WISCONSIN TWISTERS

WISCONSIN TWISTER’S FASTPITCH

SPRING 2012 NEWSLETTER

WELCOME SPRING (early!)

This has been a very busy "off-season" for the Wisconsin Twister’s Fastpitch Softball program. We held our try-outs the end of August and received overwelming response. In the 2012 season we will again have seven (7) teams. The 80+ players come from Raymond, Franksville, Caledonia, Oak Creek, Franklin, Union Grove, Sturtevant, Wind Lake, Burlington, Dousman, Waterford, Cudahy, Muskego, Shorewood, Racine, and South Milwaukee, Hales Corners, Greendale, Sussex, Jefferson and Kenosha. We have the best parents of any softball organization in the state, and many donate their time as coaches, parent reps, board members, and Spring Fling tournament volunteers.

The biggest event of our season is only a couple of months away. The 7th Annual Spring Fling Fastpitch Tournament will be held at Raymond School diamonds in the Town of Raymond over the weekend of June 2nd and 3rd. It is a major fund-raiser for our club and held in a spectacular setting. Over the years our tournament has gained greater popularity and many teams and umpires return each spring.

SPONSORSHIP NEWS

The Wisconsin Twister’s are fortunate to have several new Sponsors coming on board –we welcome them and thank them for their generosity. We also would like to THANK our Sponsorship Committee, headed by Jack Bianchi, for their hard work and enthusiasm. Sponsors are very important partners to our organization and we hope they will get an opportunity to see our teams play and meet the players during the coming summer. Our team schedules are posted on our website so that you may look at dates and locations. We would also be proud to include a highlight about your business in a future newsletter if you have something you would care to share, please contact Deb  "mailto:debeatle@aol.com"
 to be included in our Summer Edition. Thank you sincerely, from all of our parents, coaches and players.

Educator’s Credit Union
Landmark Credit Union
Neo-Brake Systems, Inc. Cozy Inn
Old Timer’s Athletic Club
Community State Bank
The Mikolajczyk Family
Michael’s Signs
Marini
Dr. Tritten
Hy Pro
Cudahy Little League
The Shimanski Family
Martin Custom Knives
Community Partners
Lou & Evie Aponte
Chris & Steve Baumgartner
DiAnna and Brian Johnson Monica and Rick Ballew
Kathy Sterling & Sterling True Value
Deb & Glen Mikolajczyk
Parent Reps, Team Coaches
Ruma Sports
Raymond Baseball Association Raymond Elementary School
Randy and Kitty Cole
Kirk & Mikolajczyk Law Offices
ARI Network
Prudential Insurance

TWISTERS ACCOMPLISHMENTS ON AND OFF THE FIELD

Congratulations to Kimmie, 18U, on her 1st Place NATIONALS POWER/WEIGHT LIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP! She will be heading to Poland to participate in the World Team for 2012! Her brother also won a 1st place in the boy’s division.

Congratulations to Claire, 16U, on her 4th Place NATIONALS POWER/WEIGHT LIFTING AWARD! She also has qualitifed for State in her FBLA event, is a finalist for NHS and serves on the South Suburban Milwaukee Tennis Assoc. board, serving as a youth coach for the USTA winter tennis program.

Amber J., 18U has been accepted to Marian University on an academic scholarship, to study Criminal Law/Justice and play Softball. She has also been part of the PALS program at the high school.

Courtney H., 18U, will transfer from York PA after her senior year to play for Wisconsin Twisters during the summer, and attend Concordia University in the fall studying Nursing and playing softball.

Kenzie, 14U, was one of two Freshmen to move up to J.V. during Union Grove H.S.’s basketball season.

"Bug"14U, was finalist for academic scholarship.

Jessie, 14U, was accepted into the Carroll College Bridges Program in 2010. This program takes 50 students from the Racine Unified school district to meet monthly with Carroll College mentors. The program provides full scholarship opportunity. Jess received 2 Black History Month certificates, one from Gilmore Middle School for Academics and Athletics and one from RUSD.

Mariah 14U, is a member of her Middle School Madrigal Choir and recently competed in NYC at the Heritage Music Festival, where they brought home the GOLD for the second year in a row, and last year were invited to sing at Carnegie Hall.

Brenna 14U, recently appeared in a high school production of State Fair and played Violet.

Several Twister Players are consistant members of the A Honor Roll at their schools:

Savannah 14U, Eva, 12U, "Bug" 14U, Zada 14U, Jaelen 16U, Amber 18U, Emily J 16U (Also won an Academic Award from Chevron for holding a 3.5 GPA more than 5 consecutive semesters in High School). There are probably dozens more, but they didn’t get their information in prior to this edition.

Varsity Softball players 14-16U include; Adrianna (Burlington), Emily (Union Grove), Reagan (Kettle Moraine), Dana (Oak Creek), Emily (Sussex), Haleigh (Oak Creek) Alison (St. Thomas More), Ashley (Franklin),

Freshman/Junior Varsity Softball players 14-16U include: Claire (Oak Creek) Zada (Union Grove), Becca M. (Union Grove), Baylee (Union Grove), Emily (Union Grove) Cailyn (Union Grove), Jaclynn (Muskego), Miranda (Westosha), Erica (Indian Trails)Kiera (Muskego), Delany (Muskego), Morgan (Muskego), Emily (Muskego), Becca (Union Grove) Alexis (JV Practice)

Varsity Softball players 18U include: Amber (Union Grove), Alecia (Union Grove), Courtney (York Central H.S. York, PA),

Bekah (Catholic Central), Riley (Burlington), Bri (Racine Lutheran), Laura (Cudahy), Katie (Cudahy), Tara (Badger), Amber (Whitnall), Trina (Union Grove), Kimmie (Racine Horlick) Kayla (JV Muskego), Kaitlynn (Oconomowoc), Danielle (JV Mgr Union Grove, Sammi (Sussex), Lauren (South M ilwaukee), Aly (Oak Creek), Sarah (Union Grove) Kaitlyn (Oconomowoc) Ali (East Troy)

Other Athletic Accomplishments:

Lauren 16U Select Volleyball, Jaelen Varsity Track, Kayla Tennis, Alex 12U Raymond Volleyball 2nd place champs.

