On Friday, FloSoftball revealed its Top 10 team in the 16U age division and the No. 1 team heading into 2016 is Jay Roberson's Birmingham Bolts '99 team.

It wasn't hard to see why: the Bolts have talent to spare with 10 SEC commits (five to Mississippi State, three to Auburn and one each to Alabama and Ole Miss), a Big 12 verbal  (Texas) and one to the ACC (North Carolina State).

Unlike some high-finishing PGF Nationals teams like the Tampa Mustangs--which won it all--and the Ohana Tigers who moved up to 18U, the Bolts can, and will, stay at the 16U level after finishing tied for third.

Both losses in the Nationals came to the eventual champion Tampa Mustangs and they were only by one run each and both went ITB.

With such great talent--and great expectations--coming back for the Alabama-based team, Coach Roberson says the coaches and players welcome the challenge.

"We are very honored to be ranked No. 1 in the FloSoftball 16U rankings," he told us today. "We also realize that being ranked No. 1 at the end of the summer is the true goal.  We're very happy for the girls to receive this preseason honor as they work tremendously hard year-round and deserve any kudos they receive."

And what about the spotlight that being called the top preseason puts on you?

"Being ranked No. 1 does put a target on our back this summer," Roberson concedes, "but that's not anything new for us.   We are most teams Super Bowl no matter if it's a meaningless friendly game, exposure game, or the semi finals at Nationals.  It's been that way for years and we love it."

There are three areas where the Bolts dominate--power, pitching and speed; here's a closer look at each area with quotes from Coach Roberson:
 
POWER

One of the top power-hitting teams since the Bolts played together at 12U, the team can beat you with their bats as three returning players have the pop to put up runs quickly:

--- 1B/3B O'Neil Roberson (2017, Mississippi State)
"O'Neil finished 2nd in HRs at PGF last year out of over 1,000 kids."

--- SS Mary Kathryn Tedder (2017, Texas)
"Mary Kathryn hit 9 HRs this fall in only five tournaments."

--- P/OF Alex Wilcox (2017, Mississippi State)
"Alex is one of the top power hitters in the country."

Roberson adds that P/OF Kayla Boseman (2018, Mississippi State), OF Jenna Olszewski (2017, Auburn), 3B/UT Timberlyn Shurbutt (2017, North Carolina State) are dangerous deep-threats as well with C/1B Abbey Latham (2017, Ole Miss), a 6-foot power-hitting catcher expected to make the offensive onslaught even stronger.

PITCHING

The Bolts have three pitchers who are all ace material:

--- P/OF Kayla Boseman (2018, Mississippi State)
"Kayla pitched us to the 3rd Place finish having to pitch 90 percent of the innings due to injuries."

--- P/OF Alex Wilcox (2017, Mississippi State)
"Alex returns from injury and will be key to our success."

--- P Grace Fagan (2018, Mississippi State)
"Grace is a dominating 6-foot-1 lefty pitcher from New Jersey who was lights out this fall and will be much bigger and stronger next summer."

SPEED

Power is the key to the offensive success, but two standouts are spark-plugs who set the RBI table:

--- OF Kendall Sides (2017, Alabama)
"Kendall is the best 2017 leadoff hitter in the country in my opinion."  

--- OF/2B Mekhi Mayfield (2017, Samford)
"Mekhi is an outfielder with blistering 2.6 speed home to first."

Roberson says of both, "We are a power-hitting team and each has elite Olympic type speed. They were both injured last summer at PGF so that will be an added bonus for us this year."

As for the team's philosophy and how the Bolts have become one of the top 16U teams in the country, the coach adds, "We have been successful over the past eight and a half years because we don't put winning every single game as a priority."

Roberson says he established three key priorities with the group when the team was first established:

1. RECRUITING
"Getting kids recruited was always our No. 1 goal.  We always placed this over winning games.  As our kids entered recruiting age we would not play unless coaches were present.  We placed the kids taking unofficial visits as a higher priority than playing meaningless tournaments."

2. PGF NATIONALS
"Our No. 2 goal has been to win PGF.  Its the only tournament we play all year that winning games matter.  Everything else we do the remainder of the year is just preparing for that one week in Huntington Beach.  We were close in 12U, 14U, and last summer as a first year 16.   This should be our summer if we can dodge the injury bug."

3. TRAINING
"Training and practice is more important than playing tournaments to us.   You get better at practice, not in games.  This has led to us playing way less tournaments than most."

But 2016 will be a special one for Roberson whether the team wins or loses as it will be the last time he steps on the field as the players' head coach.

"It's going to be a very emotional summer for me," he admits. "This will be my last summer with them as they will move on to Richard Shea and our 18U Premier team at the end of the summer.   Needless to say, there won't be a dry eye when the final out is made in California this year."

"I've had this team since our first 8U game in March of 2008.  I have grown close with these kids and I love them all like they are my own.   I've never gotten excited about winning games because the girls did that, not me.   However, when I see them succeeding at their college programs and succeeding in life, I will know that some part of that success came from the lessons they've learned playing for the Birmingham Thunderbolts 99."

"You get what you work for, and we have the players work on being a good teammate and being thankful for how blessed they are to play this game on a national level.   And I've sure been blessed to be a part of what they've done and will continue to do."