LADY GLADIATORS STUMBLE IN REGION PLAY, MOVE TO 2-2 (UPDATED 9/3)
The Lady Gladiators had a tough week in Region 7-AAAA play facing the two top teams in Creekview on Tuesday and South Forsyth on Thursday. The Lady Gladiators were never in the contest with Creekview falling behind 9-0 in the first inning before finally losing 13-0 in a 3-inning game. On Thursday, the Lady Gladiators fell behind South Forsyth 3-0 but tied the game 3-3 midway through the contest. However, too many errors and the inability to string together key hits at the right time resulted in a 7-4 loss. With the two losses, the Lady Gladiators move to 2-2 in Region 7-AAAA play. With the Labor Day holiday next week, only a single Region game is on tap with Johns Creek hosting Forsyth Central on Thursday. The varsity squads will play at 5pm followed by the JV squads at 7pm.

JCHS YARD SIGNS FOR SOFTBALL PLAYERS (UPDATED 8/31)
The Lady Gladiators cheerleading club is again selling yard signs for JCHS sport clubs and other activities. These are 18x24 plastic yard signs with the metal ground post customized with a softball sport logo and the name of the player. If you are interested in ordering a yard sign, please download the order form by clicking on the image to the right or the link below, complete the form, and return with payment as directed.

Click here to download the JCHS player yard sign order form (PDF)

LADY GLADIATORS RUN OUT OF GAS IN BUFORD TOURNAMENT (UPDATED 8/29)
The Lady Gladiators finished play in the Buford Tournament on Saturday at Johns Creek. In all, the Lady Gladiators hosted 12 games at the softball complex competing in 6 of those games. After falling behind 7-0 to Dunwoody on Wednesday night, the Lady Gladiators roared back to ultimately tie the game at 7-7. After the emotional victory at Chattahoochee on Thursday, an energized team returned to play Friday night defeating a solid Riverwood team 5-1. In the nightcap, the Lady Gladiators held a 4-2 lead over AAAAA opponent Woodstock before losing 6-4 surrendering 4 runs in the final frame. On Saturday, an exhausted Gladiator squad playing their 8th game in 6 days simply could not muster any offense and fell 4-0 to Providence, 11-0 to Union County, and 3-1 to Lanier. Despite the Lady Gladiators' overall tournament performance, all of the visiting teams were very complimentary of the team, coaching staff, and the facilities as a tournament host site. The Lady Gladiators return to Region 7-AAAA action this week visiting Creekview on Tuesday followed by the Region home opener against South Forsyth on Thursday.

LADY GLADIATORS MOVE TO 2-0 IN REGION WITH WIN OVER CHATTAHOOCHEE (UPDATED 8/26)
The Lady Gladiators returned to Region 7-AAAA play on Thursday night at Chattahoochee. After sitting through a lightning delay that ultimately resulted in the postponement of the JV game, the varsity squads got underway in a rivalry of neighboring schools. Both teams featured players that grew up playing little league together many of which still play together today on various travel softball teams. Kara Langill turned in another outstanding performance in the circle keeping a potent Cougar offense at bat until late in the game. By that time, the Lady Gladiators had staked Kara to an 8-0 lead on timely hitting up and down the lineup. Erin Thorn delivered a bomb to LF for her 2nd home run of the season putting an exclamation point on the Lady Gladiators scoring. Two offensive standouts that deserve special mention are Haley Cutcliff and Diana Ruth. Both players began their high school softball careers at Chattahoochee and were certainly feeling the pressure of returning to their old school. The Cougars finally got on the scoreboard late in the game and threatened in the 6th inning scoring 2 but stranding 2 others as the result of strong pitching and great defense. Kara shut down the Cougar offense in the final frame with Courtney Jacobs putting the defensive exclamation point on the game with a sliding catch of a fly ball in shallow LC to close out the game. In his post-game comments, Coach Nicholson spoke of how impressed he was with the team with their Thursday night performance especially after the rough outing the night before in the Buford Tournament opener with a 7-7 tie with Dunwoody. He noted that the victory was a total team effort. The Lady Gladiators are back in action on Friday against Riverwood and Woodstock as pool play action in the Buford Tournament continues.

