Lady Tigers Night

Lady Tigers Night with the Staten Island Yankees was held on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 7:00 pm at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The night was a great success. All who came enjoyed the game - unfortunately the Oneonta Tigers beat Staten Island Yankees 5 to 4.

Player Safety Tip: Why You Should Use A Mouth Piece

Player Safety Tip: Why You Should Use A Mouth Piece - You probably know someone, or know somebody who knows someone who has been hit in the mouth by a batter ball. Perhaps it has happened to you! In fast pitch softball, the pitcher, 3rd baseman and 1st baseman, as you well know, play quite close to the batter and occasionally reaction times are just not fast enough. In other cases, a bad hop might shoot up and nail you big time right in the kisser. More often than not, the result of being hit in the mouth is broken teeth or worse yet, teeth knocked completely out. Mouth pieces have been successfully used in all types of contact sports for years and have a proven "prevention" track record. They are readily available in all sporting goods outlets and are affordable with a price range of $2-$20. All it takes is one bad hop or frozen rope line drive and a mouth piece will pay for itself in unnecessary trauma, not to mention thousands of dollars in dental costs. We urge you to consider wearing one. A toothbrush can get the dirt out of your teeth...a mouth piece can keep your teeth out of the dirt. Get one and get used to wearing it. Avoiding an injury situation before it happens is better than treating it after it happens.

Deanna Vecchio also joins Lady Tigers

Also joining the Lady Tigers staff is Deanna Vecchio. Deanna will be an integral part of the Lady Tigers Coaching Staff as we enter our Summer Tour. Deanna’s coaching credits begin seven years ago with her work with the 12&U Shore Magic and her work in Maryland as the co-founder of URASTAR Softball, an organization organizing softball camps and clinics for high school players. She worked as the assistant varsity softball coach at Metuchen High School for two seasons in 2005 and 2006. In 2007 she was picked up as the assistant softball coach at NCAA Division-3 Drew University. Deanna has collected an impressive list of collegiate and post-collegiate accolades. She received a full softball scholarship to play at the NCAA Division-1 level at the University of Maryland- Baltimore County (UMBC) from 1999-2002. Leading her team to Northeast Conference (NEC) Championships in 2000 and 2002, Deanna was named NEC Player of the Year (2002), a 4 time first-team all conference performer, 2nd team Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) All-East Team, and the 2002 UMBC Senior Athlete of the Year. She was named by the ASA a Class A All-American and helped her StormUSA team win a national championship. Her name appears in the NCAA Division-1 record books six times: 17th overall for stolen bases per game; 13th in 2000 for average stolen bases per game; 20th in 2001 for average stolen bases per game; 2nd in 2002 for runs per game; 23rd in 2002 for batting average; and 23rd in 2002 for average stolen bases per game. She holds the career record in the NEC for runs and is in the top 5 in twelve categories for NEC single season records, including 1st in runs, hits, stolen bases (2000); stolen bases per game (1999); stolen bases (2001), and 1st in batting average, runs and stolen bases (2002). At UMBC, she holds career records in the top-ten of 14 categories, including 1st in runs, stolen bases, and stolen base attempts, and 2nd in hits. Her prowess is potent, as one of the all-time best short-stops in both UMBC and NEC history as well as a national standout.

Nutrition Tip of the Week

Dietary Fat

Don’t fight the fat when it comes to sports nutrition. Between 20% and 30% of your caloric intake in your sports nutrition diet should be fat to aid metabolic processes as well as for energy. Favor monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which do not have the negative cardiovascular effects attributed to saturated fats.

Omega 3 oils are considered a good form of fat. A good place to get these essential fats is from fish. Olive oil is another healthy source of good fats. This form of fat helps keep our good cholesterol up and the bad kind low. Health fats have also been shown to aid in proper joint lubrication.

Be aware of the types of fats in your diet.

Given the opportunity to play the sport she loves!

I don't know if I already informed you that Cora will be with the Varsity during the Easter break in Florida. This came as a surprised to us when the coach called us last Tuesday. They will be spending a week playing and training.

As Cora's coach, we could not thank you enough for all the things you had done for the girls. We would like to thank you and Joanne for believing in Cora. You actually had given her the opportunity to play the sport that she loves the most.

After last Sunday's workout with Ivan, I thought Cora will be so tired to practice with the Mount's team but she said you had encouraged her so much that she felt she owes it to you, besides it was the last day of pre season training and Cora hadn’t showed up in any practices and the trainer does not know her. At the end of the night, the trainer came to us and asked a bunch of questions about Cora. His actual words were “she is a highly skilled athlete". The next day, we got a call from the varsity coach.

This would have been impossible if you had not prepared Cora. So once again thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Our loyalty remains with you.

With Love and prayers,

Carl, Myrtle and Cora

The right decision to join Lady Tigers

I was looking for a competitive fast pitch travel team for my daughter Ashley to play on. After watching my daughter play for two different competitive organizations over four years I had a checklist of things that I was looking for in an organization and coach to ensure that we made the right decision.

After speaking to Jim DeMatteo, Coach of The Lady Tigers, over the phone and listening to how he coaches, his philosophy and what his team and organization had to offer, I like what I heard and decided to have Ashley tryout for his team. After further discussion with Coach Jim I was impressed with how sincere he was, his coaching knowledge, and his genuine care for the players and a lot of other good qualities that he possesses.

With the coach making it easy for me to check off my items on my checklist and Ashley liking what she was seeing, Ashley decided to join the Lady Tigers.

It has been 6 months since Ashley joined the team and I’m proud to say that we are happier now then when we first joined because of Coach Jim coming through with all his promises that he has kept that were on my check list.

Fernando Serrano

Thank you for a great job!

I just wanted to take this time to let you know how much Lady Tigers speed and conditioning has increased Cassandra’s stamina and improved her running speed tremendously.

Cassandra says she also feels the difference in increase power when she hits the ball. During her first practices when she hit a home run she said she felt like she ran around the basis with so much speed and she was not so winded as before.

She feels great about it and it definitely shows. Ivan did a fantastic job with her. She says she feels unstoppable and this was just with roughly only 2 months of training. Imagine if they were doing this longer.

My husband and I just feel very lucky for my daughter to have become part of this great organization and I know that this organization is 100% geared into helping these girls succeed both physically and mentally on and off the field.

Thank You all for the great job on Cassandra’s increase power and speed. She can’t wait to get back into physical training with Ivan.

Sincerely,

Patty & Jeff Petretta