L-R: Front Row:  Kayley Halbrook, Briley Larsen, Madison Weber, Austin Benkoczy, Hannah Paul, Allison Vargas, Olivia Paul.

Back Row:  Emma Scott, Katie Vaughn, Brooke Gillingham, Josh Gillen, Taylor Burgin, Mary Jo McGrath, Casey Hammen.

The members of TEAM TUMBLEMANIA competed at two national championships this summer bringing home a combined total of 30 Top Ten National titles including one National Champion!  

All 15 members traveled to Springfield, Ill. to compete in the USTA Trampoline and Tumbling National Championships and three members traveled to Virginia Beach, Va. to compete in the AAU Junior Olympic Games. 

Over 2,200 athletes from throughout the United States competed in the individual events of Power Tumbling, Trampoline, and Double-Mini Trampoline at the USTA National Championships with preliminary and final events spanning from June 15th through June 19th. 

At the AAU Junior Olympic Games, the athletes competed for TEAM FLORIDA in the four day competition which hosted over 500 Trampoline and Tumbling athletes from July 30 through Aug. 2. 

Individual result highlights are as follows:  Austin Benkoczy (Fort White) 3rd Overall Novice Trampoline and Novice Double-Mini, 4th Overall Sub-Novice Tumbling; Taylor Burgin (Newberry) 3rd in Flight and 4th Overall Intermediate Double-Mini, 5th in Flight Sub-Advanced Trampoline, 8th in Flight Intermediate Tumbling; Josh Gillen (High Springs) 1st in Flight and 3rd Overall Advanced Double-Mini, 5th Overall Advanced Trampoline and Elite Double-Mini, 6th Overall Advanced Tumbling; Brooke Gillingham (High Springs) 6th in Flight Intermediate Double-Mini, 9th in Flight Sub-Advanced Trampoline and Sub-Novice Tumbling; Kayley Halbrook (High Springs) NATIONAL CHAMPION Sub-Advanced Double-Mini, 2nd Overall Sub-Advanced Trampoline, 4th Overall Intermediate Tumbling;  Casey Hammen (Newberry) 1st in Flight and 6th Overall Advanced Double-Mini, 3rd Overall  Advanced Tumbling, 6th Overall Advanced Trampoline;  Hunter Hammen (Newberry) 1st in Flight and 8th Overall Novice Trampoline, 6th in Flight Intermediate Double-Mini and Sub-Novice Tumbling; Briley Larsen (Fort White) 4th in Flight and 9th Overall Novice Trampoline, 7th in Flight Sub-Novice Tumbling, 8th in Flight Beginner Double-Mini; Mary Jo McGrath (Fort White) 3rd in Flight and 6th Overall Sub-Advanced Trampoline, 3rd in Flight Sub-Novice Tumbling, 7th in Flight Intermediate Double-Mini; Hannah Paul (Gainesville) 2nd in Flight and 11th Overall Sub-Advanced Tumbling, 11th Overall Sub-Advanced Trampoline, 8th in Flight Sub-Advanced Double-Mini; Olivia Paul (Gainesville) 1st in Flight and 10th Overall Sub-Advanced Double-Mini, 4th in Flight Intermediate Tumbling, 5th in Flight Sub-Advanced Trampoline; Emma Scott (High Springs) 5th in Flight in Novice Double-Mini, 6th in Flight in Novice Trampoline, 7th in Flight Sub-Novice Tumbling; Allison Vargas (Newberry) 4th in Flight Intermediate Double-Mini and Sub-Novice Tumbling, 6th in Flight Intermediate Trampoline; Katie Vaughn (High Springs) 3rd in Flight and 10th Overall Novice Trampoline, 4th in Flight Novice Double Mini, 5th in Flight Sub-Novice Tumbling; Madison Weber (Alachua) 4th in Flight Sub-Advanced Trampoline, 7th in Flight Novice Tumbling, 8th in Flight Sub-Advanced Double-Mini.  The team members train at TUMBLEMANIA in High Springs under Marci Schneider.