VARSITY PLAYERS WATCHING JV TEAM	COACH NICHOLSON USING BODY ENGLISH TO HELP ERIN SLIDE IN SAFE AT HOME
KARA IN THE CIRCLE DELIVERS A PITCH AGAINST CHATTAHOOCHEE	JENNA CALLS THE SHOTS BEHIND THE PLATE
DIANA AND MEGAN READY FOR THE NEXT PITCH	COURTNEY SLIDES IN SAFELY AT HOME

LADY GLADIATORS TAKE REGION OPENER 6-2 OVER LAMBERT (UPDATED 8/24)
The Lady Gladiators opened Region 7-AAAA play Tuesday night at Lambert with a solid 6-2 victory behind strong pitching from Kara Langill. The offense pounded out 9 hits in all with Candace Roper, Megan Vonderhaar, and Courtney Jacobs each contributing 2 hits to the attack. Erin Thorn drove in Courtney twice with a sacrifice fly in the 1st and a double in the 4th. Kara, backed by solid defense, held a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the 7th inning when Lambert loaded the bases with no outs and threatened. After a sacrifice fly to CF, the next Lambert batter flew out to Megan Vonderhaar in LF who in turn threw out the runner attempting to score from 3B for a game ending double play. The Lady Gladiators face off with Dunwoody on Wednesday at JCHS in the Buford Tournament opener before returning to Region play at Chattahoochee on Thursday.

GHSA SOFTBALL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS WEEK, LADY GLADIATORS PINK OUT! (UPDATED 8/23)
The GHSA has designated September 13-17 as Breast Cancer Awareness week for softball. The Lady Gladiators are fortunate to have both a JV and Varsity home game that week. On 9/13 (JV) and 9/14 (Varsity), the Lady Gladiators will don their pink uniforms in support of Breast Cancer Awareness week. Principal Greene and Athletic Director Cloy have both graciously agreed to let the softball program donate the gate proceeds from both games to the team's choice of breast cancer charity. In addition, the varsity players will be selling pink ribbons at the 9/13 JV game and JV players will be doing the same at the 9/14 Varsity game and all proceeds from the ribbon sale will be donated to charity as well. Come support the Lady Gladiators for Pinkout Night on Monday, 9/13, and Tuesday, 9/14.

WELCOME COACH HEATHER CROSS TO JCHS COACHING STAFF (UPDATED 8/23)
Coach Heather Cross has been added to the JCHS softball coaching staff as an Assistant Coach for the JV team. Coach Cross is a graduate of Mercer University and Georgia State University in biology and chemistry. She will be teaching full-time at JCHS in both physics and physical science. Be sure to say "hi" to Coach Cross and welcome her to the JCHS softball staff the next time you are a practice or game.

Click here to for more bio information and a photo of Coach Cross

JCHS TO HOST BUFORD TOURNAMENT THIS WEEK, REVISED SCHEDULE (REVISED 8/23)
Johns Creek will serve as one of three host sites for the Buford Invitational Tournament which begins Wednesday. The Lady Gladiators will participate in the tournament for the 2nd consecutive year and this year will host 6 games of pool play and 6 games of medal round play. The tournament begins on Wednesday, 8/25, and continues with the conclusion of medal round play on Saturday, 8/28. The Lady Gladiators pool play schedule includes Dunwoody (6-AAAA) on Wednesday, 8/25, and Riverwood (5-AAA) and Woodstock (5-AAAAA) on Friday, 8/27. The Saturday, 8/28, schedule for medal round play is dependent on the results of pool play.

Click here to download the revised Buford Tournament schedule (PDF, 8/23)

LADY GLADIATORS FINISH 2ND IN KELL TOURNAMENT SILVER DIVISION (UPDATED 8/14)
The Lady Gladiators turned in a great performance in the season opening Kell Tournament over the past weekend. Opening pool play on Friday night at Kell High School, the Lady Gladiators lost a hard fought game 3-1 to North Paulding. Kara Langill pitched a great game which was scoreless going into late innings. The Lady Gladiators had an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the 7th inning with bases loaded but were unable to come up with the key hit. JCHS rebounded in game #2 of pool play defeating Pebblebrook 14-0 behind dominant pitching from Erin Thorn and hitting up and down the lineup. Erin Thorn went "yard" for her first home run of the season with a 2-run shot down the left field line with Courtney Jacobs aboard courtesy of a walk.

