Christopher James

It appears Alcoa High School could host the Tennessee Diamonds in the professional softball team’s first year in Blount County.
I talked to Lady Tornadoes softball coach Paul Talley last week and he said he’d heard from Diamonds general manager Sarah Fekete about using the field, generally considered one of the county’s best, this summer. An item has also appeared on the Alcoa City Board of Education’s Tuesday agenda (below) asking the board to “approve usage of softball field.”

Talley said he thought Fekete had several other sites in mind but neither Maryville College nor Blount County Schools, which would include William Blount and Heritage, said they had been contacted about using their fields. Maryville, Alcoa and Blount County Parks and Rec director Joe Huff said the Diamonds only asked him about playing several games at Sandy Springs Park the week of the Smoky Mountain Classic, a nationally recognized men’s slowpitch softball tournament in July.
No matter where they play, the Diamonds will need to bring their own bleachers. Alcoa’s field seats just 150, well below the required league minimum of 1,000.
“Our need really is for the seating,” Fekete said last week. “If you got a couple extra million dollars you want to throw in for the bleachers, I’ll take it.”
Things should become clearer Tuesday night.

The Tennessee Diamonds, Blount County’s new professional softball team, got their 2010 schedule from National Pro Fastpitch today.
It includes 22 home dates starting June 9 at a to be determined local field.

Minutes before the schedule came out, I got a phone call from Preston Delashmit.
The Atlanta-area attorney, whose daughter Kelly is a freshman outfielder at Georgia Tech, had led a group back in the fall that wanted to purchase the Rockford Thunder , now the Diamonds, when then-owner Bob Lowe put the team up for sale. That plan fell through when it became clear a group led by Sarah Fekete was ready to take over the Thunder’s roster.
“It was just such a rush and such an accelerated time frame that you had to commit to things before you were ready perhaps,” Delashmit said. “That was the real issue with it.
“When the Tennessee franchise was ready to come into the league and was an option for the team to be able to go there, we’re pleased and excited for the team that they have that option.”
It turns out Fekete and the Blount County group might have made a huge diving catch when they agreed to take on the new franchise. The league also announced today that the Philadelphia Force, where Fekete played for a season, had folded. That dropped NPF down to four teams, including the Diamonds. Had the Thunder been left to fade away, it would’ve put the league in an even bigger bind with just three teams.
Help is on the way, though, as Delashmit still hopes to field a team as early as next season with home games at Kennesaw State. The Diamonds are still in need of a home field but Delashmit thinks they’ll be a home run.
“I would think just because that’s an area that loves softball and is devoted and has a high profile collegiate team with the Lady Vols there that I have to think it’s going to do very well,” Delashmit said. “I think it’s a great location for it. I think there’s going to be a natural draw with people wanting to keep some of the SEC athletes close to home.”