Hopefully, the girls on the Greene County softball team won’t hear as many sirens as they heard this past week any time soon.
The Rams’ three games in the 3A state tournament at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex just north of Fort Dodge resulted in a third place finish. They had more than one sirens-and-lights escort during their tournament run.
The team bus, which has been driven by Alex Hamilton for many years, was escorted into town Monday night (July 14) when the Rams returned 12-3 winners over Sioux Center in the Region 1 final game in Battle Creek.
The team, escorted by a fire truck, was given a community send-off Monday afternoon as the girls left to face Center Point-Urbana. They won a brisk, no-nonsense game by a 2-0 score and were again escorted into town with sirens and lights.
The send-off was a little later in the day Thursday, but still with a fire truck and exuberant waves, when the Rams headed back to Fort Dodge to play Clarke Community (Osceola). The game was scheduled to start at 7:30, but didn’t finally start until 11 pm due to a three hour rain delay late in the afternoon. The Rams lost 4-1, but there was no question of an noisy escort when they returned home. The game wasn’t over until will after midnight, and by the time they got back to Jefferson, it was too late for a racket.
Friday the girls had an escort both outbound and inbound for the third place game vs East Marshall. The Rams won 10-3, and as it was before, the bus, following fire trucks, took a victory lap around the courthouse square.
The girls had sirens six times in the course of 11 days. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again…. until the 2015 state tournament. With the potential for the entire starting line-up to return for another season, it’s possible.
