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Mon June 9, 2008

With no Olympics, softball will have to look elsewhere

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Fans scramble to catch a foul ball in the fifth inning during Sunday's exhibition game between Team USA and Team China at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Team USA won 7-0. More coverage on Page 4B. BY MATT STRASEN, THE OKLAHOMAN
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By Mike Jeffries
Staff Writer
With the International Olympic Council's decision to remove softball from the Olympic list after 2008, the World Championship games will become the centerpiece for softball championships.

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The women's fastpitch world championships are held every four years in late summer. The next year for the games will be 2010.

"If nothing else, it allows for some cohesion for the national team,” said USA catcher Stacey Nuveman. "It will allow us to continue to compete in some big games, even without the Olympics.

"It's kind of scary to think of the U.S. national team falling off the face of the earth for eight years when we could possibly be in the Olympics again. Let's say softball does get back in — you can't just show up in 2016 and be ready to play. We've got to use these other events to keep ourselves ready.”

The funding for the national softball teams will be significantly lowered because of the IOC's decision to throw out softball. Although Team U.S.A. coach Mike Candrea isn't sure how much funding he'll lose, he's staying positive.

"We're still going to have a team, and we're still going to compete,” Candrea said. "How much? I don't know, but we'll be playing.”

The World Cup of Softball, hosted by the Amateur Softball Association every year in Oklahoma City, will also soak up some of the limelight left behind by the Olympics.

Team USA has won the World Cup for the past two years in a row.

"There's not going to be a full schedule like we've had in the past,” Nuveman said. "So we are really going to have to use the World Championships and the World Cup to motivate ourselves and keep us going.”

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