Latest news with #softball
RNZ News
13 hours ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
NZ Warriors rookie Maarire Puketapu choses league career over softball
Maarire Puketapu enjoys family support at her Warriors NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters. Photo: Mark Kolbe/ Maarire Puketapu can probably thank the Covid pandemic for diverting her sporting career towards the NZ Warriors NRLW programme. As a teenager, she represented New Zealand as a softball centrefielder and even had a US college scholarship lined up at Division II Florida Tech. "I played softball my entire life and was supposed to head over to America on a two-year scholarship, but unfortunately, because of Covid, I wasn't too keen on heading over there. "I didn't think softball was going to be the sport for me." Ironically, the very phenomenon that forced the Warriors women's team into a five-year hiatus was also the thing that steered Puketapu down that sporting pathway. In 2021, while visiting relatives in Queensland, she played a game for the local Kawana Dolphins, whose coach invited her to move back for the entire season. The following year, she chalked up air miles back and forth across the Tasman, sharing time between her Te Aroha Eels club and Wellington reps, and Kawana in Queensland. Last year, Puketapu secured a fulltime spot at Sunshine Coast Falcons in the second-tier Queensland BMD Premiership, where she popped up on the radar of new Warriors coach Ron Griffiths. "After some time, I got the big phone call and I was in shock," she said. "I hung up and screamed, 'F**k, I'm going to be a Warrior!', but I was at work, so I had to tone it down real quick." While the nuggety second-rower began this season with zero NRLW experience, her efforts at the next level down at least put her ahead of those arriving from local clubs or other codes. "Coming from BMD, I was only in that competition for one year, so I only got a small taste of how the competition can be," Puketapu said. "Taking that next step up to NRLW was pretty massive. "I knew it was going to be hard, so before I came here, I just trained as hard as I could to the standard I thought would be similar to NRLW. I was training with our local boys team in Australia, hoping to up my skills and fitness. "Obviously, I still died in pre-season, because that's what it's all about, but if I hadn't had that training prior, I wouldn't have been as good or I would have had injuries." During her stay with the Warriors, she has been housed with sevens superstar Michaela Brake and former Black Fern Shakira Baker, who are both still feeling their way into rugby league and admit to picking their flatmate's brain. That education cuts both ways. "Honestly, it's been a big learning curve for me and I've added so much to my basket since being here," Puketapu said. "I'm learning so much from our Black Fern girls and grateful to be living with two of them, so every day, I'm learning and growing as a player and a person." "The biggest thing I've learnt is coming across the professional girls and seeing them on TV all my life... we're all on the same level. They didn't give off this energy that they're too cool or too good for us - you really do feel like you're part of the whānau here." Puketapu doesn't lack for whānau of her own, many of whom made the trip across the ditch to witness her NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters. "Running out of the tunnel and seeing my family there is a feeling you can't really describe." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBS News
21 hours ago
- Sport
- CBS News
Minnesota Lady Loons celebrate 25 years as a senior women's softball team
The women on the softball diamond at Valley View Fields in Bloomington, Minnesota, are living out a childhood dream. As the generation before Title IX, they're making up for lost time, going 25 seasons strong as the Minnesota Lady Loons. "To be able to do this, at our age, and be competitive, is a bonus," said Cheryl King, one of the founding members of this senior softball team. The roster of Lady Loons ranges in ages 70 to 84. "I am the matriarch in my 84th year, proud of it," said Joann Rolling, a retired fast pitch player-turned-Lady Loon. Rollings has never missing a season playing on a ball park since she was 12 years old. "If you don't use it, you lose it, so I'm using it," she said. "I've even surprised myself that at this age, I'm doing this." While these women love the competition, it's the friendships made around the mound that are the real home runs. "It's a second family," Rolling said. "We're there for each other. I had an operation on my shoulder a couple years ago and a couple of them came over and spent the night with me and they came and helped." For King, this team lifted her up as she navigated her grief when her husband recently passed away. "They were there for me, they comforted me. We do that with everyone," King said. This group has even made history together as the first senior team of both men and women to be inducted into the Minnesota Softball Hall of Fame in 2022. Softball adds so much to their lives, both socially and physically, reminding them how resilient they truly are. "I think just about everybody's had an ache or a pain, but come back every time, just as strong," Rolling said. The Lady Loons head to the National Senior Games later this week in Des Moines, Iowa. This is the 12th time they've competed against other senior players from across the country. Fun fact: the Lady Loons say their fans are called "The Loon-atics."
