It took Erin Kuba only a few hours to read about our new women's collegiate summer softball league when the program was announced last Tuesday and send in her registration form.
That made Kuba, a Cedar Rapids Jefferson grad, the first person to enroll in the program and get the ball rolling. She was joined shortly after by Peyton Baskerville and Tianna Drahn, a air of Cedar Rapids Kennedy grads who have now sent in their materials.
And off we go.
Our goal is to enroll 64 college softball players in the program, assign them to four teams and begin play next summer at Kirkwood and Coe on 10 straight Sundays from late May through late July. And based on the early response, we should be able to reach our goal in a fairly short period of time.
The new program is intended for all active fast-pitch softball players at Iowa colleges, along with all Iowans who are playing at out-of-state schools. And it's also intended for all levels of collegiate softball, which makes our first three players so interesting.
Kuba is a freshman at Indian Hills Community College, which is an NJCAA program. Baskerville is a freshman at Mount Mercy University, which competes at the NAIA level. And Drahn is a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa, which is an NCAA Division I school.
The three former Metro players all found different levels of collegiate competition, and now all three of them will be playing in the same summer league to hone their skills and enjoy some friendly competition.
We've sent e-mails to the head softball coaches at 27 different colleges in Iowa that are within a two-hour drive of Cedar Rapids to inform everyone about the program. The response has been highly favorable from everyone who has replied so far.
I had a good meeting with the softball team at Kirkwood last week and expect to see a good number of Eagles get in the program. I'll be meeting with the Coe Kohawks this Friday and plan to speak with the Mount Mercy Mustangs this Sunday.
Joe Drahozal, one of my partners in the new league, plans to speak with the players from Upper Iowa and Saint Ambrose this weekend when they are in town to play Kirkwood in fall games. Drahozal's daughter, Erin, a Xavier grad, is a sophomore at Upper Iowa and will be playing in the league, along with other former teammates from the AAU Barracudas program.
Kuba and Baskerville used our handy on-line registration system to enroll in the program, while Drahn elected to use the U.S. postal service to mail in her materials. Either format is fine and all three of them are safely in the fold.
We'll provide weekly updates on the softball program and we'll begin a "Look Who's Playing" segment fairly soon, to be posted on our special softball page on the Metro Sports Report website, found by clicking on the "MSR Summer Softball" tab at the top right of the home page.
Thanks very much to Erin Kuba, Peyton Baskerville and Tianna Drahn for enrolling.
Who's got next?
