Letters to the editor, July 9, 2008

Appreciation for fire assistance

On behalf of Butte College I’d like to thank those in your fire department who responded to the Humboldt Fire in Butte County. They not only saved Butte College from serious and devastating destruction, but they protected our communities we all live in.

Without their great efforts many more people would not have homes to return to, and much of our campus would not be available for providing education to those in our community.

We’re very grateful for all of their help. They’re the greatest!

Diana Van Der Ploeg
Butte College President
Oroville

Coverage needed of youth softball

Why hasn’t there been any mention of the first ever Barstow Little League Softball inception? This is a great achievement for Barstow and the girls of Barstow. All coverage on local youth sports focuses on the boys. Not to take away from them — they deserve coverage too. But there is hardly any mention of what the girls do. We have two softball leagues — East Barstow Little League Softball and the city-sponsored league, yet no mention as to how either has done in their season.

The July 2 paper had a little blurb (one paragraph) about the 9/10 year old softball team at the end of the article on the local All Star teams. The 9/10 year old team has gone father in their first ever Little League Softball All Star tournament than all but two of the other Little League teams.

We have some excellent girls softball players in both leagues and they deserve the recognition that the boys receive. Maybe as a mother to one of the softball players I am biased, but this trend seems to follow through any sports coverage done by anyone. The girls practice just as much as the boys and they play just as hard as the boys. Most everyone in the high desert plays Little League Softball. There are teams from Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley, Spring Valley Lake, Silver Lakes, Adelanto and Phelan. And now for the first time ever, there are teams from Barstow.

Little League Softball seems to be here to stay as there are 11 teams in the 9/10 year old division and 31 teams overall in the District 49 Little League Softball All Star Tournament. The coaches for East Barstow Little League Softball work just as hard as the other ones do in preparing their teams for games. Our paper needs to step up to the plate and hit one out of the park on the coverage for girls softball in Barstow.

Michelle Carter
Barstow