The Lady Gladiators opened medal round play in the Silver Division on Saturday with a 5-4 victory over Alexander with Kara Langill in the circle. In game #2, Walton defeated the Lady Gladiators 8-1 with JCHS unable to get anything going offensively and struggling defensively at the same time (not an ideal combination by the way). The Lady Gladiators bounced back in game #3 with a 10-3 victory over Alpharetta with Kara Langill pitching another strong game. The offense was back in action with plenty of run support for Kara with every Lady Gladiator in the lineup contributing to the 10-run total. In the final game of the tournament, Erin Thorn got the call in the circle for a rematch of Friday's game with North Paulding. Erin pitched a masterpiece taking a 2-0 lead into the top of the 7th when the Lady Gladiators manufactured a 3rd run to take a 3-0 lead into the final frame. North Paulding was only able to scratch out a single run in the bottom of the 7th and the Lady Gladiators claimed a 3-1 victory. Jenna Restivo was outstanding behind the dish for all 6 games for the Lady Gladiators despite an injury which limited her to a defense-only role in the FLEX position in the lineup. With the win, JCHS secured 2nd place in the Silver Division. In the post-game meeting, Coach Nicholson spoke to the team about how proud he was of their weekend performance with the Lady Gladiators exceeding his expectations for the tournament. The Lady Gladiators finished the Kell Tournament with a 4-2 overall record and a great start to the 2010 season.

           Click here for more pictures from the Kell Tournament!

COACH NICHOLSON TALKS TO THE TEAM AFTER NORTH PAULDING WIN	COACHES PRINDLE AND SPAK IN DUGOUT WITH GLADIATORS ON DEFENSE	ERIN DRIVES IN COURTNEY WITH 4TH RUN WHILE VICTORIA WAITS ON DECK

LADY GLADIATORS VARSITY AND JV SCHEDULE UPDATES (ADDED 8/10)
Several updates have been made to the JCHS varsity and JV schedules. For JV, a 10th game was added with the Lady Gladiators facing off with region rival Chattahoochee on 8/26 at 4:45pm prior to the varsity game at 6:00pm (both games to be played at Chattahoochee). Additionally, the pool play schedule for the Buford tournament was released today with Johns Creek playing Dunwoody (6-AAAA) on Wednesday, 8/25, and St. Pius (5-AAA) and Woodstock (5-AAAAA) on Friday, 8/27. The Saturday, 8/28, schedule for the Buford tournament is dependent on the results of pool play. Click here to go to the SCHEDULES page for the latest copies of the JV and Varsity schedules.

2010 LADY GLADIATORS VARSITY & JV SOFTBALL TEAMS ANNOUNCED (ADDED 8/4)
The 2010 Johns Creek Lady Gladiators varsity and JV softball team rosters were announced this afternoon and the squads are listed below. Click here to go to the VARSITY page for the roster of players selected to the 2010 Varsity squad and click here to go to the JV page for the roster of players selected to the 2010 JV squad. Team rosters are still under development and will be updated on Saturday once uniforms have been distributed to players.

Varsity	Junior Varsity (JV)
Haley Cutcliff	Tori Beauchamp
Lindsey Cutcliff	Meghan Caffrey**
Courtney Jacobs	Lucy Carr**
Clare Jones	Marie Fithian**
Kara Langill	Madelaine Forney
Darby McNally	Clare Jones**
Jenna Restivo	Esnart Kamayamba
Candace Roper	Caroline Miller**
Diana Ruth	Shelby Slauer
Taylor Sheffield	Megen Wittling
Victoria Swanson	Jesse McConnico
Erin Thorn
Megan Vonderhaar	** = Swing Player, Dress with Varsity

2010 LADY GLADIATORS FEEDER SOFTBALL TEAM ANNOUNCED (ADDED 7/29)
The 2010 Johns Creek Lady Gladiators feeder softball team roster was announced this evening. Click here to go to the FEEDER page for the roster of players selected to this year's team.

