2011 KC Peppers Gold......26th year for Dan Eakin's team....

(after much thought, there are now (6) KC Peppers teams, out of Olathe,KS) ...10U Mike Vaupel,12U Greg Clinton,14U David Vickers,16U Dan Jones and 18A Mark Ingle)....Each Pepper coach has had a daughter play for the KC Peppers GOLD, so have experienced the "experience" of striving to be the best. I am proud they want to be "a Pepper", too.....

NEWS!!!!! Added a 7th Peppers team...8U Team coached by TWO of my daughters, Lynne Sheffield (Olathe Express) and Kelly Warren (one of the original Peppers in 1986/8 yr Pepper) coaching Dan Eakin's granddaughters Macie & Jadyn 

With (5) returning Peppers, the tyouts for the 2011 team started between the Gold and Premier Nationals, in August, where (6) girls were added for 2011 team. There could be more added to our roster by Thanksgiving..... They are:

Jacinda Ramos  PITCHER     Senior Olathe NW    Committed to UMKC 

Kristi Lee          SS/3B        Senior Olathe NW    Committed to UMKC

Amanda Vaupel  OF              Senior Olathe North

Kelsey Kessler   Pitcher        Junior Blue Springs   Committed to Kansas U

Alex Hugo        3B,C,OF       Junior Olathe South  Committed to Kansas U

Bria Taylor       OF              Senior Blue Springs   Committed to Maryland U

Sami Olson       1B,OF,C       Junior Olathe East

Campbell Ditto  OF,C           Home School

Bethany Sullinger 3B,SS,2B Junior Park Hill H.S.

Micalla(K.K) Rettinger  OF  Junior  Park Hill H.S

Jenni Brooks      Pitcher,1B Sophmore Olathe East

Greer Hartman   2B, 3B      Sophmore Olathe East

Kristin Lock         OF, 2B,SS Junior  St James Academy  

Stats from Summer of 2010: 

The 2010 summer team had a strong 2009 Fall season where our players came together as a team. Winning 4 of 5 @ Emporia State  and St Louis, 4 of 5 in Dallas,Tx and playing in the championship game in Wichita,KS......Good things lie ahead.......but first the bad news as ASA,... in their late Nov. meeting ruled that college players could not play 18U GOLD (although they could play18A???????)....therefore we lost (4) good players. Brooke Thomason, Megan Lamberth, Lauren Sharp, and Lauren Eisenrich....now we were down to (11) players....... In mid December we picked up pitcher Haley Pypes, who was headed for the U.S Military Academy, in late June 2010. Haley was a good addition to the team. She was introduced to our team "at the Xmas party" !!!!!!!

The Peppers season started for real @ the Memorial Day tourney, in Olathe where we finished 3rd.....the next 4 w/ends the Peppers won tournaments, whereever they played....including the GOLD qualifier in St Louis, and qualified for the GOLD Nationals (again) in Atlanta......our next big tournament was Boulder,CO where we finished (5th) out of 84 teams....outstanding pitching and hitting in that tourney....came back to KC , won another tourney and headed to the "HOT" Gold Nationals in Atlanta where we lost 2-1,1-0,2-1 and won 5-0.....just didn't get the hits when we needed them....pitched very well though......then.......

we were home (1) day in KC and flew to L.A. for the new "Premier" Gold Nationals, held in Huntington Beach,CA....great experience, many players had never flown before; This was the 1st yr for the Premier Gold Nationals.....68 teams took part in the one week tourney. Playing in Huntington Beach was great along with the 68 degrees temp, all week. Great opening ceremonies on the beach after the parade of players down Surf City Blvd.....We went 3-3 in Calif, losing our final game 1-0 (again)....Great experience for all

Special Kudo's to a few players for their offense....Rachel Milnark (3rd yr player) finished @ .455%   going 66 for 125 and so many "key" hits...Jacinda "Tex" Ramos ended @ .399% and Alex Hogo @ .360, Laura Vickers(4 yr player)... @ .349.....also Liz Buck, Kristi Lee, Evan Folks and Amy Pierce all finished around .300....Pitchers Jacinda Ramos1.45 ERA ....and ....Kelsey Kessler @1.10 ERA did a great job in the circle.....All in all a terrific year and a true "GOLD" experience 

 Welcome to the 2009/2010 KC Peppers website. This is the 24rd year for the Peppers, managed by Dan Eakin. Jim Kessler returns and will replace Paul Chomicki , whose work would not allow him the time.. We will play GOLD, where we have qualified 7 of the past 8 years.

