Another Strong Finish for the Mist!

Congratulations to the Mad River Mist's 12U travel team for taking 2nd place at the Napa Valley Girls ASA "A" Fastpitch Tournament!! You girls Rock!!!!! 


And many thanks to our AWESOME Coaches Eric and Bobby for their time, efforts, and dedication to the Mist!   

Mist Teams in Full Swing at Boatnik May 2012!

What a great weekend and a quality tournament for the Mad River Mist.  Thank you parents and coaches for making the 2012 Boatnik Tournament in Grants Pass a memorable one!   It was very cool to have the parents, players, and coaches from one age division watching and supporting the Mist players and coaches in the other divisions!  Thanks to all that made this tournament possible, with a special shout out to the Mist Coaches!   

2nd Place 10u Silver Division
Boatnik 2012

2nd Place 12u Silver Division
Boatnik 2012 

14u Bronze Division Champions
Boatnik 2012

 Help support travel softball in Humboldt County at our annual car wash/lot sale/raffle/bbq this weekend, Saturday, June 30th, at Leon's Car Care Center on Broadway in Eureka!  Hours run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Whether you're hungry, need your car washed, wanna come check out the merchandise or you are feeling lucky, we have something for everyone!  Advance tickets are for sale by several girls in the greater Humboldt area, or just come down Saturday. $10 gets you a car wash and one entry into the raffle. Extra raffle tickets are 1/$5 or 3/$10. Raffle tickets will be available on site as well!

Raffle items include: one $200 76-gas card, two $100 76-gas cards, one weekend stay in Oregon at the South Coast Inn, a three-month membership at Cal Courts Fitness Club in Eureka, Tetrault car washes, donated gift baskets, and more! We look forward to seeing you all there!

All proceeds from this fundraiser go to support the Mad River Mist 10U, 12U, 14U and 16U travel teams to offset equipment, tournament costs, uniforms and field rental fees.  So please join us on Saturday, meet our players and coaches, have some great food, and drive away with something old or something new.

Mad River Girls Fastpitch Softball and the Mad River Mist thank everyone for your continued generous support!

The Junior Giants - 10u Division Champs

Congratulations to all the teams this past weekend for their completion of our "newly renovated" ASA Mad River Recreational Fastpitch Program!  Shout outs to the Junior Giants for winning in the 10u division and to the Aftershock who won the 14u division in the 2012 "Finale Tournament"! Consolation winners included the Tsunami in 14u and Blue Thunder in 10u.

Thank you to all the parents, players, coaches, umpires, and volunteers for their participation and commitment this season! We could not have done it without you! We feel that feedback and reflection are critical to the success of a program so as a result, we will be looking to collect feedback via email from you all as it relates to the "good," "bad", and "ugly" of the season in hopes of providing a better quality experience next year! We certainly have taken our share of notes but are interested in hearing it from your perspective as participants.  Good luck with the remainder of the school year and we look forward to working with you next year!  

The Aftershock - 14u Division Champs











End of Season "Finale Tournament"

As challenging as it seemed at times, it's hard to believe that the season is at its end! Thank you so much for your participation within our program! We could not have done it without all of you and your patience! Feedback overall has been very positive in this "inaugural" and "newly renovated" Mad River Softball season! We certainly hope that all of you are interested in coming back next year. As we wind down the season, we want to point out a couple of things for this weekend's "Finale Tournament" (schedule available on this site):

1) For 14's, ASA rules and regulations will be in effect. That means there are no league-mandated pitching restrictions. Pitching is left to the discretion of the coach for the duration of the tournament. Additionally, coaches have the option of batting all players on their team with free substitution OR can select their top 9 or 10 players. If coaches play their top 9 or 10 players, then ASA substitution rules will be enforced. As a courtesy to all players, if coaches choose to substitute, at least one at bat and 2 innings are requested per player by each coach.

2) For 10's, we have decided it is best to leave the recreational rules as is for the tourney... our consensus is  that the players are not ready for a more advanced game like pitchers completing full innings, dropped 3rd strikes, stealing home on pass balls, etc. We will however, change the 5-run rule to a 5-up rule...this means that a team can score as many runs as it takes to be 5-runs up on the other team rather than quitting the inning as soon as the 5th run scores. This will allow a team to come from behind and possibly win the ball game. Games will also be an hour and twenty minutes versus an hour and ten.

