Chance to shine on international stage
Published 8:26 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – A Mount Si High School softball player has been invited to take part in an international softball tournament in Hawaii over the holiday break, but without the help of the Valley, she may not be able to take part.
Junior Katie Morgan was one of nearly 3,000 applicants that were nominated by their respective highschool coaches. For various reasons, however, she may be only one of a few from Washington state that may be able to participate. Morgan is in need of around $4,000 in order to compete. The infielder has been working very hard on her own to secure the needed money, but has run into some trouble.
“I’ve contacted a lot of businesses from the Valley, both sending letters, and going in to the places and talking to them, and I haven’t gotten the response that I thought,” Morgan said. “But I’m still working and a lot of people are just saying, ‘No, we’ll get back to you,’ so hopefully this will help out.”
The tournament is run by a company, Tourney Sport USA, based in Spokane. Wildcat softball coach Larry White thinks it would be a tremendous honor for Morgan to be able to participate.
“Katie was nominated by me to represent Mount Si in this tournament, and as you and I have both done our research, we know that it’s a pretty significant thing,” White said. “There’s not a whole lot of kids that are being selected from the 2,500-3,000 applicants that were nominated, and I just really feel that Katie would represent us not only as the Wildcat softball team, but the Valley and our state very well.”
Morgan is excited about the opportunity to participate.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “I actually know of three other people who have gotten invited, and I think they’re going, but just the fact that I’m one of very few in the whole state is such an honor, and I’m really excited to represent the state and our school.”
An important issue that exists due to the tournament’s schedule, is its impact on the potential players’ academic needs. As it stands currently, according to the schedule posted on the Tourney Sport Web site, Morgan would likely miss the first couple of days of school following the holiday break. Morgan, who boasts a solid GPA, is not worried.
“As of right now, it’s about two days that I’m only going to be missing of school and I’ve been talking to teachers and I plan on seeing if they’ve gotten any of their curriculum all ready for that week and trying to get homework and getting ready for that, but I have a lot of friends that I can go back to and get help from, and so I’m not too worried about missing school,” Morgan said.
White added that the opportunity to go should be supported.
“I have a daughter of this age, and if she had been selected two years ago, I would have supported it, just simply because of the exposure she’s going to get for future opportunities,” White said. “Katie’s like really close to a 4.0 student [so] a couple of days out of a class is really not going to affect where Katie’s GPA ends up, and she’s a responsible girl. She’ll take care of her classroom stuff first. She knows how important it is for her future.”
In the future, Morgan said she would like to get into a school with a strong degree program in physical therapy. She has her priorities set.
“My first goal right now is to get into a school with physical therapy and if softball’s there, awesome,” she said. “I mean, I’d love to play in college softball, but right now it’s education first.”
* Morgan has only two months to raise the needed money. For more information on her efforts to go to this tournament or if you would like to donate, you can call Morgan at (425) 222-7251 or White at (425) 222-6109, or you can send your donation to Morgan at P.O. Box 15, Fall City, WA 98024.