Returning from our 2009 team are:.
Laura Vickers, a Senior at Olathe East, verbally committed to KU.
Rachel Milnark, a Senior at Lansing, verbally committed to Wichita State
Evan Folks, Senior at Eudora, verbally committed to Iowa State
Heather Dace , Senior at Olathe East, uncommitted
Kelsey Kessler Sophmore and Blue Springs, uncommitted                                

New to the Peppers are:                                                                                          Jacinda (Tex) Ramos, Junior at Olathe Northwest, uncommitted                  
Kristi Lee, Junior at Olathe Northwest, uncommitted
Liz Buck, Senior, verbally committed to Drake University
Alex Hugo, Sophmore at Olathe South, uncommitted
Amy Pierce, Senior, verbally committed to Drake University
Amanda Vaupel, Junior at Olathe North, uncommitted                                     2009 Season...in REVIEW..........                                                                            Our season started in St Louis Exposure tourney, in October. Pitchers Kelsey Kessler (Freshman , pitched Blue Springs HS to big class state title) and Meghan Lamberth, from Laffayette HS in St Louis,(who pitched them to the big class state title in 2007) joined Sara Espy and Mariah Glasscock as our pitchers.We played well and continued to play indoors thru Feb, 2009. Here Sara Espy tears her ACL in gym class and Mariah has foot surgery, so we are @ TWO pitchers for Memorial Day. Kansas State tourney and Missouri HS graduations, weakened our M Day squad andled to an early exit.  We followed that up by winning two tournaments before Gold NQ in Blue Spgs.After winning 3 straight, playing well and leading the New Jersey Intensity 6-4 to the bottom of the 7th, where they scored 3 runs , and led to many more heartbreaking finishes in the 2009 season. We lost 2 more bottom of 7th inning games in Gold NQ's in Bloominton,IN and OKC. Sprinkle those with some tough games in Boulder.....winning and losing....and not coming up with the "big hit". We finnished the season @ the St Louis regional winning 2-1,2-1,lose 3-0 win 4-2, 7=4 and losing the Reg. Champsp to the Chaos 9-1. The Peppers missed the Gold Nationals for the 2nd time in (8) years.  With Sara Espy out with ACL. Marissa Ingle w/torn rotator cuff and losing another key player, we were hard pressed to compete as we usually do. Evan Folks led the Peppers in hitting .385, Brooke Thomason @.375, "Jeter" Daigh @ .315, Heather Dace @ .310 and Jessica Brooks @ .280........BUT we couldn't get the hit we needed and the stop we needed on defense. Meghan Lamberth pitched more and more, when Kelsey Kessler went down with a knee problem, which flared up during the season . Meghan did a very good job, carrying the added load......                                         2010 Season......There will be (7) Peppers returning for 2010 and we have added (8) more,Lauren Sharp/P to Emporia State. Lauren Eisenrich/OF to MO State, both played w/Originals Gold, Amy Pierce and Liz Buck from the Wahoos and heading to Drake U. Juniors Kristi Lee /utility and Jucinda (Tex) Ramos/P/OF, also from the Wahoos and Amanda Vaupel OF/1B from the Diamond Devils, and Sophmore Alex Hugo C/Utility,from the Flash.....these players bring experience, speed and versitiity to us.                                      

 2008-2009 Alumni News  This College season ended with many  ex-Peppers doing well. Teddi Ewing captianed her U of Michigan team to the college Word Series. Also @ the WS was U of Missouri, led by All-Big 12 and 2nd team All American Marla Swiesberger, and Jady Young. Val Chapple @ Kansas U, Carleigh Berry @ Iowa State,Errane Daugherty  and Jeter Daigh(MO Valley Freshman of the yr) @ N. Iowa. Abby Hughes @ Emporia State,Alex hupp @ Nebraska and Megan Ussary, back @ UMKC and Molly Garst @ Purdue......many of these players contributed to their teams success. Brooke Thomason/Nebraska and Meghan Lamberth/Northwestern(joining ex=Peppers Lauren Delaney and Emily Haug, as Wildcats)