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Highlands Today
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Biggest Tournament Yet At Sports Complex
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Published: February 7, 2009
SEBRING - More than 1,000 visitors are expected here through the weekend of Feb. 20-22 for what will be the largest softball tournament at the Highlands County Sports Complex since the facility opened in August 2007.
Seventy-nine teams registered as of Thursday morning for the Freedom Sports Association's "Winter Nationals" tournament, according to Gregg Iris, a tournament director.
"I think we'll finally top out at about 85 teams," Iris said.
The largest tournament at the sports complex so far was a National Softball Association event in June 2008 that drew about 56 teams, said Vicki Pontius, county parks and recreation director.
At least two hotels have sold out all rooms due to the tournament.
The Four Points by Sheraton Sebring Chateau Elan and the Kenilworth Lodge report having reservations for all rooms for the Feb. 20-22 weekend, in large part due to the softball tournament.
"We are beyond excited, we're just ecstatic about the (sports complex) facility, because it's going to bring business not only during this time but also in the summer months, the off-season," said Tennile Lee, sales manger at Kenilworth Lodge.
Inquiries for rooms by tournament teams "were more than we could accommodate," she added.
Reinhard Haubner, general manager of the Four Points Sheraton, said the tournament is a major factor in selling out all 123 rooms for the Feb. 20-22 weekend.
"I think if this is marketed and done right, it can be a tremendous boost to the local economy," he said about weekend softball tournaments at the county sports complex.
Twenty-one additional softball tournaments are booked this year for the complex, which has five tournament-quality ballfields in a star-shaped pattern around a two-story concessions building.
Six of the tournaments are scheduled during the summer season, between June 1 and Sept. 30, Pontius said.
"There is a possibility," Pontius said, "that we may get some more tournaments."
Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com
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