Fall 2012 All-Peninsula 1st Team

Now the moment you've all been waiting for all week. I present to you the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the bees knees, the elite... The top 11 players out of 305, as voted by their peers. The Fall 2012 All-Peninsula First Team!

The Situation's Scott Duncan achieved a unique achievement that is unlikely to be topped. Duncan has played 3 seasons of WAKA VA Peninsula kickball. In his rookie season last fall with JFK, he earned AP 1st Team honors at the 'Utility' position. In his 2nd season with Shake N Bake, he earned top team honors at charger. Now in his 3rd season, playing with The Situation, Duncan has earned to top spot at the first base position. 3 seasons. 3 separate positions. 3 All-Peninsula 1st Team nods. Of course it's not hard to see why he's been able to. The ultra athletic and ultra versatile Duncan is a natural kickballer. Blessed with an elite leg from years of playing soccer, Scott is always a threat to bomb one deep.

write up by Allen Walker, 5OC

Courtney Efird is not just an All Peninsula Partier, she is one of the best fielders in the league, male or female. When needed she can play anywhere in the outfield or cover any base. On offense, she can handle herself in any type of kicking situation and is an excellent base runner. She is anything but any easy out.

This guy. Ridiculous power on the mound mixed with nasty and unpredictable break and bounce before the plate. Blake Kalaikai made an immediate impact and turned heads this season. If we kept stats for foul outs, I'd be willing to bet that Blake would have lead the league this fall (I probably would have been in 28th). "The MAN on the mound. Our Hawaiian hero," Situation captain Lasalle Blanks raved, "There's a video online called 'Bionic Blake' for a reason." And while Blake is without a doubt one of the best kickball pitchers in the entire world (maybe even the universe), he's also a dangerous man at the plate. Just ask Foot Sniper's right fielder Bryan Moore. In week 1, his 3 run bomb sailed over his head and broke the game open for the Sitch, in their 6-1 victory.

LITLE UP! A perennial member of the All-Peninsula 1st Team, Katie Litle, is both respected and feared. She's a great leader on and off the field and a dangerous threat at the plate. In addition to possessing accurate bunting skills, Litle has honed her kicking away technique in 2012. Many times throughout this fall, she burned defenses by punching hard line drives into gaps. Just ask her boyfriend Matt Wellbrock. She ripped one of his pitches for a clean base hit RKI in Burning Bridges 8-0 win over Rumspringa.

Not only did JFK's Jill Simms make her 2nd appearance on the 1st Team, and it's very well deserved. "She can do it all," the unbiased teammate and husband Daniel Shaw said, "This athletic beauty has the defensive skills to play anywhere. A vocal leader on the sideline, she also comes up big bunting or kicking away when needed."

There are not many kickballers in the league, if any, that can match the arm strength of Dom Smith. Dude has seriously got a cannon. "His quickness and strong arm helped us [JFK] keep baserunners to a minimum," Daniel Shaw said in a recent interview, "He's not just all athleticism. His situation awareness helped prevent the few base runners who would get on from scoring." That's not an exaggeration either. Just For Kicks set the all-time record for defense, allowing only 0.73 runs per game. Seeing Dom in action, it's not hard to see how they did it.

Speaking of record breaking defenses, you can't leave out Eric "The Pirate" Stevens. With the aforementioned Dom Smith at charger and Eric at catcher, bunting on JFK was damn near impossible. Stevens is among the quickest catchers in the league with an amazingly strong and accurate arm. "He has enough of a motor to power an entire infield," Shaw said, "Combine that with his years of experience, and you'll see how the position should be played."

The Burning Bridges' certainly boasted some of the most talented ladies in the league. Joining teammate Katie Litle on the 1st team is Jen Tull. A former college soccer player, Tull, is a deadly assassin at the plate. Able to kick at any spot in the lineup, Tull can slap a perfect bunt down the line or rock a laser into the outfield. She's damn near unstoppable, which is why she's part of the All-Peninsula 1st Team.

write up by Lasalle Blanks, The Situation
Many of you know Josh for being the fun-loving partier, and good time guy that he is. But Josh is also the teammate who will do anything to improve himself and the team. He'll drive from the Peninsula to the Southside and back to make a practice. He'll listen to advice, take advice, and make himself a better player. This kid has grown leaps and bounds this year and is very deserving of this great honor. Josh is an all-star on and off the field, brah. Now if this all-star honor comes with some sort of trophy, I know the first thing Josh will be trying to figure out is, 'Can you pour a beer in this thing?' (Editors Note: No trophy. Sorry Josh)

Jimmy Wilcox had a tough upbringing. After his parents' untimely passing when he was a baby, he was raised by his mean aunt and uncle and forced to sleep in a closet underneath their stairs. Despite the challenges growing up, he developed into a magical kickball player as an adult. An outstanding and versatile player, Jimmy earned AP honors for playing pitcher, charger, and first base for the Snipeys throughout the season, and doing a fantastic job at each position. Not only was he multi-faceted on defense, but his wide skillset extended to the offensive side as well. How many players could be asked to lead off for their team one week and then asked to kick clean up the next?

The Foot Snipers' McCoy Wood is new to VA Peninsula, but he's one of the all-time legends of kickball. In fact, in 2011, he was voted the 'National Player of the Year' by the kickball365.com community. The very experienced Wood always seems to be in the right position in the outfield, picking up on player tendencies and often times baiting them to kick it to a spot. Once a ball is secured, he limits extra bases by unleashing jaw dropping strikes from center to the plate. On offense, Wood is one of the premier run producers by consistently dropping line drives into the gaps of the D. All in all, it's hard to imagine a better all around kickball player than McCoy.

In case you missed it:
Fall 2012 All-Peninsula 2nd Team
Fall 2012 All-Peninsula 3rd Team