City proves to be good host

The Little Miss Kickball International Incorporated 2007 State All-Star Tournament held at Morningside Park last weekend was a huge success.

Northwest Austin was one game away from making it a clean sweep of all three divisions, taking home first place in both the senior (ages 12-14) and teenage divisions (15-18) and the second place trophy in the junior division (ages 9-11). While Northwest Austin clearly dominated play, they may not have been the biggest winners to come from the tournament.

“We got so many compliments on Brownsville from the other cities,” tournament coordinator Zulema Esparza said. “The Brownsville Police Department, the local hotels and restaurants and the whole city were great. Everything was geared towards the girls and everything was perfect.”

The Brownsville parents and volunteers who ran the tournament made the city proud.

“I was amazed at the turnout because Morningside and Brownsville hadn’t hosted an all-star (kickball) tournament since 1993, but we were ready,” LMKBII second Vice President Lillian Torres said. “We had 2,000 people come out for opening ceremonies, and all of the other leagues complimented us on our fields and facilities.”

The four Brownsville leagues participated in all three divisions of the tournament and performed well. In fact, two local teams placed in the top three in their respective age groups.

East Brownsville (the original kickball league in Brownsville) won third in the junior age group, while Tip-O-Tex won third in the teenage division.

“The teams met expectations and represented their leagues well,” Torres said. “These girls are almost there; the Austin leagues are very, very good.”

Long-time Brownsville kickball umpire (25 years) Ruben Moreno was impressed with the level of play over the weekend.

“It was a very successful tournament; the girls showed their athleticism and represented their leagues well,” Moreno said. “Each game (they) showed why they were chosen as all-stars and they played incredible.”

Leagues in cities from all over the state participated in the tournament including Alice, Austin, Ben Bolt, Corpus Christie, Robstown, San Diego and Tarrant County (Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex).

“It was a lot of hard work,” Torres said. “In the end it was worth it though.”