You’ve probably seen this before, but it’s always cool to be able to witness at least part of it in person. What am I talking about? A team working their way back from the loser’s bracket to win a tournament.
Congratulations to Po’okela for winning FIVE games this past Sunday to come back through the loser’s bracket to win the Hawaii State 12U ASA “A Division” Tournament.
They looked strong in the beginning of the tourney, but when they were 1 of just 4 unbeaten teams left in the tourney, they lost 6-4 to the Lady Rebels in the last game of the evening on Saturday.
They had to come back at 8:30 am the next morning and play at 8:30, 10:30, 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30. They didn’t just come back and win, they came back and obliterated every opponent they faced on Sunday (including the Lady Rebels who had just beaten them the night before). I don’t think there was a margin of less than 5 runs in any game. In fact, I think most of the 5 games were run-rule games. I didn’t get to see every game, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team come back from the losers bracket with that kind of dominance in the remaining games.
Just goes to show you, even if you have the loooooooonnnngggggg road on the last day – it CAN be done. Nice to see it happen every now and then. Congratulations again to the Po’okela girls (and coaches and parents and supporters too). Awesome job!
Technorati Tags: Hawaii softball, youth sports
The Roosevelt Rough Riders won the Hawaii High School OIA Softball Championship this past weekend. Congratulations to Coach Okamura and his staff and of course, to the girls! Roosevelt showed an excellent display of teamwork with everyone contributing something. Apparently they also worked very hard this season in their training (I’ve heard rumors of tire flipping and sled dragging – and a player made reference to “all that running”) and it showed.
Congratulations Roosevelt!
In addition to all the hard work Roosevelt did, I think their success is also attributed to their approach. There was something Coach Clay said in the newspaper article about their championship win that caught my eye. It was a topic I had wanted to talk about, but didn’t really know how to go about it or explain it well. Hopefully by referencing this article, it will help, so I’m going to try.
In the article, Coach Clay said, “To be honest, we didn’t really think about (an approach to Mililani’s lineup),” Roosevelt coach Clay Okamura said. “Mililani is a mean team, take nothing away from them. But we didn’t think about (them), we were more concerned about what we had to do.” That’s a big part of why they won.
Too often we focus on our opponent. The pitcher has a great change up. Their batters can hit the ball. They’re great at putting down the bunt. They’re aggressive on the bases. Watch for the rise ball…etc, etc, etc. Not that it’s wrong to know your opponent, but I think it’s a mistake for them to be your primary focus. Read more…
Technorati Tags: championship, focus, Hawaii softball, high school softball, Mental Game, OIA
Just a quick announcement that Hawaii Softball (Playoffs) will be on TV if you’re in Hawaii (OC16) or Online via Live Streaming Video if you’re not.
Broadcasts begin TONIGHT, Thursday at 5:30pm Hawaii Standard Time. I know that’s really late on the East Coast, but there will be games shown on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at http://oc16.tv – 2 games each day beginning at 5:30 HST.
Technorati Tags: Hawaii softball, softball online, softball video