Tourney a boon for Greenville

BY TORI J. NORRIS | The Greenville Standard

The Dixie Softball tournament that was hosted in Greenville July 8-12 served to be a great impact economically for the city. City Councilman, Ed Sims, was on hand for the duration of the entire tournament.

“By hosting the tournament, we bring people to Greenville that normally would not be here,” said Sims.

Team such as Troy and Dothan may have brought spectators to high school games in this area, however there were teams from as far as Florence and Sheffield, which are located in the Northwest corner of Alabama, who participated in the tournament.

Greenville hosted the Dixie Boys tournament in 2010 and the Dixie committee was pleased with the hospitality and wanted the city to host another tournament.

“We agreed to host again, but decided to wait a couple of years,” said Sims. “This was the first time hosting the Dixie Softball state tournament and we were able to showcase what our small Parks and Recreation Department has to offer.”

“The tournament itself does not generate money,” said Sims. “The city benefits from the hotel stays and restaurant visits.”

There are a lot of people to thank who helped make the tournament a success.

“Many restaurants gave coupons to the teams to use during their stay,” said Sims. “I want to also thank all the businesses who bought ads in the program and GEMS for being on hand during the entire tournament.”

Saturday ticket sales also helped benefit a scholarship through Dixie Softball. According to Sims, $1 from each ticket sale on Saturday was donated to the scholarship fund, for a total of a $391 donation.

The tournament was originally scheduled to end on Monday, however Mother Nature had different plans.

Although the Debs tournament ended Saturday night, the Belles played through Tuesday afternoon, due to game cancellations and delays.

The Greenville Belles played a total of six games to earn the title of state runner ups in the tournament. They won their first game against Troy on Saturday and then lost to Underwood Sunday morning.

Then Greenville fought their way through the loser bracket to make it to the state championship game against Underwood on Tuesday afternoon, where they lost 16-0.

Congratulations to the Greenville Belles on a successful tournament.