YORKTON - It will be a busy year for Canada’s women’s national softball team.
Recently, Softball Canada and the Women’s National Team coaching staff announced the roster that will compete at the 2023 WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Group Stage from July 22-26, 2023, in Castions di Strada and Buttrio, Italy.
Only two Prairie-based players; Alberta’s Morgan Rackel and Zoe Hicks of Boissevain, Man. were named.
Yorkton This Week recently caught up to Hicks to talk about her upcoming debut on Team Canada,
“For me I’ve been watching the team play since I was little. It will be huge to be able to wear that uniform,” she said.
Hicks, who said she began playing softball when five, or six, had almost decided that the dream might not happen.
“I was thinking should I walk away, get a job, be an adult,” she said, adding a job did take her away for some time. “. . . But it kept nagging at me to come back.”
The national team is in something of a transition period after some veterans retired after a bronze medal win at the last Summer Olympics.
Hicks said that is opening some doors and with opportunities she said the program is showing growth.
And, while there is new blood like Hicks, she noted there are still veterans which gives the team a nice balance.
So as a rookie what is Hicks hoping to contribute?
Hicks said it’s a case of staying focused on the opportunity she has and playing to a level where she gives the best of her ability to the team, adding some lead up exhibition games will be important.
“I just want to get my feet under me,” she said.
Hicks said she expects her role will be that of a “Swiss army knife” playing wherever she is needed. “Whatever situations they give to me I just want to contribute.”
There is also Hicks’ college experience to draw on.
Hicks was a three-year starter at Louisiana Tech from 2019-2021, making 113 starts and appearing in 115 games. She posted a career batting average of .275, collecting 86 hits, 16 doubles, five home runs, and 57 RBI while drawing 65 walks and scoring 55 runs.
The international game isn’t quite the same, offered Hicks, who said college is all about high energy where she expects against the best in the world it will be about executing at key times to scratch out wins.
Canada is currently ranked fifth in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Rankings and qualified for the WBSC World Cup Group Stage and the 2023 Pan American Games with a silver-medal performance at the 2022 WBSC Pan American Championship held November 12-19 in Guatemala City.
With such a high ranking there are expectations Canada should be in the medal mix.
“I think there’s always a kind of pressure when you’re putting your country on your chest, no matter where you come from,” said Hicks.
Canada will be in Group C, accompanied by No. 2 Japan, No. 8 Italy, No.22 Venezuela, No. 26 Philippines, and No. 28 New Zealand.
The 2023 Pan American Games are an upcoming international multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization, scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile from 20 October to 5 November 2023. They will be the first Pan American Games to be held in Chile, and the eighth to be held in South America.
Team Canada qualified for Santiago 2023 after placing second at the 2022 WBSC Women’s Pan American Championship in November. The team won gold at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and captured silver medals at Guadalajara 2011 and Lima 2019.
