PGF 2017 National Championships (16U/14U)

How Beverly Bandits EK Emerged As PGF Champions

How Beverly Bandits EK Emerged As PGF Champions

How Beverly Bandits EK Emerged As PGF Champions as told by Avrey Steiner

Aug 16, 2017 by FloSoftball Staff
How Beverly Bandits EK Emerged As PGF Champions
Many people thought that Beverly Bandits Ketelhut had no chance of winning the PGF 16U Premier Championship after they suffered a loss in the second round of bracket play. They were wrong. Illinois-bound Avrey Steiner knows all about overcoming challenges and setbacks. Her team has made it to the semifinals for the last three years, but this time Bandits EK walked away with a different outcome.

Steiner describes her entire experience at PGF and how her team managed to climb out of the losers bracket and emerge as PGF Champions.


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To start, I really can't even express in words how amazing what being a national champ feels like. A week later, I must confess I am guilty of replaying moments from the game over and over again.

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I believe that every athlete / team should have a goal. At the beginning of the 2016-2017 travel ball season, our team had one main goal and complete focus, which was to win a PGF Premier National Championship in California. From the very beginning, our team had expectations to uphold and the Bandits and represent the Bandit logo on our chests. We knew we were never quite looked at as the "favored" team to win it all. This so-called lack of faith from everyone else around us fueled the fire within us. This doubt from others about our team being "good enough" motivated us to work as hard as our bodies would allow and to do more than we thought possible.

Over the course of this summer, many obstacles came in play with our team. With an injury to our pitching staff early on in the summer, the outcome didn't look as bright as we imagined for the rest of the summer ball season. We were determined to stay positive and focused on our soul goal of winning PGF. The team grinded out of some really tough games . . . winning nine games in a row to earn our PGF National bid, making it to the final four in Colorado, winning the Triple Crown World Series in Austin, Texas, we were then finally headed to California for the most anticipated event in any elite softball player's season.

Everything went smoothly in our pursuit of winning a national title until the dreaded loss in the second round of bracket play against a very good South Dakota Renegades. They are a scrappy bunch of players. Losing the second bracket play game meant being at the ball fields for more than 12 hours fighting to just stay alive. Our team ended up playing nine games in two days to make it to the championship (four on Thursday and five on Friday). The loss was a wake-up call to all us and gave us the edge we needed to start playing better because in this case we had to dig deep or we would be eliminated.

On day two in the losers bracket, we knew if we made it to the end of the day the most challenging task would lie ahead: playing Jen Tyrrell's 16U Bandit team. Playing your same organization is like playing your sister. You like them, but will go down fighting until the end, and you NEVER want them to win. I have a younger sister and letting her win would be the death of me. I would never hear the end of it.

Our Bandit team came together to win what was the some of the most thrilling games of softball I have ever played in my travel ball career. The ugly part about playing our sister team was we also had to win twice to advance to the 'ship. Anyone in the world of softball knows how extremely difficult it is to beat a team twice, let alone the "sister" team in your organization and the No. 1 ranked team in the nation according to FloSoftball's early season polls.

Our energy was really what I can only define as electric. It was like all of us came together and said, "We will do this . . . we will do this twice . . . we will not accept a loss." Our first game was so close, but our second game was almost as if we just came alive to prove that we WERE a great team. Coach Eddy told us all year to believe in ourselves, that others doubt our team, but you CAN and WILL do this! His coaching truly motivated us to keep going. We were exhausted. My feet have never hurt that much from in my life, but it was SO worth it.

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Never have I experienced something like playing at Bill Barber Park. The pressure definitely increased. Everything is on the line as soon as you step in the park. Before the game started I had to remind myself, "It's just another game," to calm the nerves as much as I could. Once the game started my nerves began to fade and I saw my teammates do the same. After the first two innings, each one of my teammates stepped up in important ways to fulfill our dream and the rest is history.

Our team will never forget these moments and the bonds that we have created over the course of this season. Coach Eddy always told us, "Buy into one another and play for the person next to you." This statement pulled us together when we could have easily broken down and given up. I have no doubt that our 16U Beverly Bandits Ketelhut team will remember these moments for the rest of our lives. We went home bruised, scraped, and sore, but completely ecstatic about achieving our goal, PGF NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

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Written by Avery Steiner


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