Photo by PAMELA JONES/Special to Alachua County Today

Members of the original Negro Baseball League stopped in Alachua to grab lunch at Conestogas Restaurant and to catch a glimpse of the Babe Ruth Softball 12U World Series.

Over plates of hamburgers, sandwiches, and what one of them proclaimed to be “finger lickin’ good” chicken wings as he polished off every last bit of meat from the bone, with hot sauce dripping down his hands, seven veteran baseball players sat at Conestogas Restaurant in downtown Alachua on Friday afternoon.  They reminisced about the games they played, the people they met and the places they’d been.

Though they’d traveled the country and played for a myriad of different teams, most of these men never got to play for any major league team, but that had nothing to do with their skill. It had everything to do with the color of their skin.

These men were part of the Negro Baseball League. They played on all-black teams against other all-black teams. They played in the pre-civil rights era of segregation.

They stopped for lunch in Alachua that afternoon on their way from the Babe Ruth World Series down to Ocala for their next appearance as part of a two-day series of events for the 2010 Negro Baseball League Project.

According to an August press release, Cox Communications launched the project in Gainesville in 2008, with the intent of promoting diversity within its own company as well as the surrounding community.

Now in the program’s third year, Cox, with the support of ESPN, put on an invitation-only community luncheon, a public autograph signing at the Paddock Mall and an appearance and autograph signing at the Cal Ripkin 10-year-old World Series, in Ocala.

But in between their schedule of events, the players came to Alachua to check out the Babe Ruth World Series, and they stayed to eat before heading back to Ocala for the night.

Mike Giampietro, vice president of public and government affairs for Cox Communications Florida, explained that these men are “a piece of living history,” and by sharing their experiences they can help to “explore issues of exclusion that are not that far in our past.”

And the stories they have to tell could indeed write the pages of history books. For instance, Harold “Buster” O. Hair remembers when he met Tony Stone in 1953. She was a black woman who played for the otherwise all-male Indianapolis Clowns. He said she could hold her own on the baseball field, but “she was still feminine,” he added, chuckling. She was a huge draw, he said. People would come just to see her play.

Billy Reed, who was never officially a member of the Negro league but coached a team in Tampa, told the story of how baseball kept him from having to go to war.

He was going to play for a team in North Dakota, he said, when he got a phone call from his “mamma,” and she told him he got a letter in the mail from the federal government.

“Congratulations,” it said, “you’ve been selected…” he quoted, as he started laughing.

He was drafted, but after someone watched him play in a casual game on base, he was reassigned to go play for an official military team instead of being shipped overseas to fight, and eventually he was let out early to go back to school.

These were just a couple of the many reminisces of history the men shared over their Friday afternoon meal.

Giampietro said they decided to eat at Conestogas because they wanted to go to a place that was as local as it could get. Its menu had food they would like, he said, and the guys really like being in places that represent the community; places where they will be able to interact with local people.

“Conestogas fit the bill.”

With just over two weeks left before Alachua welcomes Florida's first Babe Ruth World Series for girls under 12, organizers are making final preparations for the thousands of visitors expected to migrate to the city to watch the week-long event.

The players are set to arrive Aug. 5 for the Aug. 7 event. The first team to arrive, from Oviedo, Fla., is expected to be at Alachua City Hall at 9 a.m. Aug. 5 for orientation.

During orientation, World Series officials will talk to each team individually about the scope of the tournament, the rules, and the regulations. The girls will also be introduced to their host families and told about the community, said Hal Brady, Alachua recreation director.

Organizers are still looking for five host families to allow the players to stay at their homes during the tournament, but Brady said he thinks those will be filled soon.

Brady said most of the tasks on his part are completed, but now more of the pressure is shifting to the Santa Fe Babe Ruth program, which is hosting the event.

“Everything is ready on the grounds,” he said. “Now we are all just preparing to get everything going, and the hard work will be with Earl Findley.”

Earl Findley, Santa Fe Babe Ruth program president, said he and the other organizers are finishing up more tedious issues as well and is excited for the tournament to begin.

