ultimate goal. Never should we teach our youngsters that their stats are more important than the team's. That approach won't get them far in life, will it? As has been stated earlier, much of our frustration comes from not quite reaching the bar this year. As has also been stated, there are many teams in our area and around the state that would have loved to have "failed" as we did. The bar is still there, and we will go about the business of having everyone pull together to reach it.

And finally, the statement about the coaches and their actions after the game should be deleted from this board. It is so classless, I hate to even acknowledge it was even written. As you might imagine, that did not happen. Each of the coaches hugged each of the other coaches, players hugged coaches, and players hugged players. They did this in plain view of the fans and each other, so to say the statement about the coaches is a gross overexaggeration would be putting it too mildy. Hey, maybe, in the end, we learned some togetherness that will only make us stronger down the road.

That's it for me. I still love Emily and her Dad, I still love my player with the 4 RBI's, and I still love ACHS softball.

Peace to all.

 

Who do u think you are??

Who do u people think u are......do u think u can just critize people like that!!!!......you don't even know what all AC has been through or how hard it has been. By the way you people should be looking at your own teams not just at AC.....Wow one bad year without coach sherill and Tiff and now all of u people wanna talk crap about AC!!!! But i am sure they will come back...And yes they did have a young team but they were also Dang GOOD too i don't care what anyone says i watched it with my own eyes!!!!
And for all u parents that think u have to get into it...it is JUST A GAME!!!!!! You should play softball with desire and like it is something....it is not played to critize!!!!!!! I am sure if u parents tried to play u would realize how difficult and serious a game can be!!!! But i just don't think that anyone should critize anyone!!!!

GOOD LUCK to all who are goin to the playoffs!!!!!!

SEE YA LATER #8...luv ya tiff!!!!!!!!!

 

from the point of view of a jv player

OK...you all know about the gossip and bull crap that has been started up about all this mess....! Well I play JV softball for Alexander and I think we know a little more as to what goes on than any parents, or fans. JV and Varsity both work their butts off, and play with all their hearts just to win a game. I am not a person who is all about winning, but when you work as hard as we do everyday, you get kinda angry at the fact that you don't. JV only lost twice..and never did we get beat, we beat ourselves. I love every single player w/ all of my heart and i have a special bond w/ each one of them, but sometimes i want to get in some of them's faces and tell them that they need to shut up and grow up. Losing is part of the game, if you don't like it, don't play. I'm sorry! If you didn't lose, you wouldn't exactly have anything to work harder for. If you lose, that makes you strive to fulfill your hopes, dreams, and wishes. If you don't, you have nothing to work harder for or because of. I don't like the fact that people would criticize our coaches either. I mean if we didn't have them we wouldn't be able to play and have the fun that we have! I love being a part of the softball team I am a part of and no one is going to come close to taking that away from me. I miss softball already and it has only been 6 days. On the whole Emily subject, she is an awesome pitcher. Sometimes she has an awesome defense behind her, sometimes she doesn't. She has to pull through regardless and I think she has don't a GREAT job of it! If it wasn't for her, varsity would be struggling majorly b/c of the pitching! I don't agree w/ her playing in tournaments during the highschool season. She was comitted to our team and by playing w/ other teams she didn't keep her commitment, but I still love her to death and respect her and look up to her just as much as I did before. She is an inspiration to all of the players and forever will I look up to her as my leader. She is only a freshmen ppl, give her some dang slack. Her dad does a lot for our team too! He brings us food and drinks, and just does little things that mean so much! He spends a lot of time and money on us! He is very supportive and it is greatly appreciated! Thanks Darrell! My best friend is a senior and she is as supportive of me as she can be! I love her to death, but the other seniors need to grow up and learn how to be leaders. They led sometimes and sometimes they acted like they were followers. They treated us like dogs, yet we did nothing to them! We showed them respect that we didn't get in return! I love all of them still, i don't hold grudges! They will be missed @ times next year! I am just looking forward to the upcoming years I have left! Thanks to all of our fans and thanks to all of the parents who are supportive of the team, not just their child! Good luck to South Caldwell and AC Reynolds in the playoffs! You will do great! Well I think my peace is said!

