49er
shortstop to play in Summer Olympics
Matt
Brown/Sports Information
49er
softball player Jamie Farnworth will have
the honor of playing for the Greek National
Team this summer in the Athens Olympics.
By
Sarah Jo Arellano
On-line Forty-Niner
This
summer, while millions of viewers across
the world stay glued to their television
sets to watch the 2004 Olympic Summer Games,
cheering on Olympians to take home the gold,
Jamie Farnworth will be competing for it.
In
June, Farnworth, senior shortstop for Long
Beach State's softball team will head to
Athens, Greece to join the other 21 members
of the Greek National Team.
Born
in Upland California, Jamie has played softball
for eight years. During her four- year career
at Upland High School, she played shortstop,
leading her team to the CIF championships
in the 1997 season.
On
the diamond for The Beach, Farnworth has
fashioned a respectable career. After taking
on a starting position in the 2001, replacing
injured Jennifer Spigner, Jamie scored 10
runs for The Beach batting .230 in 122 at
bats. In the following season, batting .253,
42 hits, and 21 RBIs in 166 at bats. Her
junior year, Jamie was recognized Big West
Conference Honorable Mention batting .220.
During the same 2003 season she had a total
of 73 put outs, 115 assists and only eight
errors.
This
season as the 49ers jump off to a 7-3 record,
Farnworth has already tallied three homeruns
and is playing aggressively on the field,
proving she is worthy to be an Olympian.
Farnworth
was selected to be apart of the Greek Olympic
team after participating in tryouts in Plant
City, Fla. in August of 2002. She was one
of the 12 players, with Greek heritage,
who were chosen from the United States.
Two players included her sister Sarah Farnworth,
pitcher, and Stacey Farnworth, catcher.
"I
am very excited about going to Greece, but
I'm not too sure what all to expect,"
Jamie said about her emotions about being
an Olympian.
Farnworth
and the other players will be under the
endowed coaching of Linda Wells who has
coached the Arizona State Sun Devils for
the past 13 years. Wells was chosen by the
International Softball Federation in 2002.
"Jamie is a capable athlete with smooth
skills and lots of upside potential,"
said Wells.
Wells
and the other members of the International
Softball Federation have worked tenaciously
over the past couple of years in hope to
create a competitive squad.
Because
softball has not been played in Athens before
1999, the ISF decided to form a team of
Greek natives and to recruit only the best
players from the United States, Farnworth
meeting the criteria. "It's going to
be a great experience for me," Farnworth
said. "It is definitely going to be
an experience of a lifetime."
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