Some times it takes a village but in softball it takes a team and as a result PROHEALTH is the 2018 SPA 75 GOLD WORLD CHAMPS.
The WISCONSIN team did it the hard way. After losing their opening bracket game to the INDIANAPOLIS CLASSICS (4-16) they came out of the losers’ bracket beating PITTSBURGH GOLD (22-2), CANTERBURY CRUISERS. INDIANAPOLIS CRUISER 20-5 to force an “IF” game and beat the CLASSICS 8-5 in the title game.
PROHEALTH manager MIKE HANEY felt so strongly that it was teamwork which won his team the title, he refused to accept ALL-AMERICAN AWARDS for his players
“We played as a team and I don’t feel picking out five players out of fourteen is the right thing to do,” HANEY said. “We feel our entire team should be ALL-AMERICANS”
Although not accepting ALL-AMERICAN awards, PROHEALTH did not go home empty handed in individual awards.
JERRY STREMIKIS revived the TOURNAMENT MVP AWARD and HANEY accepted the MANAGER-OF-THE-YEAR- AWARD.
The INDIANAPOLIS CLASSICS took runner-up honors. The CLASSICS started out the bracket play well beating BAILEY TALENT CAVALIERS 22-22, PRO HEALTH 16-4 and CANTERBURY CRUISERS 15-13 before losing the final two games to PROHEALTH.
PROHEALTH CARE 2018 ROSTER: HANEY, STREMIKIS, DICK BARTELL, FRANK BATI, GARY BENDER, GARY BLASCHKE, JAMES DUCHARME, THOMAS KRESS, DARRELL LESCHEN, HARRY NELEZEN, BILL RUTZINSKI, JOHN SIMONS, BERNARD SLOWEY, LAWRENCE VANNUEDEN, ROD WILTERDINK, JIM HANDLEY, EDWARD HURLEY and WAYNE STAPLETON.
Teams in the 75 GOLD BRACKET were PROHEALTHE CARE, INDIANAPOLIS CLASSICS, CANTERBURY CRUISER, PITTSBURGH GOLD and BAILEY TALENT CAVALIERS.