TRR photo by Richard Ross Nick Mootz, front center, sits with the Fitness Factory team and family members after Fitness Factory’s 11-1 tournament-clinching victory over FYI Graphics in the Seventh Annual Fremont Center Tournament. Fitness Factory players include JoJo Vankeuren, top left, Denny Rivera, Wayne Kaiser, Derwin Rivera, Desmond Gonzalez, Julian Dawson, Mike Weiner, Gil Suarez, Keith Shaddock, Shane Connor, Jay Gallo, Alex Salazar, bottom row second from left, Aaron Dinkle, Serafin Rodriguez, Edwin “Flaco” Rodriguez and Jay Legenos.

Seventh Annual Fremont Softball Tournament

Fitness Factory finishes first in Fremont

Great softball, super birthday and signed game ball bring smiles to Nick Mootz’s face

By RICHARD A. ROSS

FREMONT CENTER, NY - Stories with happy endings have great appeal. So it was that the Fremont Softball Tournament closed its final chapter with Nick Mootz holding the championship trophy with the Fitness Factory team. The moment provided a coda to a weekend of softball, camaraderie and neighborliness.

The tournament will go down in history as a classic for its scintillating softball games, its feel-good atmosphere and its inordinate success as a fundraiser for Mootz, a 15-year-old from Kenoza Lake who can light up the world with his smile while battling the rigors of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Mootz is currently in remission, aided by fine medical treatment and bolstered by an abundance of love and support at the Ballpark in Fremont Center this weekend.

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Sullivan County Womens Softball League ‘A’ Division Playoffs

Paint thinner

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY - Perhaps Cooper Paint was looking ahead to a long-anticipated rematch with Charlie’s Angels. Or maybe the weeklong layoff caused the league’s top team to look flat and ordinary in the opener of the ‘A’ Division playoffs against Klein & Sons Logging on August 7.

But no one can deny that feisty Klein & Sons came to play hard.

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Sullivan County Womens Softball League

Logjam in Death Valley

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY - Sweltering heat caused Collins Park in Mongaup Valley to feel like Death Valley. With temperatures flirting with the century mark, L&B Tack nearly didn’t field the requisite nine players in a crucial game versus Klein & Sons Logging, which could send one of the two teams to the postseason.

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Also in this issue:

• Playoffs set for high school basketball at SCCC