{"id":2199,"date":"2007-10-10T09:59:22","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T17:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=2199"},"modified":"2007-10-10T09:59:22","modified_gmt":"2007-10-10T17:59:22","slug":"eagles-fly-the-coop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=2199","title":{"rendered":"Eagles fly the coop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team ceasing operations, can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a major sponsor<\/strong>
\n
\nBy Darryl G. Smart
\nSports Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

INNERKIP \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The glass slipper the Innerkip Eagles wore during the International Softball Congress world tournament this summer has been smashed to pieces. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is with great disappointment that I announce that the Innerkip Eagles are ceasing operations for the upcoming 2008 fastball season,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d manager Jeff Whetstone said in a press release. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Due to the inability to secure a sponsor, we will be unable to operate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whetstone said for the team to survive another season, it needed $20,000. Despite that, the writing was on the wall.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We could have waited until Christmas to make a decision, but it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be fair to the players,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whetstone said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we all knew that this would happen eventually.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This end comes on the heels of the team’s best season, which included an eighth-place finish at the ISC world tournament in Kitchener. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Finishing eighth at this year’s ISC tournament was one of our team’s highlights,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whetstone said. The Eagles began their journey in 2000, winning the South Perth Men’s Fastball League, the Ontario Amateur Softball Association eliminations, the North American Fastball Association \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and eastern Canadian championships.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We won everything possible so the guys wanted to try it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whetstone said. So the Eagles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 next obvious step was to senior. For seven years, the Eagles gradually began to make a name for
\nthemselves on the world stage, moving up the world ladder. In league play, the Eagles captured the 2005 title and lost to the Jarvis Merchants in the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Eagles have been a mainstay in keeping the ISC Travel League alive and it is the unsung effort of the Jeff Whetstones in the game that sadly gets lost when a team can no longer operate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ISC Hall of Famer Larry Lynch said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take pride in the fact that you have given
\na lot of players the opportunity to play at the highest level and continue at the highest level. Teams across North America have bolstered their own by recruiting from small- town Innerkip.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what is starting to happen.<\/p>\n

While catcher Pat Humphries recently signed with the current world champion Farm Tavern, the rest of the Eagles will try to latch on with another senior team. Unfortunately, the numbers game may play a factor, thanks to a merger between the Kitchener Hallman Twins and Orillia Riversharks. As part of the merger, it was agreed the new team will consist of players from both squads, meaning a full team’s worth of players will be looking for a place to play.
\nDespite the Eagles folding, Whetstone said there were no regrets. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you see where we started, not many people heard of Innerkip,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whetstone said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now they know most of our guys.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Darryl Smart
\n519-537-2341 ext. 258
\ndsmart@bowesnet.com
\nwww.woodstocksentinelreview.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team ceasing operations, can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a major sponsor By Darryl G. Smart Sports Editor INNERKIP \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The glass slipper the Innerkip Eagles wore during the International Softball Congress world tournament this summer has been smashed to pieces. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is with great disappointment that I announce that the Innerkip Eagles are ceasing operations for the upcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199"}],"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=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}