(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 National Pro Fastpitch expands to six teams
Nederlands
 NASHVILLE, Tennessee (USA) -
The National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) recently announced that the professional women softball league will expand to six teams next season.
The new team will be the Scrap Yard Dawgs, who will play their home games in Conroe in The Woodlands, north of Houston, Texas.
The team will play its home games in Scrap Yard Dawgs Stadium at Scrap Yard Sports Complex, which is nationally renowned for hosting high school and college tournaments and other activities.
The coaching staff and the roster for the Dawgs will be announced in the coming months.
In next years competition, the Dawgs will join the five existing teams Akron Racers, Chicago Bandits, Dallas Charge, Pennsylvania Rebellion and USSSA Florida Pride.
This year, Dutch players Virginie Anneveld and Dagmar Bloeming made their professional debut, playing for Pennsylvania, which was coached by Craig Montvidas, the former successful Head Coach of the Netherlands National Women Softball Team.
The Scrap Yard Dawgs will become the first team to be based in the Houston-area since the Texas Thunder, who moved to Rockford (Illinois) in 2007 to become the Rockford Thunder.
It will be the second team next season located in the state of Texas, joining Dallas Charge, which made its debut in the NPF this year.
Kevin Shelton, who was the General Manager of the Dallas-team this year, now will have the same position with the Dawgs.
In their first year in the league, Dallas reached the Play-Offs.
The Houston-area features one of the largest and most active youth softball communities in the country.
NPF-Commissioner Cheri Kempf said: ,,We are extremely proud of this announcement.
Professional fastpitch continues to enjoy expansion.''
National Pro Fastpitch operates since 1997 after initially having been named Women's Pro Softball League.
The league was named NPF in 2002.
Since that year, NPF is the Official Development Partner of Major League Baseball for the continuation of the development and spreading of women's fastpitch softball.
The NPF is the only professional women's softball league in the USA.
(November 12)
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