Chickasaw girls get more than softball at Linn-Mar
Not that the softball isn’t important, but it’s not the only reason New Hampton coach Jack Seelhammer takes his team to the Linn-Mar Invitational each year.
“We want to win games, don’t get me wrong,” he said, “but this is a fun tournament for us. We get an overnight stay, and I think a lot of bonding takes place. It’s a lot more than softball, and that’s OK.”
But for some teams, including New Hampton, this year, the two-day tournament was curtailed by a day because of wet fields, yet that didn’t stop the Chickasaws from making it a two-day affair.
“We still went down on Friday and the girls had a blast,” Seelhammer said, “and then Saturday, we played some pretty good softball.”
Seelhammer wasn’t kidding. Yes, the Chickasaws went 1-2, but they beat Class 3A 11th-ranked Spirit Lake 5-3 before dropping a 3-2 game to Class 5A seventh-ranked Fort Dodge and falling 12-2 to another 5A team, the host Lions.
“We played really good softball the first two games,” Seelhammer said. “The Linn-Mar game got away from us, but those first two, we showed we can play with anyone."
The rest of the story may be found in the June 26 Tribune.