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Can college softball's hot streak extend all summer? The Northwoods League is finding out
MADISON, Wis. – With every step around the bases, Ava Carroll's body language told a story of joy and confidence. The Northwoods League's top two softball teams, the Madison Night Mares and the Minot Honeybees, had been deadlocked until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Carroll, a Madison outfielder who also plays for the University of Washington, smashed a pitch over the right-field fence for a game-winning solo home run. The palpable buzz that had filled Warner Park throughout the showdown of teams located nearly 800 miles apart turned into an explosive celebration in the grandstands. Advertisement Carroll smiled midway through her trot and threw her left arm toward the sky as she approached home plate to be mobbed by her Madison teammates. Fifteen minutes later, she met another happy mob, this one of dozens of young girls seeking her autograph outside the locker room. 'This is one of the best summers I'll ever have,' said Carroll, who hit .321 for the Huskies this spring. 'The friendships made, the travel and just being together is just so much fun.' A similar scene unfolds in dozens, if not hundreds, of baseball parks every summer. College baseball players participate everywhere from the Cape Cod League to the California Collegiate League to hone their skills and further develop. Max Scherzer, Curtis Granderson and Brandon Crawford are among the 400 Northwoods League alumni to reach Major League Baseball. But softball had nothing like it until last year. A side conversation between Northwoods League co-founder Dick Radatz and La Crosse Loggers baseball owner Dan Kapanke turned into an exploratory opportunity. Radatz wondered why nobody had created a summer college softball league. 'It didn't take long to see there's no facilities,' Radatz said. 'Every small town in America had a baseball facility that you could do this in.' Facilities no longer are the roadblock they once were, however. Many baseball stadiums now feature turf infields that can be quickly converted for softball. Radatz pitched the idea of a softball league to Northwoods League owners, and four hopped onboard for the inaugural 2024 season. This year, there are five franchises, and the league will grow to at least six in 2026, with two in North Dakota, one in Minnesota and three in Wisconsin. With the Northwoods League infrastructure, the softball branch has a firm foundation, and league commissioner Kathryn Reynolds has helped it thrive in Year 2. The daughter of longtime Cincinnati Reds executive Terry Reynolds, who is a member of the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame, Reynolds grew up as a multi-sport athlete but was focused more on basketball. In recent years, she served as Iowa women's basketball's director of operations and saw the rise of women's sports firsthand as Caitlin Clark became a national phenomenon. Advertisement Reynolds left Iowa for the Northwoods League in 2024 and built connections throughout the softball world. She helped bring in coaches ranging from veterans to those just starting in the business. Madison's coach, Lexi Godwin, was a standout player at North Carolina who wrapped her playing career in 2024 and currently works as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma. Minot coach Craig Montvidas has coached softball for 40 years and leads the Italian national softball team. The coaches then recruit the players. In the first season, the league totaled 20 Division I athletes. This year, that number has swelled past 60 and includes players from Oklahoma to Syracuse and Arizona to Mississippi State. Players from other Division I and lower-level programs also showcase their skills alongside the power-conference athletes, and some thrive; former junior-college player Tia Durst parlayed her Northwoods League experience last summer into a scholarship at Washington. 'I already see a difference with last year, a little higher quality of players,' Montvidas said. 'I think once it really catches on fire, it's just going to spread completely.' Carroll heard about the league from a teammate who competed in the Northwoods League last year. Madison pitcher Paytn Monticelli, a Cedarburg, Wis., native, returned to her home state to compete this summer after pitching in 16 games and compiling a 2-0 record for Oklahoma last season. 'This past season, I didn't throw a whole lot in games, which is completely OK, but I just wanted to come out here and throw my heart out and love the game while doing it,' Monticelli said. I'm just so grateful for it, because honestly, this is the most I've loved it, probably since my senior year of high school.' As a for-profit league, the business aspect matters, and Reynolds believes the league is catching on at the perfect time. This spring, the Women's College World Series drew higher television ratings than its baseball counterpart on average (1.3 million viewers per game vs. 1.2 million), and the Texas-Texas Tech championship game set a softball record with 2.4 million viewers. Advertisement Add in softball's return to the Olympics in 2028 and a new professional league in Athletes Unlimited, and the sport is gaining traction. To capture casual fans as well as those watching for individual players, every game is live streamed for free on its Northwoods League+ service, and several also appear on ESPN+. 'All those things are kind of like the perfect storm,' Reynolds said. 'It's a cool thing to be, in our own way, impacting and kind of helping develop and change.' 'This league has been a great opportunity to grow the game,' Monticelli said. 