The National Women’s Squad will join the training ranks of the Major League Academy on the Gold Coast this weekend, in a monumental first high performance Camp for Australian Women’s Baseball.
There was an awkward and unsettling silence sitting in shallow right field post-game at Telus Field, Canada, almost a year ago today. The National Women’s Team had spent two years working harder than they ever had before. But the result they had been looking for had passed them by in the blink of an eye. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you feel like you’ve done all you can to succeed, only to take home yet another fourth place – the fourth in a total of five World Cup appearances.
It’s been a long road to a National Camp for the women of Australian Baseball. Struggling early on to find their rightful place in the game, the girls have fought and continue to, to prove they belong. But through determination, continued support from Baseball Australia and the enthusiasm of a growing group of supporters of the program, women’s baseball continues to strengthen in this country.
For Head Coach Simone Wearne, who is also Australia’s youngest and only female Hall of Fame inductee, this women’s camp has been a long time coming:
“I’ve been around since the early days, when the first National Championships were held back in 1999, and the first Australian Team travelled to the first ever International Women’s competition in Canada, 2001. It hasn’t been easy; in fact, it’s been a hard slog trying to not only work hard and develop ourselves as players, but to constantly be trying to prove yourself in a sport that most believe should only be played by boys”.
This year will be the first time the National Women’s Squad have come into camp under baseball’s high performance coaches, and it comes just at the right time. After a disappointing performance at last year’s World Cup, the girls are looking for bigger and better things next year in 2014. With 7 rookies, and 20 of the 38 players selected being 21 years of age or under, the future looks bright for the Women’s High Performance Program.
Head Coach Wearne will be looking for veteran players such as Amy McCann (VIC), Tahnee Lovering (NSW), and Jacinda Barclay (WA) to lead the Squad through an intense five day program that none of the girls have been exposed to before. The girls will work with the best coaches the country has to offer, and play five intra-squad matches as they prepare to spend the next nine months training hard in the lead up to the 2014 National Championships. It is here that the 2014 World Cup Team of 20 players will be selected.
Wearne added, “This is a fantastic opportunity for our program to continue moving in the right direction, and get closer to battling at the top end of World Cup tournaments with countries like Japan and USA”.
