Texas Glory Adkins - Announcement

[TEXASGLORY]

Happy New Years to the North Texas softball community.

I wanted to take a minute to announce some new news about our teams and their tryouts. Over the years Texas Glory has grown from a single team to an organization of many playing at all different age groups. Regrettably, my job took me away from Dallas in the summer of 2007. At that time, I transitioned out of Glory completely and left the decision-making and day to day management of Glory to someone else.

In the fall of 2008, I was asked by a couple long time Glory coaches if I would consider coming back to help coach and manage a team of long time Glory girls who were not in the future plans of the organization in the hopes that they too could realize their dreams of playing college softball. I did and through hard work and dedication of the coaching staff as well as the players and parents we had a very successful fall season with 13 players from the Glory Gold Adkins team verbally committing to and/or signing with various universities. We continue to have an amazing level of success, with 43 of our 2009 Glory athletes signing/committing to play at the next level.

In order to broaden the opportunities for more North Texas athletes and maximize the strength of the Texas Glory Adkins Gold team Kyle Strickland and I feel it is important to move forward with teams that more closely match our specific approach and philosophy. Consequently, Kyle and I have made the decision to form and help manage teams at the 12U, 14U, 16U, 18A, and 18 Gold levels competing under the name of Texas Glory Adkins. Some of the basic principles under which our teams will operate include:

" Only one team in each age group. No duplicate teams.
" Build the most competitive team possible within each age group
" No coach will charge players on their own team for hitting, pitching or any other lessons.

I will continue to manage and direct the teams that carry the Texas Glory Adkins name in the future. I have no retirement plans and will eventually end up back in North Texas. Until then, Delta and Southwest Airlines remain good friends of mine. I enjoy coaching and I enjoy helping players reach their potential and ultimately a place in a College or University that fits them. These news teams will further those aims and help provide another avenue for our North Texas athletes. I'm truly proud of all the Texas Glory teams that play today and of all of the accomplishments that we have in the past. I will continue to do whatever I can to help contribute to and ensure their personal and softball success for many years to come. Please mark January 24 on your calendar as the day that we will be conducting tryouts for Texas Glory Adkins teams. Keep an eye on VTD as I will post all information there.

[Fasterpitch]

ok..Thanks for the info

[Trophy Hunter]

Awesome!

[tugaol]

Embarassing for N. Texas .. Just admit you and Kevin are both to competitive to work together again. It is good for the rest of us to see a major organization have cracks in the foundations like everyone else!

You are not going to make friends throwing one of your coaches , who has MULTIPLE National Championships to his credit, under the bus for charging girls for lessosn... why do you care??? if you don't charge fine.... why discredit him publicly???

Kevin, just say good riddance to this guy he is soiling the Glory name that you have helped to build.

this post is going to generate some good replies even from our California friends... can't wait....

I'll bet Lori will have an input on this, the clock is ticking!

[softballrulznut]

So what you said on Dec. 23rd seems to be a different philosophy than you are having with your new organization.

You admitted then you might have watered down teams but stressed how important it was for you to get all 113 of those girls in college. Your new organization isn't about helping as many people as you can but instead about helping yourself and a few select number of girls.

I don't care either way but you seem to be changing your position.

From December 23rd:

Merry Christmas to everyone!

First of all I am not speaking for Ken Graves or any of the Batbuster folks. I have known Ken Graves for about 10 years now and have nothing but respect for him and what he does for our sport. He and Matt run an awesome tournament at the lowest price point in the state. They donate the money to a very worthy cause and the Batbuster teams do a tremendous job of running the concessions and making sure the fields are in top shape for every game.

I was out of pocket for almost a year but in coming back along with Ken, he started a new gold team which he is coaching. We played them 4-5 times this fall and every game was a battle. I think he has a fine team and will contend for one of the gold spots at gold nationals this year.

If Ken is guilty of anything it is the same as me, we have tried to make sure that there was always a place to play for those that wanted to be in the organization. Sure, over the years we (Texas Glory) have watered down some of our age groups by having too many teams competing with one another. You can look at the 18-U or Gold division of Texas Glory and see that we currently have Adkins, Shelton, Beard, Lutz, Weddle and Combs...5 teams all in the same age group. Yes, we have not won 18-Gold Nationals but we do have 113 kids playing or committed to play college softball today including 43 players in the 2009 class. Yes, we could have likely combined teams into one team, this would have sent a lot of players away that wanted to wear the Texas Glory uniform.

Batbusters and Texas Glory have all carried a lot of teams through the years but it has always been in the spirit of finding a place for young ladies to play softball. There are many routes one can follow to a destination, Ken Graves will always be one of the positive ones.

Dan Adkins

[jt23]

My daughter is old enough where can remember watching Glory back when it only had a few teams. Those were some good teams and they seemed to win everything. Like the ones that own the bragging titles on Glory's main. Are any of those coaches and teams still in the Glory club or have all passed on to other places?

[NumeroUno]

Good luck Texas Glory and have a great 2009 softball season.

[4theloveofthegame]

None of the coaches are left that won the titles while wearing a Glory uniform. Kevin has ran all of them off since Dan has left. Flannigan ran off by Shelton and company, Narin ousted, Strickland kicked to the curb. All of their teams placed in the top 5 of ASA Nationals or have a title to go along with their teams. None of the others can say the same. Were they a threat to the higher ups or something?

[3Bsnag]

So, we bitch when there are too many teams in an organization and do it again when someone tries to fix it? We can't have it both ways. You are not going to sponsor 4 or 5 teams in every age division and have all of those place high at nationals. Not gonna happen.

I don't know either of these guys personally, but from the outside, respect them BOTH for what they are trying to accomplish- which is helping as many as they can while still being competitive. They may just have different views on how to get there.

I'm saying this again:
If you look at extremely competitive organizations around the country (placing high at nationals being my benchmark), I don't think you will find a single one with more than 2 teams at each age.
Gold Coast Hurricanes- 2008 Gold Champs- 2 teams at 16's & 18's, even those are tiered
Atlanta Vipers- T-9th at 2008 Gold- 2 teams each age
Corona Angels- 2nd place 2008 Gold- 2 teams in each age

Impact Gold, Sorcerers, OC BB, Shamrocks, whoever- they field one or two teams filled with the best players to be competitive. And look at their rosters and commitments and tell me those girls aren't realizing their DI dream.

I'm not saying this side of the organization or team is going to be the ones who make noise for North Texas, but at least it's worth a shot. There are other org managers who are coming around to this theory too.

My $.02

[brfan]

I went to their State and National title page. Some long time coaches are still there. Strickland, Shelton, Drummond, and now Adkins is back. That resembles what was around way back when. They all may not be in total agreement with everthing but they are still in Glory and maybe credit should be given to them for staying with the organization. Maybe?