This is the first in a series of polls for the forty (40) team AAU International Tournament, at Orlando, Florida, January 22-25, 2009.

Editor’s note: We’ve bumped this post back up, after adding a second poll, for readers to predict the three teams that will make the championship playoff bracket. (Vote for 3). See Morning Brief post above for full details on the 2009 Playoff format.

Midwest Stampede Roster
Bondurant, IA

Gerald Muizelaar
Sean Whitten
Tony Peeples
Bob Rosthenhausler
Bruno Motroni
Tony Kunka
Joe Morales
Greg Cascaes
Matt Palazzo
Paul Walford
Chris Bohlmann
Ben Enoka
Justin Dauvin
Cody Parsons

Steve Moulton/coach co-owner
Bev Moulton/co-owner
Steve Kooser, Field Manager

Cobourg Force Roster

Mike Crawford
Steve Ketchell
Wayne Wells
Bill Fairney
Sam Forbes
Aaron Fraser
Ross Herold
Mike Kelly
Frank Lang
Carl Maloney
Anthony Palmieri
Matt Swift
John Garland
Craig Minifie

Sylvia Ryan Manager

Virgin Islands Roster

[none submitted]

Maccabi Red Roster – USA

[none submitted]

Rosters courtesy of Al’s Fastball

The forty team field marks the largest ever at the tournament, which began ten years ago, as an 8 team tournament. The last few years, the tournament filled out a 32 team bracket, but continues to grow as word about the tournament spreads.

AAU teams often feature “mixed rosters”, with players from several “regular” teams joining forces, or moving from one team to another. A good part of the fun for fans is perusing the rosters before the tournament, and making their predictions on the eventual winners.

Not all teams have submitted rosters yet, but we encourage all to do so. Send them to Al Doran at: fastball (at) prmi.com or here to jim (at) fastpitchwest.com, and we’ll forward to him as well. Be sure to visit his AAU International Tournament page

Below are rosters for two of the teams in Pool E, the Midwest Stampede and Cobourg Force of Ontario Canada.

For the Midwest Stampede, plenty of familiar names to be sure. Pitcher Gerald Muizelaar was with Team Minnesota the last few years, including a couple of trips to the championship game. Sean Whitten was with Florida Fastpitch, a top finisher last year, who pitched in one of 2008’s more memorable games, against Dave Drotzmann and the Virgin Island Ambassadors, a low scoring pitchers’ duel. Whitten showed up last January in mid-season form, with many fans commenting that he was throwing harder than anyone at the tournament. Tony Peeples, a member of the So Cal Bombers the past few years, will make what I think is his first trip to the AAU. Lots of top drawer ISC talent to go with the pitching staff, and a youngster from New Zealand, Ben Enoka, who played with New Zealand’s 19u team at the ISF Jr. Worlds last summer. Ben is one of two Enoka brothers from the Black Sox squad. Thomas pitched, while Ben played outfield and hit in the heart of the order, behind slugger Sam Bishop. Ben was 2 for 3 in his team’s 9-0 win over eventual Gold Medalists, Australia, the only loss in the tournament by the Aussies.

For Cobourg, it will be a couple of leapers with pitchers Wayne Wells and Steve Ketchell. Wells continues to display top form well into his 40’s, helping to pitch Waterdown Hammer into the championship game at last summer’s ISC II Tournament of Champions, and earn all-world honors along the way. Ross Herold, longtime ISC II all star catcher, and member of the 2006 ISC II champion Tavistock squad will be behind the plate, with plenty of Ontario’s finest joining in, including the ageless Sammy Forbes.

No roster yet for the Virgin Islands or Maccabi USA.

If they follow form, the Virgin Islands will land some top pitching talent to go with a hard playing squad that has been more than competitive in past years. In 2008, it was Dave Drotzmann and Mike Egerdeen on the hill for the Virgin Islands. That duo went on later in the year to pitch the California Lumberkings to the ISC II Tournament of Champions title, with Dr. Dave nabbing MVPitcher honors. The year before, it was Shaun Winship on the hill for the Virgin Island Ambassadors. (Last year, Winship pitched Mike Cutro’s CPI squad into the Final Four, the highest finish ever for an ISC II team.)

Perhaps Dave Blackburn can fill us in on the Maccabi team? And someone from the Virgin Islands?

The 10th annual AAU International Tournament will be held January 22-25, 2009 at the Disney complex in Orlando, Florida, hosting 40 teams from around the world. Selected games will be broadcast live on Ballparkradio.com

Haziel Mcdonald’s Texaco Pirates from Man-O-War Cay in the Bahamas:

Steve Mullaley
Jason Hill
Kyle Magnusson
Fred Sweeting
William Weatherford
Don Garvey
Louie Joglar
Andrew Albury
Alexis Hernandez
Grant Albury
Edward {Cheno}Lamb
Darrell Joy
Rob Schweyer P
Sean Cleary P
Rob Scheller P
Haziel Mcdonald Manager

The Pirates made it to the Elite Eight last year, falling to eventual finalist Team Minnesota in the quarterfinals. They’ll have to compete in Pool G with one of last year’s Final Four teams, the NY Gremlins (Knights), along with the Manor Dirt Bags of Texas, and the Brewers of Venezuela.

Pool G

1. Gremlin Knights – NY
2. Texaco Pirates – Bahamas
3. Manor Dirt Bags – TX
4. Brewers de Venezuela

Haziel Mcdonald’s squad was the AAU Consolation winner back in 2004, the first year that Fastpitchwest and Maddysphotos traveled to Orlando for the big event. They have continued to build their roster by adding talented ISC level players, including many of the big names on the year’s squad, while retaining the core nucleus of the team who live on Man-O-War, Willie Weatherford, Grant Albury, Andrew Albury, Fred Sweeting, and of course, the skipper, Haziel Mcdonald. (picking up the 2004 Consolation Bracket trophy from tournament director, Alex Linares)

The Bahamian squad was featured in a 2007 Softball Magazine feature about their first Bahamas Invitational Tournament, “The Real Pirates of the Caribbean“. Click here to view, but note that it is a large PDF file, with color photos, so give it time to load on your computer.

Lots of Pirate pics in Gallery 8 of last year’s set of photos here.

And last but not least, for those of you in “snow country” day dreaming about playing ball in warmer locales, click here for a look at the home, and home field of the Texaco Pirates on Man-O-War, Bahamas.l

* Managers of Manor Dirt Bags, and Brewers of Venezuela – need your rosters, please send to us at jim (at) fastpitchwest (dot) com. We’ll post and forward to Al Doran. You’re next up in the “Pick the Winner” poll.