The Santa Clara Sparks are flying high again. For the second time in three years, the Sparks 12U softball team has qualified for the top tournament of the summer, the California State Games in San Diego. The tournament will take place July 18 through July 20 and is the culminating competition of a summer filled with a half-dozen weekend tournaments.
Most recently, the Sparks finished runners-up at the Del Holson Firecracker tournament in Benicia, but the team qualified for San Diego last month when the team finished the Northern California Tournament in fourth place. San Diego will be the furthest the Sparks will travel and is typically a once-in-a-lifetime trip for the girls on the squad. However, this year’s team does feature two girls who made the trip down south two years ago, in Alyssa Collins and Rose Ostrander.
“We all have really strong friendships with one another, we never have any problems on the team. I think that camaraderie helps us a lot. Nobody is afraid to talk to one another about anything,” chimed Collins on what has made the team so successful this summer. “We can hit, we can steal bases and we’re really good at our communication in the field.”
“I’m very excited to go, for me, this will be my first time going to San Diego,” remarked Genevieve Gabriel. “I feel like our team is going to be pretty good out there. We have pretty good pitching and hitting.”
“I’m really excited to get to do this with my team, getting to experience a tournament like this,” beamed Vini Suarez. “We support each other on the field really well and we worked our butts off to get to this tournament.”
“I can’t wait to experience this with my team and to play some good softball,” added Sloane Dailey. “I’m looking forward to having the experience to travel and see new competition.”
Sparks Head Coach Ryan Holleman admits this year’s squad is younger than in years past, but believes they will be able to make the city of Santa Clara proud with a strong showing in San Diego.
“We are a very young group, over 10 of our players are first year in the 12U division, so definitely a very young group that is coming up. However, a lot of this group has been core together for the last three, four years. And this has been their goal over that time to make this tournament, to qualify for San Diego,” said Holleman.
“Their biggest strength is being able to come together as a team and work towards a common goal. They have had this goal since the very first practice. We had them sit down and write out their personal and team goals,” continued Holleman. “Every single one of them on their team goal wrote ‘To qualify for San Diego,’ which I thought was pretty special that they were looking that far ahead and trying to make that their main team goal. I would definitely say their biggest strength is really just being a team.”
Holleman is hoping the Sparks’ pitching depth will give them an advantage, as well as leaning on the experience with Collins and Ostrander having played in the tournament two years ago.
“We’re going to make sure this is a memorable experience for the girls. We want to go down there and represent Santa Clara and play good ball at the same time, so hopefully find that nice balance. Rose and Alyssa will be very, very important to maintaining that balance,” said Holleman.
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Such an amazing group of players – so happy that they get to enjoy this accomplishment!! Make Santa Clara proud!
Good luck, Santa Clara Sparks!!! Have fun, stay hydrated and your batting swagger and golden glove game! Swing big, slide fast!