2010 FUNDAMENTALS SOFTBALL CAMP A HUGE SUCCESS! (ADDED 7/27)
The Lady Gladiators of Johns Creek teamed up with the Lady Titans of Northview to host the 3rd annual FUNdamentals Softball Camp this week. The camp featured instructors Billy Nicholson and Beth Spak from the JCHS staff, Andrea Payne and Evan Deis from the Northview staff, and Jan Podhorez, head coach of Blessed Trinity. The instructors were assisted by Lady Gladiator and Titan varsity players. In all, 56 campers ranging in age from 8 to 13 attended. The first two days of the camp focused on skill building in the areas of hitting, fielding, throwing, base running, infield, outfield, and specialty sessions in pitching and catching. Thursday was scrimmage day where the players were able to put their newly learned skills on display. There was some amazing talent at the camp and the future of North Fulton softball looks bright for years to come!

Click here to download 2010 FUNdamentals Camp Survey Form (PDF)
Complete form, save a local copy, and email to FUNdamentals@johnscreekfastpitch.com

COACH EVAN TALKS TO HIS 12U TEAM	COACH JAN'S 12Us READY TO BAT	COACH BETH SETS THE LINEUP FOR HER 12Us

SUBSCRIBE TO THE 2010 JCHS FASTPITCH SOFTBALL PROGRAM EMAIL LIST
Subscribe to the JCHS fastpitch softball program email list to receive email notifications of meetings and special events for the upcoming 2010 fastpitch softball season. Click here to go to the email list subscription form, complete the form, and you will be added to the distribution list.

JCHS 2010 SUB-REGION SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED (REVISED 5/20, UPDATED 8/5)
Coach Billy Nicholson announced the 2010 varsity sub-region schedule today. The Lady Gladiators will play as part of Region 7-AAAA sub-region "B" for the 2010 season. In all, 11 teams are in the Region with 6 of them assigned to sub-region "B". In addition to JCHS, the other sub-region "B" schools are Chattahoochee, Creekview, Forsyth Central, Lambert, and South Forsyth. Along with Johns Creek, Creekview and Lambert are moving up from AAA while Chattahoochee and South Forsyth are dropping down from AAAAA. The Lady Gladiators will play 10 games within the Region in a home/home series with each sub-region "B" team. The season will culminate with the Region 7-AAAA tournament the first week of October. The regular season champions from each of Sub-Regions A and B will automatically qualify for the state tournament and will play each other to determine who gets the top seed from the Region. The remaining teams in the Region will participate in a double-elimination tournament in order to determine the remaining two teams that will advance to the state tournament as the #3 and #4 seeds. Click below to download a copy of the current Lady Gladiator 2010 softball schedule.

Click to download the current 2010 Lady Gladiator Varsity softball schedule (PDF)

Click to download the current 2010 Lady Gladiator JV softball schedule (PDF)

JCHS ASSIGNED TO REGION 7-AAAA (B) FOR 2010-12 (POSTED 12/2, FINALIZED 1/12)
The GHSA classification process for Region alignments to take effect in 2010-12 has been completed and all appeals have been resolved. Johns Creek has been placed in Region 7-AAAA Sub-Region B. Joining JCHS in Region 7-AAAA (B) is Chattahoochee, South Forsyth, Forsyth Central, Creekview, and Lambert. For a complete list of final region assignments in all classifications, download the following document from the GHSA. Also, the GHSA voted to return to 2-year reclassification cycles instead of 4-year cycles approved last year. The GHSA felt that the 2-year process was more flexible and best serves the interests of the member schools.

GHSA Final Region Alignments/Classifications for 2010-12

JCHS SOFTBALL RECYCLING FUNDRAISER A BIG SUCCESS (POSTED 1/23)
The JCHS Lady Gladiators softball program hosted an electronics recycling and sensitive docment shredding event at JCHS on Saturday. The event was a huge success raising over $1700 for the softball program. Volunteer parents and players braved the cold weather to collect electronics and documents from over 100 donors. Thanks to all of the volunteers that assisted with the event and special thanks to Cindy McNally for planning and coordinating the fund raiser.

COACHES NICHOLSON AND SPAK ALONGSIDE THE CUTCLIFF FAMILY	COURTNEY AND DARBY ARE CHECKING IN EVENT DONORS	DEB LANGILL TRYING TO STAY WARM AT THE CHECK-IN TENT

LADY GLADIATORS 2009 NEWS ARCHIVE (ADDED 2/19)
For a look back at the 2009 Lady Gladiators softball program including news articles and game reports, click on the link below for the 2009 schedule archive page.

Click here to view the Lady Gladiators 2009 softball news archive