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Instagram vs. Reality?: A Female Athlete’s Road to Recognition

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Like millions of people all over the world, I watched the FIFA Women’s World Cup.    I saw female ambassadors for not only soccer, but sport, kicking ass.    I read Abby Wombach’s book, “Wolfpack”, a call to women everywhere to go out and get what the f*** they want.    I can turn on ESPN in the month of May and can watch 5 college softball games at ONCE!    Even our professional game is getting love through an amazing partnership with FloSoftball, airing nearly every single game of the National Pro Fastpitch’s season!    What a time for women in sports!  Then I turn to my reality: If all goes well at our qualifying event at the end of the summer, our team will have secured our spot in the 2020 Olympics (AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!).    Then, each of us will have about a month off to recover, recoup and get back on our grind.   The Canadian government and sport organizations have recognized our (Softball Canada’s) success over the last number of years, allowing us to maintain our de-cen
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Until Next Summer.....

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Hey Everyone! This whirlwind of a quarter has come to an end.  What an experience.  I am beyond grateful for the opportunities that playing for Team Canada has presented me.  It is hard to believe that a few short years ago I showed up to a Team Canada tryout in Vancouver, not having a single clue of what to expect.  It has now been an amazing three and a half years.  I have played on three different continents, in six different countries: Canada, the United States, Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico and now South Africa.  I have seen so much of the world, simply playing the game I love.  It has opened so many doors for me.  It brought me to Sorcerer, to the All-America game my senior year of high school and of course, to the University of Washington.  Team Canada has honestly changed my life and I am thankful every single day. These three weeks flew by.  I am now back in California, sitting on my couch looking through pictures, already reminiscing on the amazing time I had with my coaches
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All good things must come to an end.

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Hey Everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to post this....I simply wasn't able to put into words the emotions and everything I was feeling yesterday.  We lost our game to Chinese Taipei 2-1, booting us out of the tournament.  Not only did it mark the end of our tournament, but also the end of my career on the Canadian Junior National Team.  Chinese Taipei came out with more fire and energy than us, and unfortunately it was reflected in the score.  Although it was sad knowing our run at becoming the 2011 Junior World Champions was over, this trip was so much more than that.  I was able to meet amazing people, tour the beautiful country of South Africa, and play the sport I love for an entire three weeks. Since we were no longer playing games, we had the entire day off to spend with our families.  My Dad, Karissa, Natalie W. and I all spent this morning climbing Table Mountain.  Table Mountain is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is absolutely spectacular.  (I&#
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Fooled by their cuteness.

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Hey Everyone! As many of you have heard, yesterday didn't go exactly as planned.  We had our big game against the Japanese - the winner guaranteed a medal - and we lost a tough, but exciting game 7-1.  Although it sounds pretty lopsided, the game was intense and we made some great plays.  I brought eye-black from home and thought it was the perfect game for its' debut...and it definitely was!  Our team came out with more energy and enthusiasm than ever before.  We threw out runners from the outfield, picked runners off at both first and third and played great routine D.  We can only tip our hats to the Japanese, for they played a flawless game of ball. Our lone run came in the third inning with the score 3-0 Japan.  Kristy Noble led off with a double to the wall.  With one out, Jenny was hit by a pitch and now runners were at the corners.  I was up.  After taking a few pitches, I lifted one to deep left field....man, I thought it was going out! At the warning track, the Jap
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The reason we're all here.

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Hey Everyone! (this was supposed to be posted last night – lack of Internet, sorry!) When I woke up this morning, I thought to myself “there’s no way we’re playing today…”  I looked out my window at 9:00AM and it looked as though there had been a flash flood.  And let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be an international softball tournament without a rain delay! Anyways, we arrived at the field and it was in surprisingly good shape! With tarps covering the field all night long and the field crew in the outfield with sponges collecting the excess water, the field looked more than playable.  After a delay of only forty-five minutes, we were sent to the practice field for a quick warm up before our first pitch against the Czech Republic.  We ended up run-ruling the Czech in four innings, 11-1…finishing up pool play with a 6-1 record and snagging second place.  This tournament’s playoff round is very different in that four of the eight qualifying teams play double elimination while the other four
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Just another day in paradise

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Hey Everyone! What a twenty-four hours it has been!  We played South Africa last night and after a slow start, ended up mercy-ing them 7-0.  Standing at 4-1 before this morning's game, our game against China would determine whether or not we would clinch second place in our pool, behind team USA. Our game against China was at noon today and although it started slowly, it ended with a bang.  Here's a full write up of the game courtesy of Softball Canada: http://www.softball.ca/main.asp?page_url=/display_news.asp?newsid=960.  In short, we were getting runners on base constantly, but until the fourth inning, we were all tied up 1-1.  With the bases loaded, I was up and hit a single through the middle, scoring two runs and putting us ahead 3-1.  After holding the Chinese scoreless in the bottom of the fourth inning, we had a huge nine run fifth inning.  With one out in the fifth, our hitters strung a couple of hits together to load the bases.  For the second time in the game, I
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Our Big Night Out

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Hey Everyone! It’s Tuesday morning and we just returned to the hotel from our morning practice.   Last night I was able to spend some time with my Dad for a few hours at a local mall on the waterfront.   We had dinner with Jocelyn and her dad John in the food court and browsed the mall for a few hours.   This mall was absolutely beautiful.   It had every store you could imagine, both American and African.   Unfortunately, the difference in price when it comes to jewelry, shoes and nice clothing is pretty much negligible, so I didn’t make any big purchases.   But before heading back to the hotel, my Dad and I stopped by one of the largest grocery store chains in all of South Africa, called Pick N Pay.   My Dad bought me some instant coffee, an ice cream bar and an Aero bar.   If you’re an American, chances are you’ve never had an Aero bar.   By Nestle, it’s a Canadian chocolate bar apparently sold here in South Africa and it is to die for…Americans: go online, order them, get
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