'Any opportunity women athletes get to compete at a stage like this, where you get to be on broadcast TV, on ESPN, all of the aspects that give this sport attention. It's such a huge deal for the game.' More than 1,000 fans showed up for the Madison-Minot showdown, and it took nearly 30 minutes for Madison players to finish with a postgame autograph line despite 90-degree temperatures. Non-game attractions included a miniature horse named 'Midnight' and a home run competition involving Northwoods League baseball and softball players to cap the evening. Young people like 7-year-old Clara Ramsey wore Night Mares jerseys, while fans like her grandfather Bill Housley, a retired police captain, were just as supportive. Housley has held Wisconsin football season tickets for 53 years and regularly attends the Badgers' women's hockey and volleyball matches. When Madison landed a summer softball league team, his daughter asked him if he would consider signing up as a host family. Housley had a spare part of his house available, and two players live there during the summer. 'Being able to do this is just a blessing. It really is,' Housley said. 'It's an honor to do it. I like my granddaughters to see women playing sports.' The newest softball franchise debuts next summer in Grand Forks, N.D., the first location without a standing Northwoods League baseball team in place. Although the travel can be long, players enthusiastically endorse the league. They're forming the same community bonds as their baseball counterparts have for generations, and in some ways, softball already has caught up. Advertisement 'I hate to say this because my dad pitched in the big leagues,' Radatz said. 'I grew up with baseball. This is a better product than baseball right now. It's dinner and a movie. It's two hours and out of Dodge.' 'I'm from Oregon, so it was a big jump not seeing my family for two months,' Carroll said. 'But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I want to come back next year, and I'm really excited for what this league has to offer.' (Photos: Scott Dochterman for The Athletic)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Long's cutout
Friends and family gathered to celebrate the retirement of 79-year-old softball player David Long of Crawfordsville.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
NZ Warriors rookie Maarire Puketaphu choses league career over softball
Maarire Puketapu enjoys family support at her Warriors NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters. Photo: Mark Kolbe/ Maarire Puketapu can probably thank the Covid pandemic for diverting her sporting career towards the NZ Warriors NRLW programme. As a teenager, she represented New Zealand as a softball centrefielder and even had a US college scholarship lined up at Division II Florida Tech. "I played softball my entire life and was supposed to head over to America on a two-year scholarship, but unfortunately, because of Covid, I wasn't too keen on heading over there. "I didn't think softball was going to be the sport for me." Ironically, the very phenomenon that forced the Warriors women's team into a five-year hiatus was also the thing that steered Puketapu down that sporting pathway. In 2021, while visiting relatives in Queensland, she played a game for the local Kawana Dolphins, whose coach invited her to move back for the entire season. The following year, she chalked up air miles back and forth across the Tasman, sharing time between her Te Aroha Eels club and Wellington reps, and Kawana in Queensland. Last year, Puketapu secured a fulltime spot at Sunshine Coast Falcons in the second-tier Queensland BMD Premiership, where she popped up on the radar of new Warriors coach Ron Griffiths. "After some time, I got the big phone call and I was in shock," she said. "I hung up and screamed, 'F**k, I'm going to be a Warrior!', but I was at work, so I had to tone it down real quick." While the nuggety second-rower began this season with zero NRLW experience, her efforts at the next level down at least put her ahead of those arriving from local clubs or other codes. "Coming from BMD, I was only in that competition for one year, so I only got a small taste of how the competition can be," Puketapu said. "Taking that next step up to NRLW was pretty massive. "I knew it was going to be hard, so before I came here, I just trained as hard as I could to the standard I thought would be similar to NRLW. I was training with our local boys team in Australia, hoping to up my skills and fitness. "Obviously, I still died in pre-season, because that's what it's all about, but if I hadn't had that training prior, I wouldn't have been as good or I would have had injuries." During her stay with the Warriors, she has been housed with sevens superstar Michaela Brake and former Black Fern Shakira Baker, who are both still feeling their way into rugby league and admit to picking their flatmate's brain. That education cuts both ways. "Honestly, it's been a big learning curve for me and I've added so much to my basket since being here," Puketapu said. "I'm learning so much from our Black Fern girls and grateful to be living with two of them, so every day, I'm learning and growing as a player and a person." "The biggest thing I've learnt is coming across the professional girls and seeing them on TV all my life... we're all on the same level. They didn't give off this energy that they're too cool or too good for us - you really do feel like you're part of the whānau here." Puketapu doesn't lack for whānau of her own, many of whom made the trip across the ditch to witness her NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters. "Running out of the tunnel and seeing my family there is a feeling you can't really describe." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
