Alabama wound up winning the college softball title, wbich doesn't sound surprising, since SEC baseball teams do well (Alex Avila of the Tigers is a Tide alum), but this is the SEC's first softball title.
It turns out that Alabama didn't even field a softball team until 1997. I guess Southern belles weren't groomed to play like Albert Belle and the Title IX bug didn't quite reach the SEC until then.
I recall girl's softball being well entrenched in Midland as a high-schooler in the late 70s, but Midland is a bit softball-happy, having its men's team win a national title in that era with current NY Mets manager Terry Collins as a player-manager. However, that didn't expand to the South until more modern times.
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I'm not much of a soccer buff, but this story out of Spain was touching. Villarreal's soccer team just got bounced out of their major league; the bottom teams in European soccer get "relegated" to the second division while the best second-division teams get promoted to the bigs for the next year.
To add insult to injury, the new coach they hired, Manuel Preciado, proceeded to die of a heart attack a day after signing a contract; he never even got to the introductory press conference. I've heard of coaches have a change of heart after signing a contract (Billy Donovan bailing on a Orlando Magic gig to go back to Florida comes to mind) but having your heart go on you is another.
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Free association into baseball; the tragic Spanish club has a namesake with the Tigers. Brayan Villarreal is having a stellar start to 2012, with a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings with 19 strikeouts, bringing high-90s heat in the process. Small sample size, to be sure, but it's one of the few encouraging signs for the '12 Tigers.
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