Original article by Julia Daniels
Published: Jul. 11, 2020 at 9:51 PM CDT
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG) -Saturday wrapped up the first of two weeks of the USFA Softball World Series at the Panama City Beach Sports Complex.
The tournament consisted of over 70 8U, 10U, and 12U teams from all over the United States. One of USFA's tournament directors, Robert Guerrero, said that of all the obstacles the world series has faced, including Hurricane Michael, adjusting to the covid-19 pandemic has been the most out of ordinary.
“The biggest thing is, some teams have been able to play, and some teams have not. There’s some teams here, and these are their first games of the year. The first pitches they have thrown all season have been in Panama City Beach, so that has been unique because of what comes with that. I think the biggest thing this week is flexibility. We did have some teams that were forced to cancel due to the situation that we are dealing with. They cancelled, literally, the day before the tournament started,” said Guerrero.
Monday, 14U, 16U, AND 18U softball teams will head down to compete in the older tournament of the World Series.
Panama City Beach's own 12U Florida Elite coach, Katie Lopes, said playing at home has been a blessing.
“The girls are so pumped to play at a home field advantage because their friends and family can come watch. It’s a big help for us when we have local help and to have friends and family in the stands. It’s crazy to have different competition because some of the tournaments I’ve seen the same stuff over and over. It’s nice to play people that we are not familiar with that we don’t know anything about,” said Lopes.
Lopes also said that Florida Elite doesn’t have any more summer tournaments lined up, but they will be hosting tryouts next week for next year’s team.
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