Air Force women take Armed Forces softball title

  • Published
  • By Jose T. Garza III
  • Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland Public Affairs
The All-Air Force Women's Softball team defeated the Marine Corps, 9-4, to capture its first Armed Forces Women's Softball Championship since 2011 at Fort Sill, Okla., Sept. 18, the same day the Air Force observed its 67th birthday.

The team, coached by Salomon Vieyra, an Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency functional manager at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, posted an 8-1 record throughout the weeklong tournament to earn the gold medal.

The team's lone blemish was an 8-2 loss to tournament runner-up Army which finished 6-3.

The champions scored an average of 7.3 runs per game while allowing 4.1 runs a contest against their sister services.

Vieyra said it was an "amazing" feeling to lead his 15 players to a gold medal as a first year head coach.

"I am proud, extremely proud, of each and every one of my players," said Vieyra, who served as an assistant coach in 2012.

Nine rookies and six returning players comprised this year's All-Air Force Women's Softball Team.

First year player Lyndsay Moen, a 59th Medical Wing nutritionist with the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center at JBSA-Lackland, was the lone Texas representative.

"It was awesome how nine rookies and six veterans came together," Moen said. "I knew from day one that we had tremendous talent on the team. Everybody just clicked on the field, offensively and defensively."

Moen credits Vieyra, who she has played for on the JBSA-Lackland Warhawks women's varsity softball team, for setting the tone from day one of training camp at JBSA-Randolph.

"He said from the beginning if there was any drama from any of the girls on the team he would send them home," Moen recalled. "That says a lot about how he coaches and leads."

Vieyra gives all the credit to his players for their success.

"The team is not about me," he said. "I coach for the players, the team and most importantly, the Air Force softball program. I was fortunate to have two outstanding veterans (Schameka White and Joyce Wells - both from Kadena Air Base, Japan) who helped our team build chemistry needed for us to be successful. Their leadership was key to accomplishing our goal."

Coaching the All-Air Force Women's Softball squad to its first gold medal in three years ranks No. 1 on Vieyra's list of accomplishments during his 23 years of active duty service and 16-year coaching career.

"I've won softball championships at the military and civilian levels," he said. "But, winning this gold medal is by far the best accomplishment to date."