The John G. Holland Memorial Softball Tournament was a tremendous success and the sports community owes a debt of gratitude to the Greater Lynn Babe Ruth Softball organization for keeping this tournament going in such a positive manner.
As St. Mary’s director of athletics Jeff Newhall, whose school won the tournament for the fifth year in a row, told the Lynn Journal afterwards, this tournament provides a great local atmosphere for high school softball and it is the ideal tune-up for those teams heading to the State Tournament.
Much of the success of the tournament has to go to the hard-working board of directors that included Babe Ruth president Jim Beliveau and directors Jeff Earp (the unsung hero of this event), cable TV broadcaster John Hoffman, city fields’ director John Kasian, volunteer extraordinaire Dave Raymond, and Item sports editor Steve Krause.
Thank you notes must also go to Babe Ruth player agent Annette Hennessey, U-14 director Pat McHale, long-time Babe Ruth coach Bob Cuozzo, and assistant state softball director Judy Bower (who does a wonderful job cooking the hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers), and PA announcer Matt Roy, for their work and assistance throughout the tournament.
We congratulate the coaching staffs of the four teams, led by Colleen Newbury of St. Mary’s, Chris Warren of Lynn Classical, Alisa Fila of Lynn English, and Frank Kowalski of Swampscott, for understanding the significance of the Holland Tournament to the Lynn community and having their teams playing at their highest level for this coveted championship title.
Greater Lynn Babe Ruth Softball stepped up when there was a real need for someone to display exceptional leadership. We thank the organization for keeping this Memorial Day weekend sports tradition alive and moving ahead to next year’s tournament.