By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The first of two youth basketball camps, hosted by the Forrest City Mustang and Lady Mustang teams, was held this week for elementary-ages kids at Mustang Arena.
The elementary girls met in the mornings while the elementary boys met in the afternoon. Both sessions drew about 20 campers
The camps helped the youths with the basics of the game as well as providing some competition.
Kelsey Ferguson, Semiko Grady and Lakeria Lucas shared the Lady Mustang Camp Award for the best all-around camper during the week.
Ferguson also earned the dribbling award and the hot shot award and shared the passing award with Grady. Ferguson was named the defensive player of the camp.
Grady won the free throw shooting competition and the 1-on-1 competition and was named the offensive player of the camp. She was also a member of the 3-on-3 team and the 5-on-5 camp team.
Nikki Derrick won the sportsmanship award and joined Brittney Clanton, Deidra Sparks and Katy Gatling as being the most improved players from the start of camp through the final day.
Heaven Jackson and Kristina Austion joined Grady on the 3-on-3 team while Clanton, Lucas, Sarah May, Nicole Catha and De'Dra Johnson were members of the 5-on-5 team.
Gatling won the rebounding award.
Other campers included Qua'meshia Smith, Kelsey Morris, Britnay Wilson, Chelsea Bohannon, Cassandra Whaley, Jatoria Hawkins, Shantarius Sykes and Jasmine Rucker.
The camps for the junior high boys and girls will be held next week with the girls meeting for the morning session and the boys coming in for he afternoon session.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JONESBORO -- Girl's softball will be in abundance through eastern Arkansas this weekend.
The Forrest City Complex will host district tournaments for 10-16-year-old teams while just to the north, Jonesboro's Southside Park will be the site for the 22nd annual Mountain Dew Grand Slam Classic.
The district tournaments, which serve as qualifiers for the Class C state tournaments scheduled for later this month, are scheduled to begin tonight at the Complex.
The first games will be played at 6:30 p.m. following a shortened T-Ball League schedule of games which will begin at 6 p.m.
The district tournaments will continue into Saturday with the championships games set for Saturday evening.
Forty-two teams will comprise the district tournament's six divisions -- which features both slow pitch and fast pitch style of play.
Teams from Forrest City, Wynne, Elaine, West Memphis, West Helena, Marion and Brinkley are in the 42-team mix.
All of the games will be played on the girls' softball side of the complex (fields 1-4) until Saturday when the 10-under slow pitch division will move across the parking lot to finish their games on fields 5 and 6 on the boys' baseball side.
Three Forrest City teams will be in the 10-under division -- Dr. Schwartz, Stevens and Food Giant.
Stevens opens play tonight against Wynne Servco and Dr. Schwartz will take on a West Helena team.
Food Giant picked up a bye and will play for the first time Saturday at 9 a.m.
Forrest City's Food Giant and Dr. Beasley will play first-round games tonight in the 12-under fast pitch division while Children's Clinic and Airtherm were given the bies and will play Saturday morning in the six-team bracket. Sanyo and Bonanza will be in the 16-under fast pitch division.
The ASA-sanctioned, double-elimination Mt. Dew Classic will also open tonight at 6 p.m. at the Southside Softball Complex with eight games.
The Mt. Dew tournament field has 74 teams in this year's mix, up from is up from a year ago.
Forty of the 72 teams are fast-pitch teams .
"We'll be running six fields of fast-pitch and four fields of slow-pitch," tournament director Ken Douglas said. Douglas pointed out that the increase in fast-pitch teams cuts down on the number of games that can be played in the weekend tournament.
A pair defending champions of the Grand Slam are back this season.
The Tom Boys of Conway are back to defend their 16-and-under fast-pitch crown. Also back in the 16-and-under division is last year's runners-up, D.C. Storm of Southaven, Miss.
The Diamondbacks of Jonesboro won't be defending their 10-and-under slow-pitch championship this year, but will be looking for another title in the highly competitive 12-and-under fast-pitch division.
One of the tournament's top teams will be playing in the 14-and-under fast-pitch bracket. The Cole Minnows, out of central Arkansas, have won three straight slow-pitch national championships as 10s and 12s.
In the 16-and-under division, the Mashers of Jonesboro, the Wreckers of Paragould and the Infliction are all expected to contend for the title.
Giving the Cole Minnows a run for their money in the 14-and-under division will likely be the Dixie Belles and the MidSouth Rage, both of Memphis.
The Lady Poachers of Crittenden County have also had strong showings in area tournaments this year.
CNI Slammers, who finished third in the 10-and-under bracket last year, and the Georgia Carpet Seambusters are the favorites in the 12-and-under slow-pitch.
In 10-and-under, the Jonesboro Sizzlers return after a third-place finish last year. The Jonesboro Rampage and Southern Tag and the LRock Sliders have all been impressive this season.
The top contenders in eight-and-under look to be the Lilí Sluggers, Slugg Buggs, Purina Puppies and Lilí Fireballs. The Lilí Sluggers were second in the division last year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
MT. VIEW --The Forrest City Legion team moved their game Thursday and also moved back to .500 for the year.
Due to soggy fields after rain Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Forrest City moved their game against Mt. View from the Sports Complex to Mt. View.
Dustin Gore and Danny Flowers combined to pitch Forrest City past Mt. View 10-5 in the seven-inning game as Forrest City improves to 6-6 for the year. Mt. View falls to 0-9 for the season.
Gore got the start and picked up the win even though Flowers came on in the sixth in relief.
Travis Lauer, Mt. View's starting pitcher, took the loss after giving way to three relievers in the sixth in which Forrest City scored four runs to push their lead from 6-4 to 10-4.
Forrest City banged out 10 hits in scoring the 10 runs and committed three erros while Mt. View scored their five runs on six hits and made five errors.
Flowers had a triple to go along with a single and double in the game while Logan Knight, Kevin Padilla and Josh Wilson all connected for extra base hits.
Forrest City will host Newport Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m., at the Sports Complex.