Orlando's Winningest Team

July 29, 1997

I love to watch sports. I'm into the competition, personal challenge, and athletic spirit, and I especially love to watch sports when my team is winning. And in Orlando, we really do have a winning sports team to cheer for. This summer, I've attended many Orlando Wahoos' home games, and this is what I’ve learned so far. The Orlando Wahoos (by the way, a wahoo is a type of fish designed for speed), one of six teams in Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF) softball, clinched the first half of the season with 27 wins, earning a spot in the WPF Championship Series.

The WPF season is 72 games long and divided into two halves, 36 games each. This series is a best of five, and they will play the winner of the season’s second half. Now, it's my understanding that if the Wahoos win the second half (and I think they will), they will play against the second place team for the championship. Games three, four (if needed), and five (if needed) of the series will be played in "The Fish Tank," otherwise known as Alfond Stadium in Winter Park, starting August 29 at 7pm.

I go to the games for many reasons: I like the festival-like atmosphere at the games with the night sky, the summer breeze, fast pitches, home runs, and double plays. One activity that adds to the festival feeling of a Wahoos' game is the crazy things they make the fans do between innings like the Fan Spin and Win and the soda chugging contest. The soda chugging contest is fairly self explanatory - two willing fans agree to chug a bottle of soda while trying to twirl a hula hoop - incredible to watch, though the action isn’t as exciting as it is for the Fan Spin and Win contest. This contest requires that two willing (believe it or not) fans place their foreheads on the end of a softball bat, put the other end of the bat on the ground, and spin themselves around fifty times. After they complete fifty rotations, the fans race each other to the opposite coaches' box. But, these people are so dizzy after completing their fifty rotations that they actually lean at a 45 degree angle to the ground. It's really not natural. And I do have to admit that I find it entertaining in a twisted, voyeuristic way.

I like to scream and yell for my home team until I'm hoarse, and I'm hoarse often because my home team is a winning team. However, the one thing that truly keeps me going back to "The Fish Tank" is the display of athletic spirit and competition. I'm becoming familiar with the players, their names, and their styles. My favorites are Roshunda Taylor; I think she's the left fielder (at least it's my left), and she is a fierce athlete. Then there's Stephanie Fleishaker at first base and Frankie Garcia at third. And most of all, I really derive pleasure from watching Debbie Doom, one of the Wahoos' fantastic pitchers, strike out batter after batter.

Right in our own community, our own neighborhood, there is the Orlando Wahoos, a winning sports team, with a record that speaks for itself. The Orlando Wahoos do their abusing on the field by holding the first half championship and earning a spot in the league championship series. And I'll be at as many home games as I can to support my team as we step into the twenty-first century.

Kristie Branham
Kristie Branham is an English MA who specializes in feminist theory and literature. She currently works as an administrator in the UCF English department, and she will be pursuing her Ph.D. in literary studies at University of Kentucky.