Fantastic Fury

Whether any of its athletes has a standout week on the ballfields this week, the Tennessee Fury youth fastpitch program has already gone 4-for-4.

The Fury's 16-under team is in Sioux Falls, S.D., their two 14-under teams are in Marietta, Ga., and the 18-under Gold team will be in Oklahoma City next week. Each has qualified to compete in Amateur Softball Association national tournaments. Play starts today, except in 18-under Gold, which is next week.

As much as qualifying for an ASA national is a team goal for all each year, that's almost an offshoot of the program's overall objective. Fury founders Pat Moyer and Jeremy Higdon are aiming to gain college scholarship money for all their players, uplift play locally, and in the process field teams that can compete nationally.

"Our ultimate goal is to help raise the level of softball in Chattanooga and the surrounding area," Moyer said. "By no means are we the standard. We've copied every successful program out there. We're trying to improve every day we can."

Higdon and wife, Jill, oversee the 18-under Gold team, which features athletes from a broader area than the younger Fury teams. Locals Amy Campbell, Kamri Chester, Megan Givens and Whitney Hammond played at GPS, and Karavin Dew is from Calhoun, Ga.

Moyer calls leadoff batter and center fielder Tory Lewis from GPS the "heartbeat" of the 16-under team with her .465 average. At 18-1, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe's Monica Vickery leads the pitching staff and Grace Academy's Lacye Walker has been a key run-producer in the No. 3 spot in the order.

Kim Swafford coaches for the Fury '94 team, named for the year in which the players were born. Swafford said they've had three players share the pitching load with equal success. Katy Richardson, Cricket Blanco and Morgan Lane have been among the offensive leaders.

Tad Andrus coaches daughter Hailey on the other 14-under team -- the Fury '95. They were the last to qualify, and did so with their last chance, by winning the South Atlantic Regional tournament in the first tournament after the July 17 grand opening at the Summit of Softball Complex in Collegedale.

Slap-hitters Cassidy Hackney and Noelle Winkles provide a spark offensively and Bayli Cruse has contributed power. Unfortunately they lost leadoff batter Shaliyah Geathers to a broken ankle on a slide into home Wednesday during the national tournament in Chattanooga last week.

"I'll be ready next year," said Geathers, who made the trip to Marietta to offer support. "I think I should be stronger. This will make me have to work harder for that."

She won't have to look far to find a place to train. The Fury Faspitch Academy building, located off Mack Smith Road in Rossville, was recently expanded to almost 12,000 square feet, primarily to accomodate the portion of the business geared toward physical fitness. Jeremy Higdon said former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant strength and conditioning coach Matt Green has had his one-time side business take off and he's come aboard with the Fury.

"We opened the building in November last year," Moyer said. "It was 6,000 square feet, which at the time we thought would be enough. We actually started training kids in June last year in a rented building, but we outgrew that in a hurry. It's happened really quickly. I'm convinced Tad's team coming back through the loser's bracket and winning the last qualifying tournament was because they still had gas in the tank. They were in better shape."

The athletes in each of the age groups have readily bonded with the others. Campbell, who will soon be returning to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City for her sophomore year, said her 18-under team and the 16-under team cheered at each others games when the two were at a tournament together earlier this summer in Cobb County, Ga.

"That's what's neat about this organization," Coach Andrus said. "The big-sister, little-sister thing is always going on. Then that role turns for the next group."

Moyer and the Higdons had worked together with the local Yankettes program at one time, but were out of select softball for a few years before starting the Fury organization in 2005. After consultations with college coaches such as University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach Frank Reed, Tennessee Tech's Tory Acheson and the Weeklys at the University of Tennessee -- where they have been the only summer program to have had coaches invited to work at UT's camps -- the Fury's officers think their objective to get teenage softball players college ready is on course.

Hackney views her invitation to join the organization as a golden opportunity, and Winkles echoed the sentiment.

"The facilities are like something you'd see if your were off at college," Hackney said. "We think this was what was best for our future."