Softball tourney honors Corning

The first time was all about managing the emotions.

Art Cronin had coached Courtney Corning on an AAU squad and he came to her parents, Jack and Ginny, with an idea to carry on her memory after the Peabody High softball standout died in a car crash in January 2007.

He wanted to invite all the best high school girls' softball teams from Boston's northern suburbs to play in a weekend tournament to remember Courtney and also to raise money so a girl with the same dreams could fulfill them.

"I knew the Cornings, and I wasn't sure how sensitive it was, it was so soon," he said, recalling last year's inaugural tournament. "But the more I spoke with the family they thought it was a terrific idea."

Once everything came together, the event was overwhelming.

In the opening ceremony, players from all four teams lined the field. The names of every player rang out of the speakers. The captains placed a bouquet of flowers on first base. Courtney's mother read an essay.

On the last day, when scholarship winners were announced, Ginny Courtney greeted them with a rose.

"It was pretty emotional," said Cronin, the tournament director. "You didn't know how much you could do without being too emotional because the kids were still pretty emotional too, but it actually worked out perfectly. To everybody who played in that tournament, that was a special weekend."

The second annual Courtney Marie Corning Softball tournament is scheduled for the weekend of May 24-25.

Cronin has invited Peabody, Ipswich, defending champion Beverly, and Bishop Fenwick to Beverly, where Endicott College offered to host the event for a second time.

"Last year was the first annual," Cronin said. "It was an unbelievable success overall. For us it's a wonderful way to remember Courtney's memory and at the same time - with the four teams we have - the softball is probably some of the best softball you'll see on the North Shore."

All proceeds from the tournament will go to the Courtney Marie Corning Memorial Fund and five scholarships will be given out to girls from each team.

"The overall emphasis is to provide college scholarships to high school seniors," he said.

"She wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

Not a lot of news is available on the open football varsity coaching position at Lynn Classical, but the wheels are turning. Classical athletic director Bill Devin has posted the job and it will remain open until May 23. Applications should be forwarded to Patricia Libby, with the Lynn public schools. After that date, Devin said he should be able to identify candidates to replace Matt Durgin, who led the Rams to an 8-2 record in his final season.

Jamie Enos, a South Hamilton native who attended Brooks School in North Andover, helped lead Colby's women's lacrosse team to one of its best seasons. She forced 24 turnovers and scooped 34 ground balls, improving her career totals to 42 turnovers and 83 ground balls and pushing her team to a 13-6 record, the NESCAC tournament title and a trip to NCAA Division 3 tournament. The squad won its first-round matchup with East Connecticut State before falling to fourth-ranked Hamilton College.

Lynnfield's Kelly Nugent finished her tennis career at Bentley by going 19-3 in singles and stringing together a 12-0 run through the Northeast-10 Conference. That has earned her a spot on the all-conference first team, and she was honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as the Division 2 East Region recipient of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship. Nugent has captained the Falcons the past two seasons, maintaining a 3.53 grade point average. She's the second Falcon to receive the award; Greg Maloomianwon the honor last year.

Haverhill native Meaghan Munroe made sure she left her mark with the Bentley College women's track program. The senior set the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Competing at the New England Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday at the University of New Hampshire, she turned in a time of 12:14.06, 10 seconds better than the school record she set the week before.

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.