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By John Kennett
jkennett (at) mdn.net
With over 20,000 people expected to descend on Midland next Aug. 14-21 for the 2010 International Softball Congress World Championships, planning is paramount.
Fortunately, co-chairs Kyle Beane and Dave Lach of the host Midland Explorers Booster Club feel they have preparations well in hand.
“We’re in a pretty good spot,” said Beane, who plays for the Midland Explorers and is a product analyst for the General Motors Service and Parts Operation.
Two area hotels, the Midland Resort and Convention Center and the Valley Plaza Resort, have been chosen as the host hotels for the tournament.
“We’ll need a lot of meeting room space fro the ISC to conduct their business,” said Lach. “For instance, on Sunday morning (of the tournament), the ISC will hold a Hall of Fame breakfast for over 300 guests at the Valley Plaza.”
Along with the two host hotels, the H Hotel has agreed to be a partner while Sports Junction has signed on to be the tournament’s souvenir vendor.
With over $2 million expected to be pumped into the local economy, the host committee is raising the initial $30,000 of organizational money.
“Right now, we’re in the fundraising mode,” said Beane. “We’re contacting local businesses for funds. We want this to benefit the whole community.”
The process to hold next year’s tournament began over a year ago at the 2008 ISC World Championships in Kimberly, Wis.
“Typically, the host city is chosen two years prior by a bid process,” said Beane. “At Kimberly, nobody came forward for 2010, so we started talking to the ISC about hosting.”
After receiving details from the ISC about hosting the tournament, and then processing the information, the decision was made to move ahead with pursuing the 2010 tournament.
“We contacted the Midland Parks and (Recreation Department) along with the (Midland) Chamber of Commerce, and everyone was firmly behind it,” said Beane. “A verbal agreement was reached with the ISC late last year, and the contract was signed in July.”
Lach is impressed with the way the community has backed up its initial commitment.
“The openness and enthusiasm from the local community has been great,” said Lach, who works for Nexteer Automotive of Saginaw as a senior systems engineer. “Any business we’ve approached has given us a tremendous response. The (Midland) City Council, along with the (Midland) Parks and Rec, have provided us with everything we’ve needed. It’s been very rewarding to see everyone pull together.”
One change that fans will see in the 2010 ISC is the absence of perennial power The Farm Tavern of Madison, Wis. After 34 years and three World Championships, sponsor Rod Peterson decided to retire and disband the team.
“There was not a better sponsor than Rod,” said Beane. “I’m sorry to see him go.”
With the closure of The Farm, the Midland Explorers become the ISC team with the longest continuous sponsorship.
“We’ve been at every ISC Championship since 1987,” said Beane. “That’s 23 years. It really speaks highly of guys like Lefty Bartos and Lee Isenhart, who started the Explorers.”
August’s event will actually consist of three separate tournaments: the ISC Men’s Fast Pitch Tournament, ISC II Tournament of Champions, and the ISC Development Tournament (under-19).
All the games will take place at either Emerson Park or the Redcoat Softball Complex. The Explorers will be entered in the ISC Men’s Fast Pitch Tournament along with the best teams in the world.
“It’s kind of like the majors versus Triple-A,” said Beane of the difference between the ISC Men’s Fast Pitch Tournament and the ISC II Tournament. “The Fast Pitch Tournament has better players.”
Last year’s ISC Men’s Fast Pitch Championships drew 24 teams, while the ISC II Tournament had 40 teams.
“I expect there to be a real solid group of 20 teams this year in the Fast Pitch Tournament,” said Beane. “Due to some teams folding up, some of the (ISC) II teams will move up.”
With the re-signing of star pitcher Brian Urquhart, Beane expects the Explorers to have another strong showing after finishing ninth at the 2009 ISC, where Urquhart was named to the All-World Team.
“We’re trying to find another pitcher to go with Brian,” said Beane. “This time of year is when players typically move to other teams. We would like to make the Explorers as strong as we can, so we can make a deep run in this year’s tournament.”
For further information regarding the tournament, or to contact Beane or Lach, go to www.midland2010isc.com.
Some readers comments from the news story appear after the jump.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of ourmidland.com.
Lori wrote on Nov 29, 2009 4:41 PM:
” i hope to read a lot about this in the weeks before the tournament. ”
BuzzAce wrote on Nov 30, 2009 7:42 AM:
” I’m glad the ISC is coming to Midland, and my team is extremely excited to compete in the ISC II, but i sure hope Parks and Rec will REDO every field besides the stadium, because the stadium is the ONLY FASTPITCH FIELD in Midland. These teams from other states/countries will never come back after they have to play 6 or 8 games with those useless white breakaway plastic fences. Why cant we just make Emerson the fastpitch side of the Tittabawassee and Redcoats the modified/slowpitch side???? “