*~Tiff we love you forever and JV won the conference just for you :-D~*

 

Hey babe that was well written and well stated! Would like to let you and the others about Emily's traveling committments. We approached Monte Sherrill last October before we knew of any position that Emily would fill except help in pitching and he told us that the more she pitched the more experienced she would add to the team. Her traveling coached also asked Monte to verify his support for Emily being able to go with them so they could depend on her and he said yes again. Didn't know at the time how things would play out so she ended up with 2 committments and but gave her best to both. And she liked the fact she got to hit a little on the road. Didn't mean to for her to make anyone feel like she wasn't committed to them. She is totally passionate about AC softball and the players. She will definetly be working her butt off to be hotter on the mound next year. I predict great things for the cougar ladies next year so buckle up and hang on to your hats NW4A we'll be back and ready to make some noise.

 

AC

As far as the seniors being leaders for AC! It's kind of hard to be a leader when the coach doesn't want the players to be leaders. The seniors this year were nothing like the seniors in the past years. I don't guess that "you" the one who posted that would realize since you haven't been there in the past. In order to recieve respect you have to earn it and we earned our respect we have been there since Feb. of 2000 unlike the rest of you can say. We know how things have been. When we were freshmen we were not respected at all, we were told what to do, when and exactly how to do it. Whether it be running poles because you were missing balls in the infield and the seniors told you to or if it were because you had left buckets on the bus and the bus was a mile away and you were to RUN back to the bus and get the buckets...and only the freshmen did that. We tried to help every single one of you out this year in some way shape or form, but some of you weren't very exceptive of that you would just roll your eyes or have some little comment to say. But, once again that is nothing that we can control it's over and done with and there is nothing we can do to go back and change it. This is a place for people to place their opinions on things and state facts. Therefore thats why I said what I did.

As far as me getting my job done on that team. I think I did a fine job at that. This may not have been the best of my four years at AC, but there was nobody there to tell me how to fix whatever it was I was doing wrong and I can't watch myself when I am at bat. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone hit any homeruns this year other than Krohn Sigmon, and me. If I were not doing my job how did I do that, why did I bat in the 3rd spot all year and one other thing, why did I get the "Gaston Gazette" Best Offensive Player of the tournament award for having the most hits of ANYONE on all the teams there if I didn't deserve it from STATS of the OFFICIAL BOOK. Facts are facts and that goes to show I was hitting the ball just fine this year, nobody has a perfect season unless the book isn't kept right.

As far as calling pitches goes, there was not a coach there at all telling me what pitches to call, because at the beginning of the season no coaches knew what pitches Emily had or the locations of them and you can ask players about that, still to this day there is only one coach that knows the pitches and locations and that is Pup because I had to help him learn them because I will not be there to do it next year. There wasn't a game that went by that if I wasn't beside him telling him what to call or helping him call because he didn't feel that he knew the pitches and locations well enough to do it on his own. He will tell you that if it weren't for me he wouldn't have known the pitches as well as he did by the end of the year, but now that he knows I am sure he will do a fine job in calling them for the remainder of the time he stays with AC. Emily did a great job this year to be so young.

 

I have to commend ACsoftballbabe03 on her letter.
We all need to take a page out of her book. Babe you stated you were a JV player but I can tell by your letter you are a MAJOR League person.
Im an old fastpitch guy and have had my gripes with AC and Ol' Monty, but this is way out of line. AC girls lost a dear friend and were left (for whatever reason by there coach) and were still able to finish with a great season record. My hats off to you all.
And to those posters that are older but less mature then BABE.
Please remember that every player is someones little girl, and try to treat them as you would your own.
Last but not least I stand with CF ball on the deleteing of any post that trashes a player.
You can air you feelings all you want but there is NO reason to make it personal or hurtful to any other member of our TBR family.