“We are just making sure everything is in order for the banquet and making welcome bags for the players,” said Findley. “It's going to be an exciting time for the city of Alachua and the surrounding area.”

In recent months, the city has been renovating Alachua's Hal Brady Recreation Center, including everything from paving the parking lot to adding new fencing.

To host the tournament, cities must pay $40,000 on top of other preparation costs. The costs are actually the responsibility of the host organization, which is the Santa Fe Babe Ruth program.

However, the City of Alachua, the Alachua Chamber of Commerce, the Gainesville Sports Commission, Wal-Mart, Sysco, Dollar General and Santa Fe Ford have committed to provide financial and in-kind support for the tournament.

The tournament is expected to bring in millions of dollars into the local economy.

The city hosted the Bambino World Series – the male version of the Babe Ruth World Series – in 1992, and Alachua was the first city in Florida to host that tournament as well.

The 1992 tournament brought nine teams and thousands of visitors into the city, which filled 10 area hotels, Brady said.

The American Baseball Coaches Association has announced that former Santa Fe College head coach and current volunteer assistant Harry Tholen has been inducted to the ABCA Hall of Fame as a part of the 2011 class. The induction ceremony will take place during the ABCA National Convention in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel on January 6-9, 2011.  Tholen is the fourth Florida Junior College coach and only the thirteenth national Junior College coach to be inducted since the inception of the Hall of Fame in 1966.

The ABCA Hall of Fame is one of the highest honors an amateur baseball coach can attain.  Tholen joins Jim Hall (Lockport High School, IL), Marc Johnson (Cherry Creek High School, CO), Mark Sheppard (Seton Hall University), Gary Ward (Oklahoma State University) and Lou Yacinich (Grand View University) as 2011 inductees.  Current members include among others long time Florida State University head coach Mike Martin, Louisiana State University legend Skip Bertman and former JUCO World Series Chairman Sam Suplizio.

“We are very excited for Harry and this well deserved Hall of Fame induction,” said Santa Fe Athletics Director Jim Keites.  “He has been an important part of Santa Fe College and the Gainesville community for 30 years.  Over that time he has helped countless numbers of student athletes achieve their dreams on the baseball field and academically.  I can think of no one more deserving of this highest of honors.”

Hired in 1981 as Santa Fe’s first baseball coach, he led the Saints to a 526-423 overall record during his 22 years as head coach (1982-1985 and 1989-2006), including the schools first baseball State Championship and trip to the JUCO World Series in 1985, where the team finished third.  He was named the 1985 Florida JUCO Coach of the Year and in 1992 and 1995 Mid-Florida Conference Coach of the Year.

Previous to coming to Gainesville, Tholen was the assistant baseball coach at Illinois State University from 1967-68, the head coach at Mayfair City College in Chicago from 1969-75 and the head coach/athletic director at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH from 1975-81.

In the summer of 1991, Tholen was chosen by the American Baseball Coaches Association to coach in Italy and returned in the summers of 1992 and 1993 at the request of the Italian cities he coached in.

In 1996, he was an assistant for the National Junior College Athletic Association All-Star Baseball team that toured Japan.

He served as the Secretary of the NJCAA Coaches Association from 1996-97, the Vice President in 1998 and the President from 1999-2005.  He was a member of the ABCA Executive Committee, the governing body of all amateur baseball, from 2000-2005 and served on the ABCA Board of Directors from 2003-2005.  In 2000 he was the administrator in charge of taking groups of players to Japan and in 2004 he was in charge of taking groups to Beijing, China.

In 1999 he was inducted into the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame and in 2004 he became a member of the Florida Community College Activities Association Hall of Fame.

In 36 years as a head coach, Tholen compiled a 782-538 record.

In 2006, with his baseball head coaching career behind him, he was hired as the full time Fitness Center Coordinator at Santa Fe and just recently retired on March 31, 2010.  

In 2009 Tholen returned to the field as a volunteer assistant baseball coach under Coach Johnny Wiggs.  The team went on to win a school record 36 games in route to a State Championship and a runner-up finish at the JUCO World Series.