The Garden City Telegram
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'Spirit' is alive and well in Garden City team
Published 7/8/2008 in None
All standing on the field at Tangeman Sports Complex, the Garden City Spirit 14 and under softball team answered the question simultaneously. In perfect harmony. Almost as if they had practiced the response.
I asked the group that had started with just Kim Bogner, Leslie Ford and Kori Thornton standing by me, then formed into the whole team "Who's your favorite team to play?"
"Blue Aces," the team exclaimed.
Ah, so it's the Blue Aces, huh?
"Yeah."
It couldn't have been a more put together answer.
Perfect harmony. For the most part, it's just like how the team has been all season.
"We're just gradually getting better," coach John Ford said of the team that has played together for at least five years. "We've just been trying to work on things that maybe some other teams have a hard time doing. We try to do them because -- if we learn to do them, it can put a lot of pressure on other teams."
Together, together, together the team sticks, and through a four tournament schedule to this point, the Spirit are 17-2. That's just their record. The end result in each of the tournaments has been a championship.
"We've played together since we were about eight," Leslie Ford said. "We know what everyone's got."
"It's good team chemistry," Bogner adds.
As their coaches stand to one side, the team is gelled together around the dugout. Each one sometimes completes a teammate's sentence. Other times someone corrects the other. It's a mixture of talent that has worked. And at the same time, the team knows there is still a lot it needs to work on as the state tournament will be in Salina next week.
"It's a good feeling, but there's still things to work on," said coach John Foster, who started the Spirit team with his wife five years ago.
Everyone can find something that needs to be worked on.
"We have lots of weaknesses we need to shore up," said Shon Thornton, another coach whose daughter Kori has posted a 10-1 mark on the mound.
The members of the Spirit will tell you they showed plenty of their weaknesses in the first game of the NAFA Super "C" National tournament June 28 and 29 in Dodge City.
Facing that Blue Aces team, a traveling team made of girls from Northwest Kansas and based in Grainfield, the Spirit were rocked 13-2 in four innings. It was the second time Garden City had been beaten by the Blue Aces. But true to form, the team did the only thing they really knew how to -- bounce back. Taking their frustration into the second game, the Spirit beat the QuickSilver 8-3.
"The first game we didn't show up," Bogner said. "We had a few hours and we got over it."
Just how much did they get over it? Besides winning the second game, they went on to win 7-2 and 10-0. With just one test left, the Spirit routed the Blue Aces 8-0 in five innings to claim the tournament title.
"I didn't really talk to them at all," John Ford said about after the first game. "I didn't want to talk to them. I knew that anything I said I wouldn't have been good. I just kind of shut up and let them stew on it for about five hours."
The team reacted the way Ford knew they would. It's something he's been through with them time and time again. In a way it's a tribute to the program he has helped build along with Foster and Thornton, and the other coaches in the summer softball programs. The 14 and under team wasn't the only team to leave Dodge City with a championship feeling as the Spirit 12-and-under team won their four-team event, and the 18-and-under squad placed second.
Coach Ford will proudly talk to anyone about his softball teams for as long as he can. But for now, his goal along with each member of the teams is the same.
"Win state," they all say in harmony.
Assistant Sports Editor Mike Kessinger can be contacted at mkessinger@gctelegram.com.
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