By Julie Spittle, London Cubs Manager
Monday 12 August -- The GB Cubs Under-13 Girls Fastpitch Team is flying out to Italy today to compete in the ESF’s eighth annual European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy competition, taking place in Collecchio, near Parma, from 14-17 August.
The Cubs held trials back in May and have been training every week since the end of the LondonSports softball season in early June. With about half of last year’s squad having aged out, we have had to work hard recruiting players from LondonSports and elsewhere around the country.
As always when recruiting, we face the issue of families going away on holiday and players not being available at the time this tournament takes place.
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Training
All those that came to trials and were available to travel made the squad, and during our training sessions we have also picked up girls who will be ready to come away with us to future tournaments.
Our final training camp was held on Sunday 11 August at Farnham Park, where the team met up and trained before playing a scrimmage game with the GB Under-16s.
Throughout our training sessions we have worked on infield and outfield play as well as sliding, bunting, baserunning and hitting off the pitching machine, and the girls have worked well together at these sessions.
We will train again once we get to Italy and will hopefully have a scrimmage game or two before the tournament starts on Wednesday.
Players and staff
We have entered the tougher Sport Division of the competition again this year, where we will face stiff competition from teams from Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic. Last year, we finished fifth in this division with a 3-3 record, our best-ever performance at the tournament.
We will be taking a squad of eight players to Collecchio and three Italian players will join us when we get there. Our returning players are:
Cara Edwards
Jessie Emery
Amy Morris
Shinju Phalon
Georgia Wilson
Players who are new to the squad are:
Stella Albrecht
Megan Rollins
MaKenzie Eberly
However, MaKenzie did travel with us in March to a tournament in The Netherlands.
Our coaching team consists of:
Head Coach and Physio: Jodie Rushin
Assistant Coaches: Nadya Pavlova and Elysee Enness-Laporte
Pitching Coach: Dawne Edwards
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The Cubs are looking forward to the tournament and as coaches we are looking forward to seeing the progress the girls make both individually and as a team.
As always, we go to this tournament ready to give our best, have fun, create life-long memories and pick up new friends.