Didn't I tell you Old Cardinal?

[mistanice]

I said early in the season that distict 20 3a was gonna bring stiff competition to the table.

[Old Cardinal]

Hi Mistanice: Yes, District 20-3A had two very outstanding teams. Holly Tankersley knocked a home run off Splendora's Melissa Collins; thus winning the game 1-0-what a tribute to Holly...I am a little concerned about the Lufkin Hudson situation; whereby a group of the Greater Lufkin area Select team players were assembled in a magnate school to play in 3A softball...It happens down here also in the Beaumont Ind. School District where Ozen in the magnate school. All of the good basketball players are assembled from 3 big 5A schools on to one Ozen team, and invitations to move into that school are soliciated for other outstanding basketball players to join the Ozen dynasty. Mistanice, I would not be at all surprised to see Lufkin Hudson beat Kirbyville and win the State Championship in 3A Softball; based on the Lufkin school District with a number of high enrollment schools funneling all their outstanding players to one 3A team. I hear people grip about the possibility of the Church and other Private schools coming in to dominate in sports(via recruiting), when it is already happening at Ozen, Lufkin Hudson and a dozen other schools; whereby all students with exceptional skills can be funneled into one program and attempt to make the playing field quite unlevel for schools like Diboll where you are from. Congratulations on your 3rd place finish, that is great considering the competition stacking that you were faced with.

[mistanice]

yeah man im telling you, kirbyville was really tough, went undeafeted in district if im not mistaken, Diboll beat hudson 2nd time around. Hudson happens to be very close to lufkin. And i see players from the bigger schools move down to 3a to dominate (get more playing time at a smaller level). I've seen it here in Diboll. Kids move from surrounding areas to compete at lower level. I would rather see hudson prevail in this one. That holly girl is awesome. great overall player.

[Old Cardinal]

I also agree that Holly is my pick as the best girl athlete in Texas. I don't really see Kirbyville as that tough, Bridge City ten-run ruled them 11-1, with Holly not pitching. She IS Kirbyville in my opinion! As to Hudson, when you can intentionally stack any group of specific athletes into one program, in this case all the better Select Team players in a given geographic area: it sure makes it hard on the other teams that are not in the "big city' area where they can stack excellent players in a lower classification program like 3A. Allowing kids to be "recruited" to one team in a high-density urban area, is not a good policy set-up for the UIL.

[middleagecardinal]

Hey Old, I did not think that Hudson's team seemed "stacked". I'm not trying to take anything away from their talents but I did not think that they were unbeatable at all. I've seen a lot of girls softball (travel and high school) and so far the only high school team that I've seen that had the talent depth that would lead you to believe that the team was stacked, was a 5A school and that is because they have the enrollment and girls in the school playing year round. If the Hudson team plays year round, then they will be better than the average player but if they were stacked with the best from the Greater Lufkin Area then I would expect better hitting up and down the line-up and pitching that would not have to stay away from the plate the whole game. Again, Hudson has a good team and I'm not trying to take away any due respect. I'm just saying that in my opinion, they were not impressive enough to be considered awesome due to being a magnate school.

[Old Cardinal]

I think that they were stacked as best is possible- gleaning from the Greater Lufkin area...Yes of course, when a 5A team is stacked in the Greater Houston area, then they have a phenomenally large group of Year-Rounders to choose from. Personally, I think that a number of other 3A teams were very good, just utilizing the Year-Rounders and other good HS athletes that are naturally in their local HS's. I think that Phillip Tadora's "Thunder" team, primarily made up of Bridge City girls, will be a good feeder program for BC. They tend to play either as a marginal "A" team or as an awesome "B" team, "playing up" a lot of the time in "B" ball. Now that is different than gleaning recruits from all over the area of which you are adjacent too, or milking all of the players in a multi-large school District all placed on one lower enrollment Classification. I too see about 80 Select team games per year and really enjoy that level of softball play.