Tournament time

Published 8:39 pm Monday, June 14, 2010

While the Troy recreation baseball regular season may be over, the summer is just getting started for many kids in Troy.

The tournament season gets underway June 25 for most of Troy’s 15 tournament teams, with warm-up tournaments set for this weekend.

Troy has had great historical success in tournament play, which means making a tournament team in Troy carries with it a special sense of accomplishment.

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Since the skill level of Troy’s players is often so high, choosing who will or won’t make the teams is often a tough task.

Rather than being voted upon by administrators, the team membership is voted on by the coaches who have seen the players play all year long.

“All the coaches start out with the rosters of everybody who was in that league,” said David Dickey, Youth Sports Coordinator for Troy Parks and Recreation. “Everybody on the roster is eligible to play tournament team. The coaches sit down and go over the rosters, and they vote on who they think should be on the team. It has to be a majority decision amongst the coaches, though.”

While more days of practice in the blazing summer heat might seem like a burden to some, Dickey said the extra time on the field is a reward for the players who have been exceptional throughout the regular season.

“Even though everybody is eligible, we just try to reward the kids who have had really special seasons by putting them on these teams,” Dickey said.

Those rewards often pay off in the form of championships, as Troy has one of the most historically successful tournament team traditions in the state of Alabama.

“We’ve got a lot of good coaches that know the game of baseball,” Dickey said. “For Troy to be the size of town that it is, it just seems like there are a lot of good baseball programs around here for kids to take advantage of. We’ve got great coaches and great kids, so that’s always a good combination. We have coaches who really know how to teach the game, so that always helps.”

Troy Parks and Recreation officially released 14 of the 15 tournament team rosters to The Messenger Monday.

Those rosters can be found below, with the only exception being the Dixie Boys roster, which had not been finalized as of Monday.