Long Beach State University Athletics
Flowers Has Olympic Hopes
9/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
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Flowers Following Olympic Dream LONG BEACH - During the softball season last spring, Long Beach State assistant Tairia Flowers spent a lot of time instructing coach Kim Sowder's 49ers on the finer points of slapping a softball all over a field. Then the former UCLA All-American and member of the U.S.'s 2004 gold medal-winning Olympic team spent July demonstrating those points for the Team USA squad during international tournaments in Surrey, British Columbia, and Oklahoma City, before a hamstring injury limited her to just one game as the squad won gold during the Pan American Games later that month in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. And Flowers is in Chula Vista this week, along with 31 other players, for the Women's National Team Olympic Selection Camp, attempting to earn a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic squad that will try to bring back gold from Beijing a year from now. And if she attacks the U.S. pitchers this week anywhere near in the same fashion she did U.S. opponents in July, she's going to continue picking up a lot to frequent flyer points over the next year, while the 49ers aren't going to have their hitting coach on their bench this season. "Yeah ... I'd be surprised if she didn't make the (Olympic) team," Sowder said Tuesday morning. "But I knew this was inevitably going to be a possibility (when Sowder hired Flowers more than a year ago)." Flowers, who met her husband, LBSU women's assistant basketball coach Jason Flowers, when both were student-athletes at UCLA, celebrated her fourth wedding anniversary on Aug. 23. The other candidates will work out in San Diego through Friday in front of the national team coach (Mike Candrea of Arizona) and his staff, and the national team advisory committee. "We'll probably find out Monday in a mass e-mail (which 18 players made the initial cut; only 15 will ultimately be on the Olympic roster)," Flowers said late Monday morning from her home in Anaheim, packing before making the southward-bound trek on the San Diego Freeway. No matter the e-mail verdict she receives, she'll be on the 49er Softball Field Monday, as the team begins individual fall workouts. "I'll be back at work, doing as much as I can with the players," she said. "But, hopefully, if all goes well ... " If "all goes well" for Flowers - and based on her six home runs and 22 RBI during the tournaments in British Columbia, where she was selected the MVP of the Canadian Cup, and Oklahoma City, it would be a significant upset if it doesn't - it will pretty much be all-USA softball, all-the-time, for Flowers and the other 2008 Olympians come January. And the 49ers begin their 2008 season on Feb. 19 when they play in a tournament at the University of San Diego. "She'll work with the girls as long as she can," Sowder said. As for how much `coaching' Flowers can do after January, "once we look at the schedules, we'll have to see," Sowder added. Last season, the 49ers increased their team batting average from .234 to .260, and scored 38 more runs in the same number of games than they did in 2006. And Sowder knows a big reason why. "She is very passionate about playing and coaching," Sowder said of Flowers. "She spent so much time with our players teaching them what it takes to be good hitters. And she is very humble and honest person, and such a great role model. She has a real future in coaching, and I hope we can keep her (on the LBSU staff) as long as we can." Her husband knows better than anyone how hard Flowers has worked going into this week. "I don't know a hill of beans about hitting a softball," said Jason Flowers - a reserve guard at UCLA under Steve Lavin and member of Mary Hegarty's LBSU staff since 2004. "But it's not like there are any secrets (as to why she hit so well in July). She has put the time and hard work into it, and now it's paying off." Tairia Flowers isn't sure how much her work as a coach has helped her as a hitter. It's cleared up one thing, though. "Now I know why our coaches always got so frustrated with us (as players)," she said, laughing. "There is so much about the game that you don't think about when you're player. But Kim is awesome to work for her, and the (Long Beach) girls are great to coach." Sowder said all of the players Long Beach is recruiting are aware of Flowers' playing status. Most of the games in Oklahoma City were televised by the ESPN network. And Flowers knew who was watching after a couple of those home runs. "I'd get some texts (from potential recruits) after the games, saying `I saw you on TV, coach!" she said. If all goes according to plans, it's a pattern that will continue in Beijing a year from now. And that would be fine by Flowers and Sowder - even if she is minus a coach for most of the coming season. |
