When about half of the players and all of the staff on the Great Britain Junior (Under-19) Women's 
Fastpitch Softball Team fly out of Heathrow Airport in London, heading for Toronto and then for Brampton, Ontario, it will be an adventure into the unknown.
That's because it will be the first time that Britain's Junior softballers have ever played at a World Championship level when they pit themselves against 15 of the world's best teams at the tenth ISF Junior World Championships in Brampton from July 1-7.
The other half of the playing squad? They'll be flying into Toronto on that same day from all around the world.
The GB Juniors have been playing in European Championships for the past 15 years and lately have been rising in European rankings, moving from 13th in 2008 to ninth in 2010 and sixth in 2012, so the team is clearly on the up. That sixth place finish last year would not normally have qualified GB for the World Championships, but the International Softball Federation has now made the Junior World Championships an open-entry tournament, and the GB Management Committee decided to seize the opportunity to give the Juniors a taste of play at the highest levels.
And the GB Team will get that taste straight away, as they play both the United States and Canada on the first day of the tournament!
Mixed team
Because softball is a small minority sport in the UK, and most British participants play slowpitch, Great Britain fastpitch teams have only a tiny player pool to choose from.
But thanks to the echoes of the British Empire, there are of course a large number of Britons living in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and GB national fastpitch teams since the late 1990s, at least in the upper age groups, have always been a mixture of GB-based players and players based overseas whose ancestry (normally a British parent) gives them passport eligibility.
This approach has seen the Great Britain Senior Women's Team finish second and third in the last two European Championships, and the team has played in the last three World Championships in Beijing, Caracas and Whitehorse, earning a world ranking of #11 along the way.
The GB Junior Team that will play in Brampton will be split 50:50, with seven players who have grown up and live in Britain, and seven players who have grown up overseas, including three from the United States, two from Australia and one each from Canada and New Zealand.
Head Coach Q&A
Head Coach Rachael Watkeys, originally from Australia, has taken up her first-ever coaching appointment when she agreed to take over the GB Junior Team this year. But Rachael has at least had experience as a player with Great Britain at the Women's World Championships in Venezuela in 2010.
We put a series of questions to Rachael about how she's finding the experience so far, and what her hopes are for the GB Juniors in Canada.
Q: This is the first time you've coached a national team, and the Under-19s can be a tricky age group. How have you found it so far – and what have you learned?
So far it has been a really enjoyable experience. I think because I have worked with the girls in the past as their physiotherapist and trained/played with or against them they know what to expect and what I stand for. The girls are a delight, they want to train and get better. They are showing enthusiasm at training and on the diamond which I have never seen before.
I have learned how hard this role is! I certainly appreciate my former coaches and managers more for this experience. The biggest challenge for me, coming from a sports background and from a softball system in Australia which is completely different to here, is adjusting to the different attitudes that the girls and their families have towards softball. I grew up never missing training. If I had exams I just had to work around them, studied in the car on the way there and on the way back. My family never went on holiday during the season, never went to weddings or parties when we had softball to go to. It's what I expect from the girls but I have had to learn the hard way that it does not work that way here (yet!)
Q: There are some particular challenges for GB Softball Teams! You'll be meeting six of your players for the first time when you get to Canada, just three days before the World Championships, and many of the players won't have met each other. What do you plan to do to get the squad to blend – and to figure out your best team – in such a short period of time?
I have actually met 10 of the girls, so it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. It is going to be a challenge, and I remember what it was like when I joined the Women’s programme. We are organising rooms so that the girls are matched with people they are likely to get along with, but I am not against making them switch rooms after a few days just so they have to get to know a few more people. We have games and icebreakers designed as well as different jobs that need to be done each day.
I think the best way they will get to blend is to get them training and playing as soon as possible. The one thing they all have in common is their passion for the game; I hope they bond over that. I hope that by setting a positive example in terms of chat and encouragement in training, both on and off the diamond, the girls will start to chat and get to know each other.
Q: Only one of your players (Amy Wells) will ever have been to a World Championship before, but you experienced one as a player with the GB Women's Team in Venezuela. Do you think this experience will help you prepare the players for what they will face?
I think so. Already the girls are starting to show signs of nerves and I can completely relate. That fear of the unknown: will I get to play, will I make mistakes and let my team down, will I sit on the bench the whole time … these are all fears that I have felt in my own GB career. Most importantly, when I look back on my World Championship as a player, I know what parts I enjoyed and what parts I didn’t. I hope that I can learn from that and ensure that the girls remember this for the rest of their lives.
Q: What are your goals and expectations for the tournament? What will you be happy for the team to achieve?
Winning the Gold of course! Seriously, I want us to play the best we can, and I hope that means we are competitive with most teams. I want the girls to enjoy the experience and want to play for GB again. This country needs more kids stepping up and wanting to play at this level, that’s how we will grow as a sport.
Q: How do you feel about having to play the US and Canada on the opening day of the tournament?
I guess it can only get easier from then on! It’s a hard draw but it gets two big teams from our side of the draw out of the way early, then we can focus on the other teams. I have to keep telling myself that they know nothing about us, we are completely unknown to them, it will be their first game as well and they are sure to have nerves and hopefully we can take advantage of that.
Q: When you agreed to take on the job of coaching the Under-19s, you said that you wanted the team to be more dedicated and to have a more professional attitude. Do you think you've made progress towards those goals? Have you seen this reflected in practice attendance and attitude?
I like to think we have. Attendance has been good at both training and games. The biggest thing I have noticed is that they are chattier on the field; they are talking a little bit more about softball and seem to be enjoying themselves. Certainly at training they are a completely different group of girls to what they were a few years ago. Is that something I have changed, or are they simply growing up?
Q: Those GB Under-19 players who are based in Britain have been playing together as a team this year in the GBFL. Do you think that's been a good thing? What do you think the team has gained by doing this?
It’s been fantastic. Last year I felt the girls were just being used between the different teams, making up numbers. They often didn’t get to play Division One because the teams were full. This year they have played as a team all year, and although the team in Canada will look different to the team on the diamond at the GBFL, the experience will have helped them.
Q: Softball, even at this level, is supposed to be fun. Are you enjoying yourself as Under-19 Head Coach?
I am! I am trying to teach the girls that it is OK to make mistakes as long as you are trying as hard as you can and pick yourself up quickly. So I have to be smiling and shake things off quickly so that the girls do as well. I just hope the girls love this experience and are as proud to play for GB as I was and continue to be. There have been issues of course – a few people are unhappy that we have such a large contingent of overseas players, but these are people who have very little idea about the quality of softball that we are going to face. People presumed that because they have always been in the GB Team they would be again, but international sport does not work that way!
You can follow the GB Under-19 Women at the Junior World Championships in Canada both on the BSF website and the tournament website, where all games will be webstreamed live.