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Players Take Swings in Elkhart

Kids Prepare for Busy 2007

Elkhart –

As the calendar turns to 2007, members of the Zolman Tire/Street Kids/Tanel softball team took some time on the final weekend of 2006 to get some batting practice in at Sports Center in Elkhart, Indiana, a state-of-the-art indoor sports facility.

With 2007 looking to be one of the busiest and most exciting seasons in franchise history, the Street Kids will get to work almost immediately teaming with one of Mishawaka’s top teams, Network Design, as they play together for charity in the annual Corvilla Snowball Softball event at the end of January. The Street Kids are also looking to play in a tournament or two indoors at either the Jackson Dome in Michigan or the Fort Wayne Dome.

Along with their playing schedule, the Kids will be busy with Street Kids Care, the charitable division of Street Kids Softball. Among the first things scheduled for 2007 is a Street Kids Blood Drive, set for January 19^th and will be held at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend. Also on the agenda for Street Kids Care is a cooperative effort with Hannah and Friends, a nonprofit foundation founded by Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis and his wife Maura, that focuses on improving the quality of life for children and adults with special needs. Justin Sears, a member of the Street Kids Advisory Board and veteran SK player, is working on a program that will allow Street Kids Care to help Hannah and Friends. More details will be released as it becomes available.

Also on the horizon, but completely at the developmental stage, is a memorial softball tournament to be held in honor of the late Al Fisher, father of Street Kids pitcher Lanny Fisher, and a mentor, teacher and coach to hundreds of softball players, including a few Street Kids players. Lanny Fisher, who runs the softball leagues in the City of Buchanan where his father served as ASA Commissioner for many years, would like to plan the memorial tournament for April and would also serve as a warm up for many tournament and league teams.

“My father knew a lot of people,” said the younger Fisher. “I am sure there would be a big turn out for this tournament as there usually was for tournaments my father hosted.”

Lanny also is looking into having a memorial built for his father as the park, where one of the fields is already named in his honor.

One of the biggest stories for 2007 will be the College Football Hall of Fame/Street Kids Softball Tournament, to be held on the weekend of July 6-8, 2007 at the Belleville Complex in South Bend. With no official announcement made as of yet, several teams have already made it clear that they want to be involved in this historic event. The HOF and Street Kids officials have had regular meetings since the end of the 2006 season to prepare for this event, one of the largest of its kind to ever come to the area.

The tournament will be held as part of the annual Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival, where the winners of the softball tournament will be featured in the Enshrinement Festival parade and have exclusive access to the entire weekend festivities. There will be many venders attending and there are plans in the works for a large beer tent as well as having some bands provide additional entertainment. There are also talks of a celebrity softball game to be held on the opening night of the tournament weekend.

Well, that’s all for now!