Published January 14, 2007 11:56 pm – The temperature may be in the single digits and remnants of our most recent snowfall may still be clinging to our streets, but that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prevented a couple of Lake Crystal kids from thinking about fun in the sun.<\/p>\n
Shining Knights
\nLake Crystal-Welcome Memorial duo will try out for Team USA 18-under fastpitch team in California<\/p>\n
By Jim Rueda
\nThe Free Press<\/p>\n
LAKE CRYSTAL \u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n
The temperature may be in the single digits and remnants of our most recent snowfall may still be clinging to our streets, but that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prevented a couple of Lake Crystal kids from thinking about fun in the sun.<\/p>\n
Kevin Williams and Josh Schroeder, both juniors at Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial High School, will be leaving shortly for a few days in Chula Vista, Calif. They have been invited to a Junior Olympic tryout for Team USA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boys 18-under fastpitch squad.<\/p>\n
The duo was spotted at last summer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ASA National Youth Fastpitch Tournament at Caswell Park in North Mankato. They filled out some informational cards during the tournament and were notified early this fall that have been invited to the tryout.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty exciting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Williams. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was sort of surprised I got invited and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great that Josh gets to go, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Schroeder concurs: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kevin and I have been friends pretty much forever. We each live on opposite sides of Lake Crystal about four miles from each other.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we both played pretty well in the national tournament where our (16-under) team finished third. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something a lot of people get to do so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pretty excited.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Schroeder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dad, Rob Schroeder, has been a longtime fastpitch player and Josh has been tinkering around with the game for a number of years. A few years ago, Rob and Blake Meschke started coaching a youth team based out of Lake Crystal and were always on the lookout for good players.<\/p>\n
Josh sort of helped out in the recruiting process two summers ago when he convinced Williams to join the team. The national tournament was attractive to both players for two big reasons: No. 1, it was being played between the end of the summer baseball season and the start of football. And No. 2, it was taking place almost in their own backyards at Caswell Park.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The timing worked out great for us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little transition there from baseball to fastpitch because you use lighter bats and you have to get used to the underhand pitching, but it seems to have worked out pretty well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
LCWM baseball coach John Madsen says both players are good athletes. Madsen, who also serves as the Knights\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 boys basketball coach, is a little reluctant to see Schroeder and Williams leave right in the middle of the basketball season but he understands why.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both good kids and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both pretty good baseball players,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Madsen said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kevin has been starting for us for two years and plays mostly third base and pitcher. Josh played B-squad last year but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be playing a lot of varsity for us this season.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Junior Olympic tryout, to which 30 players have been invited, runs from Jan. 24-28 at the Arco Training Center just outside of San Diego. Team USA officials will pare the list of players down to 17 by the 2008 season.<\/p>\n
Rob Schroeder describes it as a unique opportunity that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply to good to pass up.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had a couple of other kids from Lake Crystal who tried out a few years ago and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think you have to go for it. Anytime you can put on a jersey that says USA across the front, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite an honor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coaches Tim Lyon, Scott Standerfer and Gary Mullican will have the USA Jr. Men in camp this weekend in Chula Vista, California, near San Diego at the Olympic Training facility. Here’s a link to a story about a couple of the kids headed to the camp, in their local newspaper. Reprinted with permission from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,15,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}