I have known Clyde well for 20 years, and I am confident that he will continue running the Tournament in the tradition that it has continued for over 20 years. I owe Clyde a great deal of thanks for all of the coordination work he did ever since I moved the Tournament to Santa Barbara. I couldn’t have done it without him.
Questions about dates, locations, entry fees, etc can be directed toward Clyde. He can be reached at:
Clydebennett50 (at) yahoo.com
805-895-9007
I would like to thank all of the teams and Managers that participated over my 13 year run.
I would like to posthumously thank the late Roy Stout who acted as Umpire in Chief for several of the Tournaments.
Many thanks to Paul Castillo who operated the food concessions at the tournament for the last several years.
Thanks to Al Doran for publicizing the event each year.
Sincere thanks to Jim Flanagan for all of the publicity and live audio broadcasting of Best of The West games.
To Maddy Flanagan for outstanding photography at our even over the last several years.
And finally, special big thanks to Al Ruegsegger who created the Best of The West Tournament, and was Tournament Director in it’s first 9 years of existence. Al also provided the annual individual player awards to
members of the winning team.
I will truly miss the fun I had in my 13 years, but my current medical limitations make it very difficult for me to continue as I was. I wish good luck to all teams that will continue to participate in future versions of the “Best of The West”.
Cheers,
Dave Blackburn
Editor’s note:
A huge thank you from the fastpitch community to Dave, for all of his hard work with Best of the West for more than a decade. There have been few tournaments in my lifetime that had the longevity and tradition of Best of the West. I know from being a part of the BOTW how much work and dedication Dave put in, including some years when teams were struggling to stay afloat and it was not easy to fill out the bracket, or for that matter, find facilities that would or could host the tournaments. In recent years, the tournament has settled into a home in Santa Barbara, where Dave has teamed with Clyde Bennett to host the tournament. While we are all sorry to see Dave stepping down, I am happy that Dave’s right hand man for the past number of years, Clyde Bennett will continue the tradition. Job well done, Dave.