The Iowa Blitz is a fastpitch softball organization designed to provide players eligible for high school competition another avenue outside of the high school competition to receive exposure and recognition from collegiate programs, primarily within the region, but also, on a national scale. While the program is designed to help young athletes who have a desire to play at the collegiate level, it is not exclusive to those athletes alone.  The Iowa Blitz has become recognized as a strong showcase program from the state of Iowa.

I am excited to announce that we are bringing the Louisville Slugger Hitting Science Center Pros to Blitz Academy to run:

• a coach/parent clinic,
• a diagnostic clinic for players along with
• an actual camp portion

All of these will be run by The LS staff and college coaches, whom LS has partnered up with to run these camps. The attached brochure explains what your daughter will receive during this camp. The camp is split up into sessions and you can choose to participate in a session or two or all sessions.

We had one of our HS players along with a former player, now in college attend the LS Science Center, in Louisville, KY earlier this year, where they were put through a series of diagnostic tests, and then provided an evaluation on how they can become a stronger athlete and what areas they needed to focus on. In my conversations with these athletes, they have stated it was very useful for them and their continued growth as an athlete and softball player. The LS staff states that these diagnostics are very important even for younger players such as 10 and 12 year olds, as they get to learn at an earlier age how to use their bodies and their abilities it their maximum, instead of waiting until they are in HS to get it figured out. Therefore, the weekend of Dec 3-5 is for anyone who would like to gain an advantage over their peers and the competition in learning how to maximize what they have to be the best player possible.

While this is the Louisville Slugger “Hitting Science Center”, they actually focus on all areas of softball and not just hitting. Here is a breakdown of what the LS team will be covering:

• Day 1 (Friday evening) is the Parent / coach clinic where the LS staff will explain what their camp is about, go through the diagnostics that they perform and why these are important for your athlete, even if she is very young.
• Day 2 (Saturday) is the player diagnostics day, along with a 3-4 hour session showing players how to use the information they receive on the diagnostics part.
• Day 3 (Sunday) is an actual camp with instruction on fielding, hitting, etc.

The cost for this type of camp is extremely reasonable compared to most other camps run by colleges or otherwise that will generally run between $250 and $400 for a two-day camp. The information and knowledge received in this camp will be something that every player can use to continue their growth as an athlete.

Please see brochure and get registered as soon as possible.

On behalf of the Ryan and Angie Hesseltine family, The Iowa Blitz/Iowa Gold is honored to announce the following winners of this year's Aliya Hesseltine Honorary Scholarship award. Due to our fundraising efforts, mainly through the February Indoor event we hold each year in Aliya's name, we offered a record number of scholarships (5) and had a record number of applicants (14) to choose from. This year's applicants were asked to write a 500-word essay tying in what the term "Conquer from within" means to them. A panel of 7 judges reviewed the applications and were moved by what they read and the thought that was portrayed by these applicants in their essays. This year was extremely tough with so many applicants, and nearly all applicants received votes. That said, these five stood out.

Congratulations to following:

Emma Mostek

Kailee Pollard

Kate Kriegel

Stella Umphreys

Chloe Dougherty