March 24, 2009

NORTHEAST SOFTBALL GETS BACK TO FUNDAMENTALS THANKS TO LEGENDARY COACH

BOONEVILLE, Miss. – Getting back to the fundamentals.

Northeast Mississippi Community College Head Softball Coach Jody Long went back to the basics after his team’s performance during the week of Spring Break.

Long brought in legendary coach Ernie Parker to help the Lady Tiger softball team in all facets of the game.

Parker, a native of Cordova, Tenn., has won nine Amateur Softball Association (ASA) national titles at all levels with one team from California and has had a hand in forming national champions on the softball diamond.

Parker has worked with All-Americans at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Stanford University, Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, University  of Michigan, Michigan State University, Florida State University, California State University at Long Beach, Harvard, University of Tennessee, California State University at Fullerton along with many other universities throughout the United States and around the world.

The veteran mentor has crafted pitchers in Peru, Canada, Taipai, China, Spain, Holland, Hawaii, Alaska and Italy.

On Sunday, March 22, Parker took the Lady Tiger softball team under his wings and helped Northeast in a variety of softball aspects.

Parker started with the team’s defensive footwork on fielding groundballs and worked up to throwing accuracy before moving to improving hand-to-eye coordination with a mixture of hitting drills.

Northeast, which popped up six sacrifice bunt attempts during one game over Spring Break, got first hand demonstration from Parker in that aspect of the game as well.

Parker, whose specialty is pitching, spent two hours giving individualized instructions to Northeast pitchers Amy Blakeney, Nicole Singleton and Heather Young along with catchers Addy Brown, Emily Barnes and Jayme Smith.

Parker has built his reputation on solid fundamentals and his dedication to the game showed through as he broke down each fielder’s throwing and helped them gain accuracy and distance with their throws.

Parker helped create one of the United States dynamic pitching duos early in his career when he helped Lisa Fernandez and DeeDee Weiman with their fundamentals.

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