SOFTBALL NOTEBOOK: VICTORY A MILESTONE FOR PARACLETE COACH.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer Looking back on it, Margarett Neill Neill is a surname, and may refer to
1. Contraction of she is: She's going away for the weekend. 2. Contraction of she has: She's been to the symphony twice this month. received from winning her 500th game on Friday Friday: see Sabbath; week. Friday young Indian rescued by Crusoe and kept as servant and companion. [Br. Lit.: Robinson Crusoe] See : Servant . ``I probably wouldn't would·n't Contraction of would not. wouldn't would not wouldn't would have even realized unless I got that questionnaire asking for my career record,'' said Neill, who is in her 26th season at Paraclete. ``When I first started coaching, I thought I'd better write down all of our season records for the history of the program. But I never really went through and thought about how many wins I had until I got that questionnaire in the preseason and realized I had 492 wins.'' Neill told her assistant coach Norm Dahlia dahlia (däl`yə, dăl`–) [for Anders Dahl, 1751–89, Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus], any plant of the genus Dahlia about it, but tried to get him to keep quiet. ``He pretty much told everyone, though,'' she said. Unfortunately, eight wins took a while to get. Paraclete lost its first four games, then won four of its next six to give Neill 496 career victories. It took almost three weeks to get 497. ``I didn't know this until now, but apparently, some of the kids were even feeling some pressure to win games for me,'' Neill said. ``I'm glad we were able to get there though because all of the kids can feel a part of it. ``The only way you get to 500 wins is if you're at one place a really long time and you get good players, I've had a lot of great players here at Paraclete. So it's theirs as much as mine.'' After Neill's 500th victory, a 7-1 victory Friday over Brentwood, Paraclete hosted a party for her on the field. In her 26 years, Neill has averaged more than 19 victories a season. She's been to the Southern Section finals seven times, most recently in 2001. Under Neill, Paraclete won 25 league championships in a row from 1977-2002. Paraclete principal John Anson wasn't as modest as Neill. ``I knew Margarett wasn't going to tell anyone about it,'' he said. ``She's too humble Humble may refer to:
Ramona Shelburne, (818) 713-3617 ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com |
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