3) Remember, the 5th seed is the only seed not to play on Sunday so please have ALL players pack a change of clothes in their ball bags in the unfortunate event their team happens to finish their season on Saturday. Uniform collection WILL happen after your team's final game! Players will be asked to "strip down" and return their uniforms so please make sure they also pack their uniform shorts in the event they were distributed to them and a change of clothes!! A trash bag was provided to all teams in their uniform bins for just this purpose! All dirty uniforms will be collected in the trash bag and washed by us after the tourney. A final inventory of uniforms will be done prior to being washed and compared against the uniform sign out sheet completed by each coach at uniform distribution. Any unreturned uniforms will be sent a $100 invoice for uniform replacement. If you know your player(s) will not be in attendance at the tournament, please hand off to the coach prior to the tournament. Having the uniform ahead of time will make the uniform collection process much more streamlined and help us out tremendously!

4) Ideally, pictures, pre-ordered sweatshirts, and sweatpants are scheduled for distribution during the tournament. We are double checking with vendors to confirm product deadlines. Really our only concern are the team photos. The photographer sends her pictures to St. Louis for processing. She isn't sure they will be delivered on time. If they are not delivered on time, we will have "picture pick up spots" located in various communities. We will work diligently to get them to you.

5) Good sportsmanship and solid clean competition will be strictly enforced! Coaches have been asked to speak with anyone who may have a prior "incident" on their "record." Inappropriate conduct by player and/or parent is a violation of the Player/Parent Expectations that each player/parent should have signed and submitted at the beginning of the season and will not be tolerated. Anyone violating these conditions will be asked to leave the facility.

6) We expect a fun-filled, looking like it'll be sunny weekend of competitive ASA softball. We invite you all to encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to come support our Mad River Girls as they wrap up their seasons.

Once again, thank you for your participation this 2012 softball season, for offering up suggestions for improvement, and for the countless emails of support during the season.  We look forward to the finale tournament as well as working with all of you again in the future! Have a great day!

The Mad River Softball Board

New Schedule Posted

We are pleased to release the final schedule for the 2012 Mad River Rec Season, which can be downloaded from this site. It has indeed been a challenging adventure and it wouldn't have been possible without the assistance of our dedicated volunteers.... so thank you all! And thanks as well to the parents and players for their patience and for sticking with us through a logistically difficult spring season!  We especially want to recognize the efforts of the many single parents that are participating in our Program and offer a special thanks for getting their girls to the various practices and games.

It's interesting to reflect back at the process - its many ups and downs, to see what went right and where we can (and will) improve in the future. On the positive side... After playing over 40 games overall, the program experienced only 1 game-day cancellation (which is scheduled to be made up next week!). Had we stuck with the original schedule planned for the entire season, well over half of the games played to-date would not have occurred as planned due to field closures, conflicting field engagements, poor weather, etc. - coupled with a lack of players due to a variety of factors such as AAU basketball, school events. HSU and CR graduations, etc. etc.   Also, through the dedicated efforts of many, the Mad River Rec Program will have played games at 9 different fields scattered between 7 different sites in Humboldt County. Wow! When field closures occurred and options seemed impossible, Kelly and her host of key contacts made alternate fields available and games were able to proceed! The field at Scotia was one such option that has been incredible...  thank you Ageana and the rest of the Mad River's southern crew that worked to make this facility available!  Also thanks are due to the Head Coaches at Fortuna and Arcata High Schools for allowing Mad River to use those facilities.  Overall, this new network of fields opens up a wealth of options that Mad River will certainly capitalize on in the future! Lastly, we want to thank Eliot Baker and his excellent crew of umpires for their flexibility in adjusting to our schedules as well as for the amazing job they have done so far this season. Good work Blue!    
 
             

Mad River Updates

Updated Game Schedule   Please review the REVISED schedule (ver 6.6 dated April 30, emailed May 1 and posted on this site today) as there have been subtle changes to the previous schedule. City fields are still not open and flexibility with field usage has been tricky due to weddings scheduled at Scotia, doubleheader high school games scheduled on Saturdays, and game rescheduling due to school events and more! The May 5th doubleheader is still planned for Newburg fields, however, "Plan B" is already in progress in the event the city still has not prepared the fields. Coaches, please make sure your players are properly informed about the changes as not all players have digital/electronic access. Parents and players, in the event you have a scheduling conflict with any of the games, please let your coach know immediately! If enough players are not available for a scheduled contest, we will do our best to reschedule.

Opening Day Action at Scotia! 

Fundraiser  Also, we have launched a Pampered Chef fundraising campaign. If you have yet to commit to this fundraiser, Mad River parent, Chris Valk, is leading the charge with this. She can be reached via email at: cpsmilling@yahoo.com. Remember that funds raised will be used to upgrade program equipment and uniforms, as well as help to pay for practice facilities and umpires. Note that some of the practice locations charge up to $20 an hour for usage.

Pitching Clinic  Finally, Sunday, May 6th, we will be hosting a $5 pitching clinic at Arcata High School. Ten and under players will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 14u players will be hosted from 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. If you have not yet RSVP-ed for this event, please do so at your earliest convenience! Thank you!

The Mad River Board