Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The 8U Dixie Darlings who won the softball world series last week in Virginia were honored yesterday afternoon at the Troy Parks and Recreation Department.  They were greeted with thunderous applause from people all over our community, Mayor Jason Reeves was there to talk to them and the attendees about the team’s big accomplishment, Troy recreation director Dan Smith was there along with the Darling coaches.

The Darlings won all five of their games in dominating fashion during the world series.  They beat teams from Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina by a combined score of 38 to 6.

Assistant Coach Tom Smith commented, “The past four weeks have been a lot because you go into it knowing there’s going to be a lot of expense when traveling as far away as Prince George, Virginia. The way the community just kind of surrounded the team and was willing to support the team in any way we really needed. Little Caesars and Dominoes were donating pizzas for us to sale at the older girls’ tournament and the rec center allowing us to do that.  We had people calling us that were willing to donate money without us really having to ask.  That was the most surprising part to me. We’ve been to the world series before, but to have people reach out without us having to and asking how they can help. A lot of the girls sign up to play rec ball and I think you pay $35 to sign up to play a regular season.  But when you make it to the world series, some of them signed up for a $35 commitment and now they’re looking at a lot larger financial commitment, so we all really appreciate the support we got from individuals and local businesses.

Smith went into the mindset the team had going into this season. “These girls worked hard throughout the summer. It’s hot and tiring, but they showed up to practice and they listened to the coaches. I think the biggest thing this year was our defense. They worked endlessly out there at the rec center at practicing defensive softball.  We knew we could hit.  We’re a good hitting team and we’ve proven that in the past, but this year was mainly focused on defense and keeping the other teams from scoring.  That was the biggest thing going into this season let’s just keep the other team from scoring because we know we can score.  The kids really embraced it. It’s a big part of the game in general, not just now but as you get older and keep playing if you can keep the other team from scoring it makes it a lot easier to win a game.”

Mayor Jason Reeves, who greeted and spoke to the team and people attending the ceremony commented, “It’s such an unusual event for a team to win the last game that they play together.  Anytime that happens for the Troy community it’s a historic event. These young ladies proved themselves not only on the field but in every way they represented us.  We’re just so grateful of Coach Dixon and his staff and the job that they did.  We were so blessed to have so many of our teams do so well and for the Darlings to win the world series really does put a cherry on top of everything that Dan Smith and his wonderful staff provides for our young people to do. It will be something these young ladies nor the community will ever forget.”

Parks and Recreation Director Dan Smith commented. “This season has just been wonderful for our boys and our girls and as Mayor Reeves said and we have often said, we put a great deal of emphasis on local recreation sports and athletics.  So, whether it be baseball, softball, soccer or whatever it may be, we were blessed to have four teams win a state tournament and advance to a world series. We saw a lot of good things from our teams, our families and coaches at all four tournaments.  They all represented Troy and Alabama very well.  That’s not a clique.  Because we do see teams from other states that unfortunately do not represent their state well.  It makes me so proud of these families that allow their children to participate in our programs. When I say the families I mean the parents, the grandparents and the extended family that supports them every night here at the local ball park, but also made the trips for the state tournaments and the world series.  I noticed at all four-world series that our local people from Troy had more people than the other states for almost every game.  I think that says a lot about community recreation softball and baseball.  That’s something that’s very important to Mayor Reeves and our department.”

Members of the historic Darlings World Series champions are Birdy Stephens, Brooklyn Sasser, Andi Smith, Libby Paul, Brooklee Kilparick, Collins Folmar, Taeli Slater, Sawyer Blair, Claire Dixon, Zalalya Reynolds, Kensley Wallace and Kinsley Cox.

Coaches for the Darlings are Tom Smith, Serling Sasser, Anthony Dixon and Paul Cox