TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Heinrichs heads to Australia

ADVERTISEMENT

By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY nmurray@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2009

TAMPA - Last year, Tampa's Tyler Heinrichs went to China to compete for the U.S. at the BMX World Championships.

This year, the 13-year-old is back for more, as he heads to Adelaide, Australia, after winning a pair of races at the United States of America Cycling Federation qualifier in Desoto, Texas.

"It means a lot," Heinrichs said. "It means to me that I've made an improvement, and you just want to push yourself to keep going, get a better placing from what you're actually doing."

Heinrichs only took up the sport three years ago, making his ascent through the ranks that much more impressive. Now he can regularly be found training at the Tampa BMX track, located in the middle of Lake Park in Northwest Tampa. Heinrichs' coach C.J. Peters said Heinrichs took to the sport as easily as some of the other sport he competes in, like track and field.

"I've seen Tyler play around and do other things, and Tyler just seems like a natural person at anything he does," Peters said. "BMX, he just picked it up real quick. He's a natural athlete."

But as natural as his ability may have been, Heinrichs hard work has allowed him to develop at a rate that surpised Peters.

"For him to develop from last year to now, I was like, 'wow'," Peters said. "Qualifying this year was so much easier for him in comparison to last year. Seeing him race other people that trained with him, he's able to pull away from them so fast."

Tarte going to All-Star game

VALRICO - After she'd completed the competition at the Aquafina Pitch, Hit and Run Regional competition in Orlando, Bloomingdale Little League and Florida Fire softball player Annie Tarte had a good feeling about what she'd accomplished. When she stopped to chat with one of the competition organizers, her feeling was only confirmed.

"The guy there was like, 'wow, your score is amazing,' " Tarte said.

In fact, the 11-year-old Tarte's score was good enough to not only win the regional competition, but one of the top three scores in the nation. As a result, she will be headed to the MLB All-Star game in St. Louis to compete in the national finals.

Mark Braddy, who is part of the Bloomingdale LL program and the founder of the Fire, isn't surprised at all.

"She's a fireball," Braddy said. "I can remember one of the travelball games she ever played in she was playing shortstop, playing up an age group, she takes a one-hopper in the side of her neck. She doesn't stop, looks down, picks up the ball and fires it across the field and gets the girl out at first. It never fazed her."

Tarte is following in the footsteps of Raelynn Nichols, who competed in the under-14 softball division at Yankee Stadium last season. Braddy said he thought the two players shared a lot of traits.

"Both girls that we've sent are great girls," Braddy said. "They have great attitudes, work ethics, everything along the line. It's not all that surprising when you see who's going to represent us."

Team FLA earns nationals berth

The Tampa-based Team FLA under-14 softball team earned a place at the Amateur Softball Association's National Championships in Marietta, Ga., with a dominant all-round display at the South Florida Regional two weeks ago.

Team FLA capped the tournament with a 10-0 five-inning victory against the West Boynton Lady Bandits.

While pitchers Jennie Sittloh, Rose Yanger and Ashley Cozart kept opponents off the board, Coach Patti Sittloh was pleased key hitters like Hailey Drawe, Christina Linton and Kelly Smith were able to find their rhythm in West Palm Beach.

"We hadn't been hitting perviously, our bats really weren't there," Sittloh said. "We had to wait for a lot of the girls to get back from playing high school, and we really just started playing as a team this last tournament, which really helped us. Everything just started clicking, and I'm hoping it stays that way until we go to Nationals."

Keyword: Youth Sports, to follow Tyler as he blogs from Australia, beginning July 20.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT