IESA Headlines

2011 IESA Girls Softball State Finals This Weekend

Competition in the 11th annual Class A and Class AA Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) Girls Softball State Final Tournaments will be this weekend at Champion Fields in Normal. This is the 34th year of the state series.

The Class A field will be crowning a new champion in this year's tournament. This tournament will mark the first time appearances for Bloomington Holy Trinity, Casey-Westfield, and Princeville. Even though this is Casey-Westfield's first appearance in Class A, they are no stranger to the tournament. This will mark their 20th appearance since 1980 and they currently hold seven state softball championships. Three teams in this tournament took home third place honors in previous Class A tournaments, Bourbonnais Maternity BVM (2009), Dwight (2007), and Griggsville-Perry (2006). The two other schools advancing to the finals are Buffalo Tri-City (2007) and Tremont (2009) who are both making their second appearance.

The Class AA tournament is highlighted with two previous state champions meeting in the quarterfinals. Stanford Olympia who was the Class AA champion in 2003, 2004, and 2005 will meet the 2006 champion Edwardsville Lincoln at 4:00 p.m. Three teams will be making their first appearance, St. Joseph, Teutopolis, and Canton Ingersoll who is undefeated on the season. Lockport Oak Prairie returns this year to build on their 2010 finish in this tournament. Minooka will be making their first appearance since 2005 where they finished third. Frankfort Summit Hill will make their first appearance since 2004 where they took home fourth place honors.

The starting times of the games Friday and Saturday are staggered by class. The Class AA quarterfinals begin Friday at 10:00 a.m. The Class A quarterfinals get under way at 10:30 a.m. The four quarterfinal winners advance to semifinal games Saturday morning with the third place and championship games set for Saturday afternoon. The Class AA semifinals get under way at 10:00 a.m. with the third place game set for 2:00 p.m. and the championship game at 4:00 p.m. The Class A semifinals begin at 10:30 a.m. with the third place game at 2:30 p.m. and the title game at 4:30 p.m.

The price of admission Friday will be $5.00 for adults and high school students and $2.00 for senior citizens (62 and over) and students (K-8). Children younger than kindergarten are admitted free both days. Fans attending the games Saturday will receive a wristband that is to be worn all day and will be used for entry to the facility throughout the day. Each team advancing to the Saturday games will play two games that day. The price of admission for the wristband Saturday will be $7.00 for adults and high school students and $3.00 for senior citizens (62 and over) and students (K-8).

Complete pairings for each state final, plus the FanZone, can be found at www.iesa.org. Click on the Girls Softball line in the orange box at the top of the IESA Web Site Home Page. Scores will be updated on the IESA website after each game.

IESA girls softball began in 1978 and was a one-class state series until 2001 before the split to Class A and Class AA competition bringing eight teams in each class to the state final. Classes in IESA two-class competition are determined by dividing the schools entered in the sport evenly.

This year a total of 188 schools entered the softball series and began competition at the regional level. A total of 94 schools were assigned to Class A and 94 schools to Class AA. Classification of each school is determined by the enrollment of students in the seventh and eighth grade for the previous school year. The Class A enrollment range this year was 1-157 and AA began at 158.