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Welcome to the 2007 Enshrinement Softball Tournament!

 

The College Football Hall of Fame recently announced the plans to host a huge softball tournament on July 6-8th at the Belleville Softball Complex here in South Bend, Indiana.

 

The event, which is being partnered with Street Kids Softball, is being put on to help raise money for the Hall of Fame as well as Street Kids Care, the charitable division of Street Kids Softball. It will lead up to the Hall of Fame’s annual Enshrinement Festival, which is being held on July 21-22nd.

 

The tournament will feature a men’s upper division, a men’s lower division and a coed division. The upper division will feature more competitive teams that are used to tournament style softball.

 

Kicking off the weekend's tournament will be a Celebrity Softball Game on Friday, July 6.  This event will feature two teams of local and football celebrities, autographs, refreshments, a homerun derby, and a live concert by Vyagra Falls. The featured celebrities will be announced at a later date, but will include many local television and radio personalities. Tickets for this event are available at the Hall of Fame for $5 (children 12  & under are free) or at the gate on Friday evening.

 

 "We are thrilled to kick off the Enshrinement festivities by partnering with Street Kids Softball to launch the inaugural Enshrinement Festival Softball Tournament," said Hall of Fame executive director Rick Walls. "The tournament is just one of many new events associated with the Festival that involves local charitable organizations and furthers our goal of involving the entire community in the enshrinement of college football's greatest players and coaches."  

 

The tournament itself will begin Friday night and run through Sunday afternoon. The beer tent will be open through Saturday night.

 

As part of the tournament prize package, the winning team from each division will win individual trophies, t-shirts, a sponsor trophy, and have the opportunity to meet the Enshrinees, including legends such as Bobby Bowden and Emmitt Smith. There will also be awards presented for most outstanding defensive player, most valuable player, and awards for the "all-tournament" team.

 

“There are not too many festival softball tournaments that include such a prize package,” said TJ Jorgensen, director of Street Kids Softball. “Just to know you could have the chance to meet Emmit Smith or Bobby Bowden would be enough reason to want to get in this tournament. And knowing that the entire weekend’s proceeds is going to a good cause makes it even more special.”

 

The recent press release by the Hall of Fame indicated that there is a $5 charge to enter the park. That is only for Friday night’s events, and not for any teams that are playing Friday night. Also, in the event that there are not enough teams in either of the men’s division, the tournament director has the right to combine the upper and lower divisions.

 

Volunteers are always welcome! If you would like to help out during this event, please send an email to the address below.

 

Additional Information

The cost for the tournament is $150 per team, and you must supply your own ASA (Amateur Softball Association) stamped, .375 compression/.44 cor softballs. If you do not have any at the time of the tournament, don’t worry. There will be softballs for sale at the event. Tournament rules will be released at the start of the tournament, but early information indicate that the home run rules for the three different levels of play will be as follows: Upper division will get seven home runs and the lower level as well as the coed division will each get three home runs each. Although this is an ASA tournament, any bat that is approved for play in either the ASA or the NSA will be allowed.

 

Teams do not have to have matching uniforms, but it is encouraged.  No one under the age of 18 is allowed to play in the tournament.

 

This tournament will fill up fast so to enter your team in the tournament, send an email to tj@streetkidssoftball.com or call 574-607-2064.

 

Coed Information

The coed rules will be that of your typical ASA league coed rules. You must bat an even number unless you have girls batting back-to-back. You must have at least five women on the field, and there must be at least two women in the outfield, two women on the infield and the one woman must either pitch or catch.

 

Hotel Information

→  Country Inn and Suites: 10 Single Rooms (One King sized bed) @ $85.00 a night. Teams will need to call the hotel (574.271.1700) to reserve the rooms. The codeword for the block is "Celebrity Tournament". The cut off date for this block is 6/25/07. Their website for the link is www.countryinns.com/mishawakain .

 

→  Sleep Inn: 10 Double Rooms (Two Queen sized beds) @ $89.99 a night. Teams will need to call the hotel (574.232.3200) to reserve the rooms. The codeword for the block is "Celebrity Tournament". The cut off date for this block is 6/22/07. Their website for the link is www.choicehotels.com/hotel/in264 .

 

Registration Information

Every team that is willing to participate in the tournament will have to be registered prior to the start of the tournament. You can get a copy of the registration form by clicking here, or contact TJ Jorgensen at the number or email address above for one to be faxed to you. Simply print out the form and contact Street Kids at 574-607-2064 in order to get a fax number. You can also download the file and edit it in Microsoft World, save it and email it back to the address above. To download, right mouse click here, and choose “save target as” and save it to your desktop.

 

Street Kids Care, the charitable division of Street Kids Softball, focuses on helping others in the Michiana community. Some of the ventures Street Kids Care has been involved in include the American Cancer Society, the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, and raising several thousands of dollars for Sarah Clay, the former Mishawaka student-athlete who suffered spinal cord damage after an ATV accident.  She had stem cell surgery in Portugal last summer to help reverse the effects of the accident. They have also hosted a blood drive with the Hall of Fame and have made donations to both the American Heart Association and St. Jude's Hospital.

 

For more information on the College Football Hall of Fame, go to www.CollegeFootball.org. For more information on Street Kids Softball or Street Kids Care, go to http://www.streetkidssoftball.com/.

 

Belleville Complex Park Rules

 

One of many programs conducted by the National Football Foundation, the College Football Hall of Fame is among the nation's premier sports shrines, preserving the history and ongoing story of college football while promoting an understanding of the positive values of the sport. For more information, visit www.collegefootball.org.

 

With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College (Mass.), and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. Learn more at www.footballfoundation.org.