A Top 75 ranking for Ohio Storm 2K11 came as a surprise to head coach Scott Veno. The newly-formed team had just two practices before commencing with a challenging fall schedule.
“I was surprised at the team’s ability to come together and play for each other so quickly – pretty much right away,” said Veno, who also coaches the Ohio Storm 07 and has a daughter on both teams.
It was Liv Veno’s wish for her father to take the field with her that eventually led to Scott putting together another Storm team that filled a need within the organization that now fields 13 teams across multiple age groups.
No surprise great success was not found initially for Storm 2K11 that currently has 10 rostered players from Ohio and Pennsylvania and calls North Canton, Ohio, its home base. What Veno saw was a team consistently improving with great family support on the sidelines.
“We put the team together and had two practices in August,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of time together to start. We just continued to tell the girls let’s go out and play ball and play for each other. It gave us a chance to learn the girls.
“With all that said, we were never not competing. You could see them getting better each tournament. All the families could see it. They knew it and we were happy with that.”
The reward was a Top 75 ranking from Extra Inning Softball in the nine-state Midwest Region.
“They were shocked,” said Veno of his team when they learned the news. “They didn’t know the ranking was such a thing. Seeing we had broken into the top 75 is a complete credit to those young girls. All I could tell them was you should feel good about it. It shows them we are doing things the right way.”
