PHOENIX, AZ - The City of Phoenix hosted the 38th Annual Firecracker Sports Festival the last weekend of June. Because of a scheduling conflict, the Grand Canyon State Games held the same weekend did not include softball as one of the sports this year. Interested parties were referred to the Firecracker Festival, which had ninety-nine teams competing at three sports complexes (Rose Mofford, Papago and Desert West) in the Phoenix area.
The first event of the weekend was the Coaches’ Meeting and Banquet on Thursday evening at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Sky Harbor Airport. Jerry Gass, Tournament Director said, "This is the 38th year of the tournament and we hold a banquet for the teams every year. And every year we rotate around to different hotels to try to let the teams see some of the things that are in the area, some of the hotels that want to help us out and get teams to stay with them. So we’re here at the Crowne Plaza, it’s really nice of them to let us use the hotel for the banquet." With the nearly one hundred coaches and a guest each, the banquet hosted approximately 200 attendees. It was an opportunity for the coaches to discuss the rules and schedules. There were raffle prizes and all coaches received their brackets for the weekend play.
Tournament Coordinator, Robert Estfan, reviewed the rules for the different divisions. He said, "For the men’s division, the most important rule is the home run rule. We want to make sure that everyone understands it’s the ‘Lower’ division and they get one over the fence and everything after that’s a foul ball. For the women’s divisions, it’s unlimited home runs. Then for the co-ed we follow the men’s rule."
On Friday night the Firecracker Festival "Kick Off" at Rose Mofford Sports Complex featured a free fireworks show along with balloons, ice cream, giveaways, clowns and mascots to entertain all ages.
To deal with the summer heat, the schedules were arranged to keep as many players as possible from having to play in the afternoon temperatures. The co-ed, men’s ‘Lower’ and 12U teams began play at Rose Mofford Sports Complex on Friday night continuing play on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The three women’s divisions started on Saturday night, playing through until early Sunday morning. The Youth divisions (10U, 14U and 16U) at Papago Sports Complex had mostly early Saturday and Sunday games, but also played on Saturday evening. The men’s ‘Lower’ at Desert West Sports Complex played all of their games on Saturday, starting in the morning and finishing at night, but with a break during the afternoon. With the schedules combined with plenty of water, sunscreen and misting systems in the dugouts, everyone survived.
The Youth divisions had a total of thirty-four teams competing. In the 10U division, Silver Bullets took first over E.V. Pride with Lil Saints coming in third. 93 Thunderhawks were the 12U champions over runners-up Az Intimidators. 14U champs Desert Kaos took top honors over Az Zone. Adrenaline took first in 16U with Sugar & Spikes in second place.