NEWPORT-This is one very special group of ladies who still have a love for the game of softball.

Three of those ladies are from Newport, including Diana Grooms, Ruby James and Betty Loveday.

The team they play for is called the Smoky Mountain Stars, and what makes them unique is that these ladies are not just moms, many are grandmothers. So, in addition to their duties as moms and grandmothers, they pack up their gloves and bats and travel across the country to play in softball tournaments for seniors, age 60 and over.

"We play about four tournaments a year," said Diana Grooms. "We just love playing softball and we'll go for as long as we can."

In addition to Grooms, James and Loveday from Newport, Grooms says the team consists of two ladies from Charleston, South Carolina, four ladies from Chattanooga, one lady from Harriman and one from Kingsport.

The team just returned from a successful trip to Salem, Virginia where they took first-place honors in the Virginia State Seniors' Tournament, and added more medals to their growing collection of hardware. Winning tournaments is nothing new to these ladies. Not to many years ago, the same group, playing in the 55-and-over age group, won the Tennessee Senior Olympics championship.

But with all of their success, there is one tournament that they have not played in.

"Your softball life is not complete until you make the trip to Utah," said Grooms.

The Stars are making plans now to compete in the country's most prestigious tournament, The Huntsman Senior Games, which will be held in St. George, Utah in October. More than 60 teams, ages 55 to 70, will be battling it out on the softball diamond hoping to be crowned champions.

To help them make the trip, as is the case in all of the tournaments they play in, the Stars will be out in the community to raise funds.

"We've had so much support from our families and friends," said Grooms. "These tournaments can get expensive. The entry fee at the Virginia tournament we just played in was $525. So we've needed some help, and we've been blessed. State Farm Insurance, Wal-Mart, Food City East, The National Bank of Tennessee and so many others have made it possible for us to continue to play softball. But, every penny we raise never goes to the players, it goes into a fund for our entry fees."

The Stars will begin with a hot dog sale at Wal-Mart on August 28, and will follow that up with a road block at the intersection of Cosby Highway and Broadway in front of Walgreens.