OHIO STINGRAYS HISTORY
The Ohio Stingrays organization was founded in 1984 by Bill Fish and Norm Chambers. After years of competing solely as an 18U Gold Team, Tim Kazmier and Tunney King expanded the organization to include elite level teams at all age groups. Tim Kazmier retired from the Stingrays in 2005 and moved to Kentucky where he had a Stingray team there for one year. Tunney King then bec
ame the director of the organization and the tournament and stayed until he retired from softball after the 2007 tournament. Duties were then split up with Mike Marcum and Pat Toler becoming co-directors for the day-to-day management of the organization and Rudy Zych being responsible for the management of the tournament. With Pat's subsequent softball retirement after the 2009 tournament, Mike became President of the Ohio Stingrays organization. Since the organization's founding 27 years ago, the Ohio Stingrays have been based on the principle that doing things the right way leads to incredible results both on and off the field. The coaching staff practices high-positive coaching techniques while expecting maximum effort at all softball related activities. Academic committment is expected of all our young athletes along with family based support for community involvement. The Stingrays Tournament was started in 2001 at the Pickerington Central Softball Complex with Mark Tamanini being the driving froce behind it after being inspired by the family-style effort he saw and experienced at a Top Guns tournament in Ashtabula the previous summer. After two successful years at Pickerington Central, which led to the need for more fields, the tournament moved to OSU's Fred Beekman Park in 2003 with Mark's son Matt, who was a student there at the time, helping with the efforts to secure the fields. Once the tournament moved to OSU, Mark and his wife Annie tied the tournament into supporting the Stefanie Spielman Fund because they wanted to use sports as a means of supporting community service to show that there are more important things in life than simply trying to win a game. For the 2010 tournament, an NFCA administered recruiting camp was added on the front end with Mike Marcum serving as the driving force behind that effort with the NFCA. As well, the tournament expanded back out to it's roots at the Pickerington Central Softball Complex for the 14U age group so that more 16U and 18U teams could be added at Fred Beekman Park. Many thanks goes out to all of those early Stingray families who worked so hard to get the tournament up and running. Led by Mark Tamanini's vision along with Tim Kazmier's and Tunney King's support, Annie Tamanini's efforts at organizing the concessions, Matt Tamanini's work with the playing brackets, Rodney Gustine's effrots at organizing the Stingray families into an effective field maintenance force, Tim Housh's work on bold colored tournament shirts and Jeff Seeds' efforts at coming up with unique awards each year, the Stingray Tournament prides itself on attention to detail backed by a family-style work effort to provide the best possible playing experience for our guest teams. As well, we are proud to support community service with our contributions to the Stefanie Spielman Fund.
