Friday 5 August – The GB Cubs Under-13 Girls’ Fastpitch Team will hold final training sessions this weekend before travelling to the annual European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy (EMRYT) competition, to be played from 10-13 August in Collecchio, Italy.
The EMRYT is the equivalent to a European Championship for this age group, and the GB Cubs will be taking on three other teams in the more competitive Sport Division of the tournament.
Before the team flies out to Italy on Monday 8 August, the staff and athletes will have two days of training at a pre-tournament camp on Saturday and Sunday, 6-7 August, at Farnham Park. The team will then have another two days of training in Italy before starting their quest for gold on the Wednesday.
This will be the first year since 2019 that the EMRYT has been held due to the Covid pandemic, and the GB Under-13s will be defending the silver medal they achieved at that competition.
This year’s GB Under-13 Team is predominately a new group of players, with just one athlete returning who was present when the silver medal was won in 2019.
The programme is led by Head Coach Jodie Rushin, who has been in charge of the GB Cubs since 2016.
Entries
Eight teams have entered this year’s EMRYT tournament in two divisions:
Sport Division
GB Cubs
Israel Sabras
Italy 1
Joudrs Orange (Czech Republic)
Future Division
Italy 2
Joudrs Praha Navy (Czech Republic)
Seleccion Navarra (Spain)
Softball Club Princ (Croatia
Final standings in the Sport Division at the last competition in 2019 were:
1 – Italy 1
2 – GB Cubs
3 – Moscovia (Russia)
4 – Italy 2
5 – Joudrs Orange (Czech Republic)
6 – Sabat Praha (Czech Republic)
There are fewer teams in the Sport Division this year than in 2019 because the tournament organisers have limited entries due to continuing caution around Covid.
Format and schedule
The tournament will be played as a full round-robin within each division from Wednesday 10 August through Friday 12 August, with each team playing the other three teams twice.
There will then be gold and bronze medal games in each division on Saturday 13 August.
The GB Cubs will start the tournament with games on Wednesday against Jourds Orange at 11.15 am Italian time (10.15 am in the UK) and the Israel Sabras at 4.45 pm Italian time (3.45 pm in the UK), with both games on Field 1.
This will be followed by games on Thursday against Israel at 9.00 am Italian time (8.00 am in the UK) and Italy 1 at 7.30 pm Italian time (6.30 pm in the UK), both on Field 2.
On Friday, the GB Cubs will be back on Field 1 for games against Italy 1 at 11.15 am Italian time (10.15 am in the UK) and Jourds Orange at 5.00 pm Italian time (4.00 pm in the UK).
All these games will be web-streamed, and the details are below.
Players and staff
The players that will travel to Italy are:
Lily Bateman
Amelie Caesar
Lily Daniels
Clara Fontana
Erin Hart
Anna Kingston
Emma Lanza
Rebecca Longman
Sapphire Lyon Carroll
Alex Pointon
Megan Rollins
Lola Thomas
Two players have been selected as non-travelling reserves:
Becky Davies
Tess Gibbons
The staff that will take the team to the tournament will be:
Head Coach and Sports Therapist: Jodie Rushin
Assistant Coaches: Elysee Laporte and Hannah Edwards
Pitching Coach: Dawne Edwards
Team Operations Manager: Julie Spittle
Head Coach Jodie Rushin said, “Both the staff and athletes have both been working hard in preparation for this tour on and off the pitch. We have had two years out of European competition due to Covid-19, and we felt we have truly missed out as we finished on such a high back in 2019 by winning silver. Unfortunately, some of our key athletes have aged out in the last two years, so this is essentially a new team.
“We have had amazing support from everyone in the lead-up to this tour,” Jodie added, “including from team sponsors, and we want to thank them. We truly believe this age group is the key in the development of female fastpitch softball in the UK. All our staff believe in this and we have managed to build a predominantly UK-based team that we have been working with since the latter part of last year, training as regularly as Covid-19 allowed. The strength of this squad is now showing and we hope this comes through at the EMRYT.”
Watch the GB Cubs in action!
GB Cubs’ games on Field 1 will be streamed live via the Collecchio Baseball/Softball YouTube Channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEPyc-tyakxgdHKOng-nHFg. Please subscribe to this channel to watch the GB Cubs on Wednesday and Friday, and to watch medal games on Saturday.
GB Cubs’ games on Field 2 on Thursday will be web-streamed via Score Cam on https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQ0ziE2bEzV03K9N_0J3H9A. Viewers will need to subscribe to the channel and Score Cam will go live 15 minutes prior to each GB game.