Announcement from the Blackhawk Athletic Club Pride of Rockford, IL.

December 24, 2013

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Blackhawk Athletic Club (BAC) Pride of Rockford, IL will cease operations for the 2014 season.  As all things must come to an end, the sponsorship of the Blackhawk Athletic Club of men’s fastpitch softball (both A team and 23 U team) will end on December 31, 2013.   For over 50 years the Blackhawk Athletic Club (Rockford, IL) has sponsored a men’s fastpitch softball team and many other amateur sports teams in the Rockford Metropolitan area.  The Blackhawk Athletic Club will continue to fund other amateur sport teams, but is no longer a sponsor of men’s fastpitch in Rockford, IL.  

 

Over the past five years their sponsorship contribution had decreased dramatically until no more dollars were being allocated to the team.  As with so many other areas, of the United States, sponsorship dollars have basically dried up for a sport with rapidly decreasing participation rates.  Without those dollars, we all know it is very difficult to pay for league fees, entry fees and travel expenses for the team.  As the participation rates continue to decrease, the more dollars that are needed to pay for the increased costs of travel and competing.  

 

Most recently, it was about 10 years ago that the Boone County Pride (Belvidere, IL) combined under the sponsorship of the Blackhawk Athletic Club due to the loss of the major sponsor for Boone County.  Initially, this consolidation included an A/Major team and a B/C team.   Within a year, the two teams merged into one team sponsored by the Blackhawk Athletic Club.  Although not a team with the budget to win an ISC or ASA major tournament, this team of mainly local and American players would compete against any big budget team on a given day.  Mostly, due to playing behind one of the most underrated American pitchers in the United  States (Ray Reynolds), the Pride played many of the big budget teams to as close a game as one could play them.  Although not beating a lot of the big budget teams, most knew if they played the Pride they would be in a dog fight with a team that had very good pitching, great defense and timely hitting. 

 

From 2004-2007 was the best run for this primarily local team trying to compete at the major level of men’s fastpitch and primarily playing against open teams.  During this time, the Pride finished 5^th in the ASA men’s Major, two years of competing very well in the ISC and then a fifth place finish in the ASA Class A nationals that was held in Rockford, IL.   This may not seem like much, but for a team that functioned on less than 10 K/year and did not pay a player this was a great accomplishment. 

 

In 2008, the team was at another transition point.  Coming off a good showing in the ASA Class A nationals, the team’s manager and three other players decided to retire from the game.  It was at this time, that I decided to step up and become a player/manager/general manager.  Prior to this I was focused on playing and getting our local league going, plus continuing to nurture our RVC Clubberz 23 U college club team.  Because of our league and the young players in the 23 U program, we were able to continue to field a team due to the young players starting to transition to some weekend play.   As the season ended, it became apparent that our team had become a team within a team.   We had a core group of very talented young players under the age of 21 and a talented group of players in their 30s, but a team that had become less and less local to Rockford.   At this time, I had to make a difficult decision of dismantling our team and creating some hard feelings with some good friends and good ball players.  We had a number of young players that were playing with our 23 U program for the RVC Clubberz, that needed to be nurtured and exposed to this great game with a group of guys that were their own age.  So after some consultation with Ray Reynolds, I made the decision to turm the team into a 23 U team. Ray and I played for a couple years with the Vandalia Freight of Vandalia, IL., while we let this team grow and develop together.  

 

This proved to be the best decision we made, as our team would not have continued without the nurturing of these young players.  Under the BAC sponsorship, in 2008 the team won the ISC 23 U World Title and finished 2^nd in the ASA 23 U national tournament. It must be noted that ASA 23 U tournament, in 2008, was one of my most memorable moments of my fastpitch career.   That team lost its very first game, 1-0 to the team that ended up winning the title that year.  After losing that first game, the team came back to win six straight games (in 95 degree weather) to force the “if game” and then to lose to the eventual national champions.  In 2009, the 23 U team went 4-2 finish 4^th, and in 2010 concluding with a 2-2 record with a 5^th place finish.   After 2010, due to decreasing sponsorship dollars, we decided to no longer attend 23 U national tournaments and focus our dollars on our local scholarship program. 

 

After a two year hiatus, we put the travel team back together in 2010 with a core group of young player to go along with our rock solid ace Ray Reynolds.  In 2010, we decided to take the lead and focus our limited budget on local development and development in the state of Illinois.   Under the BAC sponsorship in 2010, the travel team finished 4^th in the Illinois Open State tournament.  In 2011, we finished in 3^rd place finish in the first ever Illinois Wood Bat State tournament.  In 2012, we won our first state championship by finishing first in the Illinois Wood Bat State tournament and finishing 2^nd in the Illinois Open State tournament.  In 2012, the team finished in 3^rd place in the ASA class A nationals.  In 2013, the team competed in the AAU international tourney in Orlando, Florida, ISC World tournament in Moline, IL and won its 2^nd Illinois Wood Bat state tournament.  

 

In closing, I want to thank all the players that competed for teams that the Blackhawk Athletic Club sponsored over the last 50 years.   I also want to give special recognition to Jesse Fudge Sr. who helped manage and run the team when two rivals transitioned together into one team many years ago.  One of the most under appreciated parts of this game, are those that give up their time to manage adult males in a highly competitive game.  Losing men wanting to give up their time to run and manage teams has lead to the game’s demise as much as the decrease in the development of pitchers.  Lastly, I have to recognize and say thanks to one of my closest friends.  Ray Reynolds, whom I believe is one of the most underrated American pitchers over the last 15 years. The fact that Ray was never chosen to the USA national team, is one of the biggest travesties in United  States fastpitch softball.  Ray is retiring from the game and will no longer be playing travel ball in Rockford.  On numerous occasions Ray was offered large sums of money to pitch for big budget teams and consistently chose to stay local to play this game we all love.  For the past 15 years it has been a privilege to play along side Ray and more importantly to really get to know him as a human being.  After all the games and competition are gone, all we have left are the relationships we built from the game.  To me, the people that play, coach and sponsor this game are what make it a truly truly unique experience. 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Timothy Hatten

BAC Pride

thatten@gmail.com