The Combatants Story!
The Combatants – How it all started
The Combatants were born on the softballfans message board for the purpose of having a group with an appreciation of combat's products. This would be similar to fan groups of other manufacturers. The criteria to be a Combatant remains simple: to own at least one combat bat and not be a member of any other bat manufacturers group. We started small with only a few dozen members but since then our ranks have swelled into the hundreds.
The original Combatant, Leo Ingle, never imagined what the group would evolve into as we have become one large family both online and off. This group is closely intertwined with the manufacturer we represent (even had our own bat!!) more than any other group in the softball industry.
by Gary Klein aka "Hebrew Hacker"
So flash forward from 2007 to 2010. Don Cooper "Coop" decided he is going to include the Combatants in his yearly Seattle Dual Major tourney. He had a drawing online on softballfans, to determine who was going to represent the Combatants group. The drawing was done and plans were made. A few local guys and then more from around the country were assembled to meet up at "the warehouse" a few days before the major tourney. Coop really took care of the team, really actually more like spoiled us. Little did we know it would turn into an annual thing. So with "CD" (Christan Dowling) as our cheerleader, we fearlessly took to the field to face off against Coop's team. See attached video links. We ended up going 0-4, but you would've never known it, because we were all so thankful for the experience.
The second year there were 2 Combatants teams, who ended up playing each other. Then a team in 2012 and again in 2013. All with the help of Coop and wonderful employees (Frankie, George and Mike) as well as other sponsors including M2 custom gloves (Matt Sanders).
When asked for input from members of all the different years teams, three big things stood out:
1. How thankful we all are for the experience that Coop and Combat have provided us, which we may never have gotten to experience otherwise.
2. The lifelong friendship and camaraderie developed through this gathering of people who all love the game.
3. The memories made that won't ever be forgotten (most of them are probably inappropriate to share here!!! 🙂 )
We are again looking forward to the dual major this year, in the hopes that this will be the year we beat a conference team 🙂
Really I just wanted this to be a big shout out and thank you to Coop and Combat for all the stuff they've done for us "little guys" over the years. Pretty crazy to think this will be the 5th year of a combatant team in the major tourney!
by B.J. "BEEJ" Halstead #13
OG Combatants
2013 Combatants
2012 Combatants
2011 Combatants
Very cool story. Thanks for sharing. Proves that there are some great people (sponsors, employees, players, etc.) in the game promoting the positives that it has to offer. Friendship, camaraderie, and memories… That’s the stuff you’ll value when you look back on the time spent invested in the game.
This sounds like a great experience. Where can you get info on this? Would love to find out how i can be a part of this.