Callie (coach) UW Stout completed her third year of NCAA Tennis, Aly (coach) is playing Concordia University LaCross team and recently scored her first goal!!

LEO T. JACKSON SCHOLARSHIP: High School Seniors with at least 2 years playing for Wisconsin Twisters, are encouraged to apply for this scholarship in it’s second year. The requirements are; write an essay detailing their (the Senior’s) accomplishments during high school in Academics, community service, Extracurricular activities such as Key Club or NHS, and Athletics. The Award(s) will be announced at Spring Fling. The deadline for submissions for this award will be Monday May 14. If you have any questions, please contact Deb at debeatle@aol.com.

THANKS RECEIVED

THANK YOU TO TWISTER SPONSORS, COACHES, PARENT REPS AND BOARD

"Thank you ALL so very much for your efforts in regards to putting on an outstanding holiday event for the players and families. I didn’t want your efforts to go unrecognized. Your team of Sponsors, Coaches, Parent Reps and the Board Members are so thoughtful and kind and deserve all of the praise and recognition they can get. I hope all the Twisters families involved realize the outstanding value they get for their money. I’m astonished and in awe as to what all is given to the players for such a nominal fee – it’s truly unprecedented! I’m sure the players are also very appreciative. I hear other organizations charge $600-800 per year for nothing nearly as special as the Twisters provide, and you should ALL be proud. Please feel free to share this with everyone involved as my thanks go out to them as well." – from a Twister parent and assistant coach.

THANK YOU – TO OUR 14U FALL BALL TEAMS

"I wanted to send out a big thank you and I hope that you can pass it on. My daughter plays for the XXX, and today during a Fall Ball game at Raymond Fields she was hit with a ball that shattered her glasses, cut her eye lid pretty good, gave her a black eye and hurt her pride. I was so consumed as a mother and a nurse taking care of her on and off the field that I totally forgot to say thank you to "Courtenay" (a Wisconsin Twisters 14U player) for coming over to fill in on our team. What a show of sportsmanship, compassion and teamwork. I hope that you can please send on this message to that team, parents, coach and most of all "Courtenay". – from an opposing team’s parent

THANK YOU – TO OUR TWISTER COACHES

"Just wanted to take the time to say Thank You. Our daughter chose to play Fall Ball with the 16U Twisters because she feels her high school team lacks coaching. Boy did you coach today! Thank you for reminding her to cover 2nd when a runner is there. Thank you for letting her work on left handed batting and Thank you for pushing her to be a better player. She needs and appreciates it and you (Twister’s team) are the only ones who do that. Thank You is never said enough and I just felt the need to tell you. Keep up the great job that you do as a coach in so many ways" – from a Twister parent

THANK YOU – MORE KIND WORDS FOR OUR COACHES

"I Just wanted to Thank You for such impressive coaching. It was refreshing coming home on a drive from a practice and game this weekend hearing my daughter talk about her areas she needs to improve and how she can fix them because she doesn’t want to let her great coaching staff down. In the past, she never realized it was her doing (but I knew better). She’s never been taught the game before, just screamed at, and I notice her passion for the game is coming back. Thank you again for the opportunity and the patience you exemplify with all of the girls." - from a Twister parent

SPRING CALENDAR

Sponsorship Drive continues into June, so please let us know if you have anyone who would be willing to talk with our sponsorship committee. We have established 501-c3 status and can provide receipt if needed by any individual or organization.

Our Website is: http://www.eteamz.com/wisconsintwisters 
You can see our dates and locations of team play her, and further Player highlights are also available. There are also many other Player Highlights shown on the website. Check often!

Our Annual Spring Fling Tournament held at Raymond School Diamonds is the scheduled for June 2nd and 3rd. We would love to see you all come out to cheer on our 12U and both 14U teams. We have some of the best food on the concession circuit, and the setting is perfect for a softball game. We also offer a Raffle, T-shirt vendor, and the best umpires in WI.

High School players have begun their seasons and we wish them all great success individually and as part of a team.
Several Twisters play for teams that have gone to state, and Union Grove WON last year. Let’s hope they all achieve the same level of accomplishment and even more of our players and their teams represent us at State!!!!!

We have a few families who support us in many areas of our organization, from parent rep to coaching to sponsor committee to scholarship committee, and we owe them all a huge THANK YOU for their time. We also wish to encourage more of the new families to get involved and help us continue to be successful and add some new faces to the group.

You can always let your coach or parent rep know if there is a way you would like to contribute.

We need more volunteers to help keep things running smoothly as well as help the regulars take a breather from time to time! ( WE NEED FIELD CREW FOR SPRING FLING!!!

Upcoming events on the horizon include Summer tournaments, Leagues, Season’s End Picnic, Try-outs for 2013 and our
FALL BRAWL Tournament that will be held the weekend of October 20th at Raymond Fields for U14s, U16s, U18s.

Deb Mikolajczyk, Treasurer

WISCONSIN TWISTERS